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About 30% of those killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, 2023, have been children, according to a United Nations inquiry on Tuesday, which found the “deliberate” targeting of kids to have furthered a genocide against Palestinians.

The report, authored by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, follows a previous finding in September that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted genocide.

“The deliberate targeting of children is one of the key elements establishing genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza,” the commission said.

Between the start of Israel’s military campaign in October 2023 and the “ceasefire” agreement in October 2025, the report found that more than 20,000 children were killed, while more than 44,000 were injured. Among those killed, more than 5,000 were under the age of five, more than 1,000 were under the age of one, and more than 400 were newborn babies.

The report highlights documented instances in which Israeli forces directly fired upon children, with medical professionals testifying that they treated kids with “direct gunshot and sniper wounds, often to the head and abdomen.” One sample of 168 children killed by gunshots found that 73 were shot in the head and 22 were shot in the chest, which the commission argued was evidence of intentionality.

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“Based on the clustering of injuries and the targeted body parts, I assess that the Israeli soldiers have been deliberately shooting teenage boys in a game of target practice — a different body part being targeted on different days… There is a very clear pattern that suggests this is a deliberate aiming of different body parts [of children],” one doctor told the commission.

They also cited dozens of cases of children being targeted by snipers and quadcopters. The report quotes one Israeli soldier who appeared anonymously in a........

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