The UN's top investigative body has found that Israeli forces committed age-based persecution against Palestinian children in the West Bank, killing 1,080 and injuring 10,940, in a crime against humanity. The findings come following a damning report by the same commission in June accusing Israeli forces of deliberately targeting Palestinian children as a central element of their genocide in Gaza. The report found that Israeli rules of engagement in the West Bank had been broadened after 7 October 2023 and applied exclusively to Palestinians, while soldiers were prohibited from using lethal force against Jewish Israelis in a similar manner.
Key points
The UN's top investigative body has found that Israeli forces committed age-based persecu…: The UN's top investigative body has found that Israeli forces committed age-based persecution against Palestinian children in the West Bank, killing 1,080 and injuring 10,940, in a crime against humanity.
The findings come following a damning report by the same commission in June accusing Isra…: The findings come following a damning report by the same commission in June accusing Israeli forces of deliberately targeting Palestinian children as a central element of their genocide in Gaza.
The report found that Israeli rules of engagement in the West Bank had been broadened aft…: The report found that Israeli rules of engagement in the West Bank had been broadened after 7 October 2023 and applied exclusively to Palestinians, while soldiers were prohibited from using lethal force against Jewish Israelis in a similar manner.
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Israeli authorities and forces have committed the crime against humanity of age-based persecution against Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, the UN's top investigative body on Palestine and Israel has concluded, while also accusing Israel of continuing its genocide in Gaza despite a ceasefire agreement.
In its fifth report to the UN General Assembly, published on Monday, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, said Israeli forces had "deliberately killed and caused serious bodily and mental harm to Palestinian children on account of their status as Palestinian children".
The report said the harm inflicted on children "is not incidental or collateral" to the wider violence, but "forms part of a pattern of intentional violence directed against Palestinian children", amounting to the crime against humanity of persecution.
Read more: UN inquiry finds Israel committed age-based persecution of Palestinian children in West Bank
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