RismadarVoice Reporters, June 30, 2026
A United Nations report has accused Israel of pursuing what it calls a deliberate strategy to target Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank allegations Israel strongly rejects as, quote, “a libellous sham.”
The report comes as a three-year-old boy, Rayan Abu al-Ajeen, was shot and killed in central Gaza earlier this month.
His father, Bahaa Abu al-Ajeen, said he was carrying his son through a designated safe zone near Gaza’s so-called “yellow line” the boundary separating Palestinian and Israeli-controlled areas when Israeli soldiers opened fire. He says a shot struck the boy in the head, and that no medical assistance was provided as his son died.
The Israeli military says troops identified several Gazans approaching them in the area and carried out, quote, “standard suspect apprehension procedures,” including warning shots. It says one Gazan was killed and another injured, and that further details are under review.
The U.N. commission of inquiry says it found reasonable grounds to conclude Israeli actions amount to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. The commission’s chair, Indian jurist Srinivasan Muralidhar, says targeting children amounts to attacking the Palestinian people’s capacity to determine their future.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected the findings entirely, accusing the commission of ignoring Israeli children killed by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, and of providing no credible verification for its claims.
According to Palestinian health officials, more than 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, including more than 20,000 children. In the West Bank, the U.N. says at least 1,103 Palestinians, including 241 children, have been killed amid rising settler violence and military operations. Amnesty International says at least 36 children were killed in the October 7th attacks.
The U.N. report also says killings have continued since October’s U.S.-brokered ceasefire, with more than a thousand Palestinians killed since then, including 265 children.
Aid groups say Gaza’s yellow line has been expanding in recent weeks, with Israeli-controlled territory growing and boundary markers shifting raising concerns among residents and analysts that civilians can no longer reliably tell where it’s safe to go. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month he had ordered the military to take control of up to 70 per cent of Gaza’s territory.
Rayan’s grandfather, Jaber Abu al-Ajeen, says the family are farmers who have always stayed away from the boundary. He says that despite ceasefires and agreements, conditions for the family have only grown harder.
