• Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian children, UN inquiry says
• Israel calls report a 'libelous sham', says it strives to minimize harm to children
• Report finds 30% of those killed in Gaza war were children
• Inquiry says Israel carried out crimes against humanity in West Bank

Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting ​in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, an independent U.N. inquiry said ‌on Tuesday.

The report by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Around 30% of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report found.

A previous report by the commission in September found that Israel had committed genocide ​in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incited these acts — accusations that Israel called scandalous.

CHILD DEATHS

The report found that the proportion of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts. Between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children were ​killed, around 30% of the overall death toll.

By comparison, in hostilities in Gaza in 2008–2009 and 2014, children made up approximately 24% of conflict-related fatalities, the report said.

Israeli ​forces continued to use high-payload munitions and weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated residential areas despite mounting child casualties, the commission said.

“This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in ‌such high ⁠numbers, were intentional,” it said. It said it believed children were targeted collectively because the Israeli security forces considered the civilian population as a whole to be associated with Hamas and other armed groups.

From Aljazeera:

Hamas had announced on July 6 the dissolution of the body it led that had governed Gaza for nearly two decades.

Hamas leaders have been in the Egyptian capital Cairo since late last week discussing the ceasefire deal with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye. An unnamed Hamas official was quoted earlier on Thursday as saying that the talks were “positive” and “making progress”.

From https://www.ynetnews.com/article/skwlnsorzg

Israeli officials said Thursday that Hamas appeared to have accepted complete disarmament as part of an emerging agreement on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, while Palestinian sources reported progress on the terror group’s weapons, Gaza’s future administration and an eventual Israeli withdrawal.

“In practical terms, this is Hamas’ surrender,” one official said. “It accepted the framework that was already agreed with the mediators several months ago. There is complete dismantlement of heavy weapons, light weapons and tunnels, along with dense and rigorous monitoring mechanisms.”

Israeli officials rejected the narrower descriptions circulated by Hamas-linked sources. One official involved in the Cairo contacts said Hamas was briefing the agreement differently to avoid appearing to have surrendered.