PUBLIC STATEMENT: United Nations Human Rights Council Report (18 June 2026)
Issued by the Palestine Solidarity Alliance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 25 June 2026
The Palestine Solidarity Alliance, drawing from our nation’s painful apartheid history of systematic oppression and our commitment to human dignity, issues this statement in response to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s report on Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children.
We have reviewed the Commission’s findings with profound horror. What we have witnessed is not a conflict with collateral damage but rather a deliberate, systematic campaign against Palestinian children that constitutes genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
“Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy.” — Moshe Feiglin, former Likud member of the Israeli Knesset, May 2025
CLEAR EVIDENCE OF ETHNIC CLEANSING AND GENOCIDE
The Commission has documented that at least 20,179 Palestinian children have been killed and 44,143 injured in Gaza since October 2023. At least 5,031 children under five have been killed, including 1,029 infants under one year. An estimated 5,160 children remain buried under rubble.
These are not statistics. These are children who dreamed of becoming doctors, teachers, engineers. Children who played, who loved their parents, who deserved to grow up.
There is no equality with Gazan children. Children in Gaza brought it on themselves.” — Merav Ben-Ari, Member of the Israeli Knesset, 16 October 2023
DELIBERATE TARGETING OF CHILDREN
The Commission reveals a chilling pattern of intentional targeting:
• Children shot by precision weapons with clear visual identification.
• Children killed while holding white flags, or playing outside, including two brothers, aged 10 and 9, killed after the ceasefire while gathering firewood; a 10-day-old baby shot while being breastfed in a tent and a 15-year-old boy holding a white flag shot by sniper, then killed with
two more shots.
There remain hundreds of children and civilians buried under the rubble of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaigns.
“A ceasefire that allows Israeli security forces to open fire on children crossing an ill-defined boundary cannot credibly be seen as a cessation of hostilities.” — Commission Report
STARVATION AS A WEAPON
The Commission confirms Israel is using starvation as a method of warfare:
• 151 children have died from malnutrition.
• Nearly 95,000 children acutely malnourished
• 90% of children aged 6-23 months consume two or fewer food groups daily.
• Famine has been confirmed in Gaza and for the first time in the Middle East region.
“At one point, we had to eat cat food and grind donkey food to make bread. It tasted disgusting but we had to eat to survive, to stay alive.” — A 13.5-year-old boy from Gaza
Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, an 18-month-old child in Gaza who had a pre-existing medical condition, now faces life-threatening malnutrition. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
DESTRUCTION OF HEALTHCARE AND EDUCATION
• All three major paediatric hospitals forced to close following military action.
• Decomposing bodies of babies found abandoned in Al-Nasr Hospital’s NICU
• 459 of 564 school buildings directly hit.
• 97% of schools damaged or destroyed.
• 668,000 children denied formal education for three full years.
“When children lose their chance to access education, they lose their future.” — A teacher from Gaza
TORTURE IN DETENTION
The Commission confirms that Children as young as 12 are being systematically tortured:
• Stripped naked, blindfolded, and beaten.
• Denied food, water, and medical care.
• Subjected to sexual violence including rape.
• Held incommunicado with no family contact.
• A 17-year-old boy died in Megiddo Prison from starvation.
“You are going to Israel; you are going to hell.” — An Israeli soldier to a blindfolded 15-year-old boy
SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
The Commission documents forced public nudity, sexual assault, genital violence, and sexual threats against Palestinian children. These acts are part of a systematic pattern, used as punishment and collective humiliation.
“The sexual nature of attacks against Palestinians has caused severe physical and psychological harm to the victims which will affect generations of Palestinians.” — Commission Report
DEHUMANIZATION
At least 35 instances show Israeli soldiers filming themselves:
• Destroying children’s toys and mocking Palestinian childhood
• Hanging teddy bears by the neck.
• Celebrating destruction of schools
• Using girls’ clothing for humiliation
“It’s always fun to blow up schools.” — An Israeli soldier, in a video posted online
LEGAL FINDINGS
The Commission concludes Israel has committed:
GENOCIDE — Killing children, causing serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the Palestinian group.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY — Extermination, murder, torture, persecution, enforced disappearance.
WAR CRIMES — Wilful killing, starvation as warfare, attacks on civilians and civilian objects
“The targeting of Palestinian children is central to establishing genocidal intent.” — Commission Report
THE UNHRC REPORT IS A CALL FOR US TO RAISE OUR VOICES TO DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY AND JUSTICE AND DEMAND.
Israel must immediately:
• Halt military operations and end the siege on both Gaza and the Westbank
• End torture and ill-treatment of children in detention.
• Return bodies of deceased children to families
• Respect the sanctity of all religious sites and end the illegal Judaization of Jerusalem and Palestine.
• Withdraw from the occupied territories and dismantle all illegal settlements.
• Respect International Law and the legitimate work of humanitarian and rights organizations.
We call on the UN Security Council and Members States to immediately:
• Impose comprehensive sanctions on Israel.
• Authorize enforcement measures if Israel remains non-compliant.
• Cease all arms transfers to Israel.
• Establish a full trade embargo which includes ending the supply of coal to Israel.
• Impose sanctions on officials and military commanders.
• Arrest and extradite ICC – wanted officials.
• Arrest and prosecute IDF soldiers active in the genocide when they visit, tour, or settle in our countries.
• List Israeli settlers for child killing, sexual violence and fuelling and supporting anti-Palestinian pogroms.
As South Africans we must Speak out as Silence is complicity.
South Africa must lead by ending all trade, including the supply of coal to Israel and remain steadfast with our case at the ICJ.
More than this we must arrest and prosecute all those who serve or have served in the IDF, including those who promote and fund the Israel’s genocidal actions.
The Palestine Solidarity Alliance urges all people of conscience to read the full UN report, share this statement, and demand action. Justice for Palestinian children is justice for all children.
END
Issued by The Palestine Solidarity Alliance of South Africa
For media enquiries, please contact: info@palestinesa.co.za
29 June 2026
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