A United Nations panel has again found that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and deliberately targets children, allegations the Israeli government strongly denies.

The U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in its latest report that Israel continues to violate international law and an existing ceasefire in its ongoing military assault on the Gaza Strip.

The agency determined last year that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the course of its response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel.

In the latest report, dated last week, the U.N. found that “the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued — resulting in unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.”

Israeli forces killed at least 20,179 children since the Hamas attack, 5,031 of whom were younger than 5, including 1,029 who were not yet 1, the U.N. investigators found. Another 44,143 children were injured “as a direct result of the hostilities in Gaza.”

The report notes that the figures likely do not represent the actual death toll, as many children’s bodies remain under rubble or otherwise unaccounted for.

Israeli officials have repeatedly denied that the country is committing genocide, and dismissed the U.N.’s newest report. Israel’s Foreign Ministry called it “a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones.”

However, “The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the office’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry. “Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law.”

One doctor told the commission that it was hard for Palestinians to identify “the yellow line,” an Israeli-controlled restricted area where Palestinians, including children, are killed when entering.

“It is difficult for Palestinians to know where the yellow line is, as it is just some random yellow blocks placed at random distance and there is nothing clearly marking it (e.g. fences), so it is impossible for people, particularly children, to know or locate the line,” the doctor said. “This yellow line also keeps moving and it is not an internationally recognized line; it’s an arbitrary line by Israeli security forces.”

The commission “emphasizes that demarcation lines should be clearly defined and communicated to avoid harm to civilians.”

The commission also noted clinical evidence and studies that show Palestinian children in Israeli detention have been subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, including forced public nudity.

The commission also found that Israel is committing war crimes in the West Bank, which Israel also denies.

“As an occupying power, Israel has extensive duties towards the protected civilian population, especially children,” the commission wrote. “It must, to the fullest extent of the means available, ensure the provision of adequate food and medical supplies, maintain medical and hospital services, and facilitate the work of relief organizations to meet children’s needs.”

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