“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The report refers to the period following Hamas’ invasion of Israel in late 2023, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 250 taken hostage, and the subsequent war Israel waged against Gaza that has to date killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in the besieged and occupied territory.

“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,” he said.

Read the full report here.

Unprecedented suffering

Last year, the commission concluded that “Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip, 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.”

Here are some findings in the commission’s latest report:

• Israel has killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since 7 October 2023
• Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives
• Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts
• Israeli security forces have used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered and intergenerational pattern of occupation and hostilities

Chilling testimonies

The latest report, “The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023, contains testimonies describing deliberate targeting and killing.

“There can be no doubt in anyone who reads today’s report that every international legal norm has been violated by the actions of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian children and they need to be held accountable,” Commissioner Chris Sidoti said at a press conference in Geneva, citing cases from the report.

In one instance, a 14-year-old boy was shot by an Israeli military patrol as he was leaving his house, Mr. Sidoti said, explaining that the patrol had been in the area, but at the time there had been no fighting taking place.

“He was shot, badly injured and was lying on the ground,” Mr. Sidoti continued. “He was surrounded by a company of Israeli soldiers who were chatting and probably some of them smoking, over a period of 45 minutes, while this 14-year-old boy bled to death.”

Starvation and targeted attacks

Also highlighted in the report was the widespread devastation of critical infrastructure that served children. Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres in Gaza have directly harmed the survival of newborns and Palestinians’ reproductive future.

In addition, starvation imposed by Israel through blockade and siege have further caused the death of Palestinian children and severely impacted the health of many others.

Dismantling and destruction of orphanages and education facilities in Gaza and the West Bank have obstructed cognitive, social and emotional care and development and disrupted the foundations of Palestinian society, the report stated.

They ‘will not simply recover overnight’

Palestinian children have suffered immense psychological harm, having been stripped of any sense of safety and future, according to the report. Such mental harm is an intergenerational condition, producing a distinctive “occupied psyche” in which the freedom to play, imagine, hope and develop an identity has been eroded.

“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Mr. Muralidhar said. “The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”

By targeting children, Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality and overall capacity of the Palestinian people to sustain and exercise its right to determine its future as a people.

“The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Mr. Muralidhar said. “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.”

Fresh calls for Israeli action

In its latest report, the independent commission called for Israel to cease committing violations and crimes against and affecting Palestinian children and for the end of Israel’s continuing presence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in compliance with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Having identified military units within the Israeli security forces responsible for killing and injuring of Palestinian children, the commission issued recommendations to Israel and to all Member States to ensure accountability for such crimes.

“The international community as a whole must uphold their international legal obligations and call for an end to the hostilities, for Israel to end its occupation and to prioritise accountability and access to justice for victims as an integral component of any political process, grounded in the meaningful participation of Palestinians, including children,” the commission stated.

Member States of the UN Human Rights Council established the commission in 2021 to “investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021.”

Find out more about the commission here.

LAUSANNE: Swiss parliamentarians in the canton of Vaud voted 53-74 on Tuesday night to allow tax credits to UEFA to continue.

The Game Over Israel campaign has called the decision not to sanction the administrative and governing body for football in Europe “a stain on the country’s international reputation.”

The resolution called for UEFA to be held accountable for “complicity in Israeli crime.”

Ashish Prashar, former advisor to the Middle East Peace Envoy and campaign director for Game Over Israel, said: “In a scandalous development today, Swiss lawmakers in the canton of Vaud with a vote of 53-74 rejected a resolution that would have held UEFA accountable for its complicity in Israeli regime crimes.

“We will continue to pursue UEFA in the Swiss federal courts and will imminently file a motion to compel the Swiss government to enforce international law on UEFA and suspend Israel.”   

Game Over Israel was launched on Sept. 16, 2025 with a billboard in Times Square that called on the football federations to boycott Israel. The campaign was backed by a coalition of organizers, activists, humanitarians, football fans and several high-profile former players.

The campaign is advised by Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, British-Palestinian plastic surgeon and founder of the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund, Abed Ayoub, director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied and President of the Gaza Tribunal, and Craig Mokhiber, former UN human rights official.

It is also partnered with a growing list of organizations, including ADC, Athletes 4 Peace, CODEPINK, The Gaza Tribunal, Health Workers 4 Palestine, the Hind Rajab Foundation, and Tech for Palestine.

“The Board of Peace has been set up pursuant to a plan that was submitted to the Security Council that has been voted upon and accepted,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and in Israel. 

“As a Commission of Inquiry, we see our task as investigating into violations of human rights. And that task we understand to be the mandate that the UN has given us.”

The Commission of Inquiry – one of the Human Rights Council’s top investigative mechanisms – was set up by the forum’s 47 Member States in May 2021. 

In November last year, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2803 welcoming the establishment of the Board of Peace as a “transitional administration” and to oversee the redevelopment of Gaza.

In November last year, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2803 welcoming the establishment of the Board of Peace to oversee the redevelopment of Gaza.

Genocide claim

Last September, the Commission’s then Chair, former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, declared that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in response to Hamas-led terror attacks that killed some 1,200 people in Israel in October 2023, sparking the war. Israel strongly denied that claim.

“We need to investigate violations of human rights by all duty-bearers and in both territories,” said Mr. Muralidhar, who expressed hope that the Commission’s earlier findings “will feed into some adjudicatory system to deliver lasting justice to the people in these two territories”.

On the agenda this year, the Commission plans to investigate “attacks by armed Palestinian militias on others within these two territories”, he continued, before stressing the independent nature of the panel.

Responding to questions about the Board of Peace, the chief investigator said that he expected the peace plan it was pursuing “to accommodate the interests of all the people in the conflict zone”. 

At a press conference in Geneva, the panel of independent human rights experts – who do not work for the UN and are not paid for their work – also condemned the reported killing of three Palestinian journalists in central Gaza in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.

“When you’re killing a journalist, it means you have something to hide,” said Commissioner Florence Mumba.

UNRWA focus

The panel also gave its reaction to the dramatic destruction of the headquarters of UN Palestine relief agency UNRWA in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday, highlighting its key role in supporting Palestinians for decades.

“Israel needs to think very carefully before it rejects the work that UNRWA has done, the important work that has relieved Israel of its obligations,” said Chris Sidoti. “Of course, there will be consequences for human rights…children have a right to education, all people have a right to the highest attainable standard [of] physical and mental health.”

Ms. Pillay retired last October at the age of 83, followed by fellow commissioners Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari. 

Last November, a new panel was appointed by the Human Rights Council – reintegrating Mr. Sidoti – along with fellow jurists Mr. Muralidhar of India and Ms. Mumba of Zambia. 

The Commission chair noted that funding shortages had prevented the panel from investigating the supply of arms and settler violence, despite this being part of its mandate from the Human Rights Council.

“Because of a shortage of finances, we could not go into those areas,” Mr. Muralidhar explained to journalists.

Members of Syria’s interim government forces as well as fighters linked to the former regime likely committed war crimes during sectarian violence in March that killed around 1,400 people, mainly civilians, a UN report says.

The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry said it had found no evidence the authorities in Damascus had ordered the attacks.

The violence along the coast, the heartland of the Alawite sect of Islam, exposed divisions after Islamist-led rebels ousted ex-President Bashar al-Assad in December.

It erupted as security forces were ambushed by groups loyal to the former regime, leading to clashes between government forces, largely Sunni Muslim, and Assad loyalists, mostly Alawite.

The authorities sent reinforcements, who were also joined by thousands of fighters, and the operation turned into revenge killings of a sectarian nature.

After decades of brutality under the Assads in the mainly Sunni country, many associate Alawites, which make up around 10% of Syria’s population, with the old regime.

According to the UN commission, “acts that likely amount to crimes, including war crimes” including murder, torture, abductions, and inhumane acts related to the dead were committed by interim government force members as well as fighters linked to the Assad regime.

The commission called on the government, which launched an inquiry, to expand accountability efforts.

“The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing,” Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, chair of the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry, said in a statement.

“We call on the interim authorities to continue to pursue accountability for all perpetrators, regardless of affiliation or rank. While dozens of alleged perpetrators of violations have reportedly since been arrested, the scale of the violence documented in our report warrants expanding such efforts.”

The report also warned that retaliatory attacks are continuing “amidst a heightened climate of fear and must urgently be addressed by the interim government”.

The commission documented “gross human rights violations” in 16 locations in Latakia, Tartus, Homs and Hama governorates populated primarily by Alawites in early March.

Perpetrators, it said, went door to door asking civilians in a majority of cases whether they were Alawite, before taking men and boys away to be executed.

Most victims were Alawite men between 20 and 50 years old, according to the report, although women and children as young as one were also killed in house raids.

Armed individuals filmed themselves committing “serious human rights violations”, it said, including severe beatings and executions, or walking alongside dead bodies.

Fearing reprisal, families were forced to keep the bodies of their loved ones inside their homes for days, or in the streets to be buried in mass graves later. Hospitals were overwhelmed as corpses piled up.

Thousands fled to neighbouring Lebanon or a Russian airbase for safety. Many survivors and Alawites have since left to other parts of Syria or sought refuge abroad, the report said.

The report concluded that the consistent patterns of targeted violence against civilians “indicates that such acts were not random or isolated”.

The commission conducted more than 200 interviews with witnesses and victims and gained access to coastal areas and affected communities.

Assad was overthrown in December after 14 years of civil war and documented human rights abuses by his regime. An interim government was formed, led by a former rebel, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The report found the security vacuum after Assad’s ouster as well as disinformation and hate speech spread online about Alawites contributed to retributive attacks.

After clashes escalated between former and pro-government factions, other fighters, including foreigners, joined government forces mobilised to coastal regions.

The government issued statements instructing civilians not to take up arms and warning fighters against harming civilians, the report said.

Curfews were established, and in the city of Tartus, checkpoints to stop fighters entering spared the city from violence seen elsewhere.

A government inquiry, published in July, identified 298 alleged perpetrators among individuals and groups within military factions, and 265 alleged perpetrators linked to former government fighters.

Officials told the commission in June that 42 people had so far been arrested for alleged abuses. The government also said it had created a complaints office for security and police personnel misconduct cases.

The commission recommended the government strengthen its courts system to ensure justice, work on reparations for survivors, and build trust with communities, among other measures.

Sectarian violence has erupted elsewhere in Syria since March.

Last month, hundreds were reported killed in clashes in Suweida in the country’s south. Both Bedouin and Druze fighters as well as the Syrian army have been accused of killing civilians and extra judicial killings.

The government said it was aware of reports of “shocking violations” by people wearing military fatigues and told the BBC any allegations of atrocities committed by all sides would be fully investigated.

Many of the victims were Alawite, a minority community in Syria, which the former ruling Assad family belonged to.  

Some community members are believed to have been killed in March by forces or individuals loyal to the country’s new leadership, the National Transitional Authority, which is headed by interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

In response to the “arrest operation” launched on 6 March, fighters loyal to toppled President Bashar al-Assad responded by capturing, killing and injuring hundreds of interim government forces, the commissioners said.

Looting was also widespread, while homes were set alight, leaving tens of thousands of civilians displaced, the commissioners continued.

In total, approximately 1,400 people were reported killed in the ensuing massacres, predominantly civilians.

“The vast majority were adult men, but victims included approximately 100 women, the elderly and the disabled, as well as children,” the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said.

Still a target

It also warned that the Alawite community which formed former Mr. al-Assad’s power base is still being targeted today. Alawites make up about 10 per cent of the majority Sunni country. 

According to the commissioners’ latest report, the victims killed in March were murdered and tortured, while the bodies of the dead were also mutilated.

They added that some acts were filmed and published on social media, along with footage of civilians being abused and humiliated.

Chair of the UN panel, Paulo Pinheiro, condemned the scale and brutality of the violence which reportedly involved Alawite men being identified and singled out before being led away to be shot and killed in multiple majority Alawite villages and neighbourhoods.    

“Bodies were left in the streets for days, with families prevented from conducting burials in accordance with religious rites, while others were buried in mass graves without proper documentation,” the commissioners’ report stated.

Meanwhile, hospitals became overwhelmed “as corpses piled up”.

Eye-witnesses

The Commission’s latest report is based on extensive investigations, including more than 200 interviews with victims and witnesses, including in Latakia and Tartus.  

The investigators also visited three mass grave sites and met senior Syrian government officials.

Today, Alawite communities still live in fear and face ongoing abductions of women, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and looting and occupation of their property, investigators noted.  

Protection must be a priority

They should be protected by the new authorities in charge of Syria, commissioners insisted.  

“The affected communities need to see urgent action to increase their protection. Beyond referral of suspected perpetrators to criminal justice, individuals suspected of involvement in violations during the March events should be immediately removed from active duties pending investigation,” said Commissioner Lynn Welchman.

Additionally, screening processes need to be expanded so that known or suspected perpetrators of grave violations in the past are not recruited into the ranks of the interim government security forces, she maintained.

After 14 years of civil war which ended last December when opposition forces including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – led by interim Prsident al-Sharaa – the  swept into Damascus, forcing out Mr. al-Assad, lasting damage has been done to Syria’s unity.

“The extreme violence that occurred has deepened existing rifts between communities, contributing to a climate of fear and insecurity amongst many Syrians throughout the country,” the Commissioners said.

“We call on the interim authorities to continue to pursue accountability for all perpetrators, regardless of affiliation or rank,” Mr. Pinheiro continued. “While dozens of alleged perpetrators of violations have reportedly since been arrested, the scale of the violence documented in our report warrants expanding such efforts.”  

A retired US special forces officer has revealed to the BBC why he resigned from his work with US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution centres.

“I witnessed the Israeli Defense Forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians,” Anthony Aguilar told the BBC.

He added that in his entire career he has never witnessed such a level of “brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population”.

A retired US special forces officer has revealed to the BBC why he resigned from his work with US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution centres.

“I witnessed the Israeli Defense Forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians,” Anthony Aguilar told the BBC.

He added that in his entire career he has never witnessed such a level of “brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population”.