HRC Press Conference: COI on OPT 23 June 2026

[Other language spoken]

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us here at this press conference in Geneva with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including E Jerusalem and Israel.

As you may know, the Commission published its latest Mandate report on 9 June and presented those findings to the Council during an interactive dialogue last week.

Today, the Commission published a new report detailing how Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

We'll start today with an open opening statement by the Chair of the Commission, Mr.

Moore Leader, followed by remarks from fellow Commissioners Chris Sidoti and Florence Mumbaugh, and then we will open the floor to your questions.

And now we can begin with the Chair.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Todd.

Good afternoon everyone.

I would like to start the press conference.

We're announcing that today the Commission has released 100 page report documenting violations and crimes committed by Israel against Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7th October 2023 until 31st March 2026.

We just briefed Member States this morning on the report's findings.

The Commission's comprehensive report is unique, being the first specialised report on crimes and violations against Palestinian children in Palestine by UN investigative body.

The report draws partially on earlier findings of the Commission as published in previous reports, while incorporating newly collected evidence and investigated cases.

The Commission found indisputable evidence with regards to the deliberate targeted killing of Palestinian children, including, since the October 2025 ceasefire, the use of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment including use of sexual and gender biassed violence against Palestinian children, as well as targeting of critical infrastructure essential to children such as orphanages, healthcare and educational facilities.

There has been a widespread and systematic killing and harming of children.

Between 7th October 2023 and 7th October 2025, we have witnessed more than 20,000 children who've been killed and more than 44,000 children who've been injured.

Children constitute 30% of all those killed in OPT and the killing and injuring of children has been a continuing activity.

Children are being killed mainly in two ways, one through air strikes using high yield explosives with wide area effects and 2nd using quadcopters, drones and sniper rifles that specifically target and kill children to their head and upper body.

There is also a severe orphan crisis with an estimated 58,005 five four children who lost one or both parents between 7th October 2023 and 7th October 2025.

There has been a systematic disruption by Israel of the children's ability to learn there by sabotaging the intellectual and social foundations of the Palestinian society.

The Commission's findings are that Israel targets children to weaken demographic vitality and deny the Palestinian people's right to self determination.

97% of all schools have been destroyed.

95% of the universities have been affected.

In Gaza, 22 out of the 38 universities have been completely destroyed.

We have found the use of starvation and imposition of conditions of life obstructing children's survival.

As of 1st October 2025, there have been 151 children's deaths on account of malnutrition.

We've also found that between October and December 2023, there have been at least more than 1000 instances of children undergoing amputation of one or more lives.

Based on all the evidence gathered, the report makes legal findings and concludes that the Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces have deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children and destroyed their childhood.

Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces are responsible for crimes against humanity, including persecution and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank, including E Jerusalem.

The report released today further substantiates a finding on genocide.

The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children and pregnant women are inextricably linked to the Palestinian people's fundamental right to self determination, as children represent the future bearers of their collective identity and resilience.

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.

Our report concludes that the settler violence in the West Bank functions as a means of implementing Israeli state policies, with both the state and violent settler groups working in collaboration towards the same strategic objective, unlawful territorial expansion.

It also concludes that Hamas has repeatedly committed grave abuses against Palestinians and Gaza, using the cover of Israeli military offensives and the broader collapse of law and order to carry out campaigns of repression, torture and unlawful killings of Palestinians.

This was stated by us in our report which we presented to the Human Rights Council on 15th June 2026.

The report by the Board of Peace to the Security Council in May this year, pursuant to the Security Council Resolution 2803, claims that the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza have improved.

This contradicts the findings of this Commission.

The Israeli Prime Minister has been clear.

Israeli aims to seize at least 70% of the Gaza Strip in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement and international law.

The reality is that Palestinians continue to be killed and harmed in Gaza even after the ceasefire was announced in October last year, and the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza remains very much below the necessary levels needed.

Lastly, the Commission condemns the severe mistreatment of the flotilla activists detained by the Israeli forces.

Such public disregard of international law would support the findings of the Commission in previous reports that Palestinian detainees was severely mistreated, including tortured, raped and sexually abused by Israeli forces.

The Commission welcomes the opening of the judicial investigations in a number of countries about these events.

We are grateful for the support expressed by many Member States to the Commission's mandate and work, including during last week's Human Rights Council interactive dialogue.

In this report we meet a series of recommendations to the State of Israel and to the Member States, as well as the Security Council, which we hope that the Member States will act upon and the other bodies to whom we have addressed them will act upon.

We intend to continue pursuing the fulfilment of mandate, including in relation to making recommendations, in particular on accountability measures, with a view to preventing and ending, ending impunity and ensuring accountability, including State responsibility and individual criminal and command responsibility.

I now invite my Co commissioners to make their comments.

[Other language spoken]

I would also like to_the importance of the report on violations against and affecting Palestinian Children that we have issued today which, warrants close attention this.

Report which, the Commission Worked on for almost 2 years is, based on multiple interviews and group discussions with victims and witnesses including, children themselves conduct.

[Other language spoken]

Have conducted medical tests, military and digital forensic analysis and consulted independent forensic pathologists, among other sources.

The Commission found that the continued pattern of conduct by the Israeli security forces over 2 years in Gaza is intended to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group, of which Palestinian children are a part of.

The Commission has found that the deliberate targeting of children is one of the key elements establishing specific intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group as such, in whole or in part in Gaza.

Israel's use of reproductive violence in Gaza has directly and disproportionately harmed newborn survival as well as Palestinians reproductive future.

The conditions of life imposed by Israel have resulted in preventable mortality of children and serious mental trauma in Gaza.

In the report, the Commission has concluded recommendations has included recommendations to Israel and to all Member States, as well as to the International Criminal Court and other judicial institutions to ensure accountability for such crimes.

I now pass on to Commissioner Sidoti for his remarks.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you Chair and Commissioner Mumba.

This is the Commission's 17th report.

Some of our reports deal with time specific events, so the events on 7/8 October 2023 in southern Israel, the events in Gaza from then till the end of 2023.

Others are thematic reports such as the one dealing with sex and gender based violence.

This report is a thematic report dealing with the situation of children.

The Chair and Commissioner Mumba have described very well the contents of the report and its principal findings.

When presenting reports, I try to be legal, technical and dispassionate, but today I want to speak very personally.

For me, this report has been the most difficult of the 17 reports that the Commission has produced.

Some events stay with me long after a report is investigated, written and released, and the events that stay with me are the events concerning children.

The report we released in June 2024 dealing with the events in southern Israel on 7/8 October 2023 contained accounts of very grave atrocities, but there is one that remains with me still years later.

Five teenagers, a girl and four boys, all aged 16 or 17, went early that Saturday morning to Zikim Beach.

Presumably they were having an early morning at the beach, going there maybe to swim, at least enjoying themselves.

When a Hamas boat arrived at the beach and gunfire commenced, The five teenagers fled to a toilet block seeking safety.

There they were joined by an adult fisherman and also by an Israeli soldier who sought to defend them unsuccessfully.

The soldier was killed, the fisherman was killed and all five children, a girl, 4 boys, were killed.

They were five of the almost 40 Israeli children killed that day.

The report we released today is looking at the Israeli military's killings and injuring and damaging the lives of Palestinian children.

The Chair has referred to the fact that there were over 20,000 Palestinian children in Gaza killed between October 2023 and October 20, 2520, thousand or more, maybe 22,000 directly killed by the violence.

The child whose death struck me most personally was not killed directly by the violence, was not included amongst those 20 to 22,000 accredited deaths.

Those deaths for all of children whose bodies were identified and who were injured by bullets or shrapnel or bombings.

The girl I'm talking about, aged 12, had celiac disease.

[Other language spoken]

Children do not die with celiac disease.

When her case, her situation came to public attention, it was dismissed by the Israeli authorities on the basis that this girl had a pre-existing condition.

The evidence was there.

We saw the photos and the videos of this child.

She suffered seriously from malnutrition, diarrhoea.

She lost a third of her body weight over a six month period.

From March to May 2025, the Israeli authorities imposed a total siege on Gaza.

No food was getting in during that.

And certainly not the food required by a child with celiac disease.

That's when her weight loss began.

In October 2025, suffering from severe acute malnutrition, she was admitted to the NASA medical Centre.

The doctors applied for her to be medically evacuated from Gaza so that she could receive the level of treatment needed to save her life.

The Israeli authorities did not reply.

In October 2025, the child died.

She didn't die of celiac disease.

Children don't die of celiac disease.

She died of starvation, the direct result of the policies implemented by the Israeli government and the Israeli military.

Oh, and I should add, two weeks after she died, the Israeli authorities approved her medical evacuation.

The child whose death struck me most on the West Bank was in a different situation.

He was directly killed.

He was in the refugee camp of Al Farah in the town of Tubas.

[Other language spoken]

He was shot by an Israeli military patrol as he was leaving his house.

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.

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 early in the period, he was able to move a little.

He he pushed his cap out to indicate that he was still alive and needed attention.

A soldier kicked the cap back at him.

On another occasion he was crying out and again the response was kicking towards him.

Later in the period, a soldier came up and dropped a stone next to him, trying to frame this innocent child as a stone thrower when there is no evidence whatsoever that the child was doing anything more than going out to play.

His mother was watching from the house that he'd just left.

And as the child sought to leave the house.

So as the mother sought to leave the house to go to the child to rescue him or attend to him, she was shot at by the Israeli military patrol.

There was a Palestinian Red Cross ambulance nearby and whenever the ambulance tried to approach the scene of the child lying there, a laser targeted weapon was aimed at the driver of the ambulance so that the laser was hitting the driver in the middle of the head and the driver, of course withdrew in fear of being shot.

For 45 minutes, this child bled to death while surrounded by Israeli soldiers, who not only showed no concern for him whatsoever, not only did nothing themselves to assist the child, but actively prevented the child's mother from reaching him and the ambulance from assisting him.

After the child died, the soldiers took his body away and the body has still not been returned to the family for burial.

And Israeli military force holding a child's body as hostage.

I have three questions today for Israeli people through this press conference.

I want to speak to them directly.

What kind of people are your soldiers who would allow a 14 year old child?

To bleed to death over a 4045 minute.

What kind of people are your military leaders?

That would inculcate a culture that soldiers feel free to do this acting with total impunity.

What kind of people are your leaders?

When they give orders, they make statements that encourage this kind of conduct, not merely permit it, but encourage it.

I saw a couple of weeks ago that Israeli President Herzog made a statement about some extremist Israeli settlers.

He described, and I, I quote the report of what he said directly, a wave of terrible violence that is being carried out by an anarchist mob, acts that defile and violate every basic moral, legal and Jewish norm.

Herzog was speaking about a handful of extremist settlers, and he was right in the way in which he described them.

But he should have gone on to describe the key institutions of Israeli society, the government, the Knesset, the political parties and the military in exactly the same terms.

An anarchist mob committing acts that defile and violate every basic moral, legal and Jewish norm.

[Other language spoken]

There is no doubt whatsoever.

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.

Thank you, everyone for those important open opening remarks.

Now we will open the floor to questions.

First, we'll check in the room.

Do we have any question from those media in the room?

If you could please identify yourself in the media outlet you work for, Please go ahead.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the briefing.

You you find that the acts committed in Gaza amount to genocide, but the acts committed in the West Bank amount only to war crimes.

I'm wondering why the distinction.

[Other language spoken]

Perhaps I should answer that question, Nick, since I was on the Commission at the time of the genocide report and others.

Of course, the newer commissioners may wish to add the the genocide report looks specifically at Gaza.

We did not examine at that time the question of genocide in the West Bank, and we have still not been in a position to do so.

So our findings relate very much to the investigations that we have carried out and the conclusions that we have drawn from our legal analysis.

At this stage.

We have found war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli authorities in Gaza and the West Bank, but we have only examined and made findings concerning genocide in relation to Gaza.

[Other language spoken]

We will take a one question online from FA.

[Other language spoken]

Antonio, are you there?

We'll come back to FA in a second.

Let's go next to Jeremy of from Radio France RF Radio France International.

[Other language spoken]

We may have some audio difficulty.

I will read a question that we received in the chat from Nir Hassan from Haaretz.

The question is as follows.

The Israeli Military Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a response to the report, which includes, among other things, claims of distinct bias of the committee members against Israel, a lack of medical, military and ballistic experience to conduct an investigation, and reliance on unidentified and unverified testimonies and reliance on data from Hamas.

What is the Committee's or Commission Rather's response to this?

I think we make our methodology very clear in the report itself.

In para 10 of this report, anyone reading would realise the rigour which we bring to analysis of the evidence that has been gathered.

The Commission received evidence such as medical reports including X radiation, X-rays, photographs, video and audio statements of patients who had given their consent to share this information with the Commission.

The Commission consulted 2 independent forensic pathologists who provided forensic analysis of the evidence including CT scans, medical reports, photographs and videos of the children who were shot and had either killed or maimed.

Open source material was forensically collected in accordance with the International Standards on the Preservation of web-based Content and Rules of Admissibility of Digital Evidence.

When needed, open source material was verified through comprehensive cross referencing with a broad, varied collection of reputable sources and complemented by advanced forensic examination including visual media authentication, geolocation and chronolocation analysis, metadata extraction and face recognition.

A full list of sources used for the report is on file with the Commission.

So I would assert that this Commission adopts the highest standards, aligns its evidence gathering and analysis protocols with that required by international adjudicative mechanisms, and therefore I would refute this charge spelt out by Herod's quoting the Israeli sources.

OK, let's try and see if the audio is working again.

[Other language spoken]

For now, I'll, I'll, I'll read.

This question is from FA from Antonio Brotto.

His question is what?

What are your expectations that this second report accusing Israel of genocide will serve for the accountability of the Israeli forces in international courts and how do you think the proceedings to achieve this are progressing?

Second question, when you say that you identified Israeli forces that have carried out attacks against children, are you referring to any specific units or divisions and can you give us any examples?

[Other language spoken]

In para 356 of our report, we have listed out the divisions, brigades or units of the Israeli security forces that have been responsible for the killing and injuring of Palestinian children in Gaza and West Bank.

We've listed out all the incidents as well.

There are as many as 13, 1113 incidents and we've referred to each of the divisions responsible for each of those incidents.

So that evidence is very much with the Commission.

And as far as the first question is concerned, what was that about?

Excuse me, the first question, what are your expectations of this second report?

[Other language spoken]

So we've made recommendations to Member States because they can exercise in their domestic courts universal jurisdiction if they are parties to these conventions, which many of the countries are.

We have asked that they should arrest any Israeli official against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the ICC and extradite them into the custody of the ICC.

We've requested them to employ all means reasonably reasonably available to prevent the Commission of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and ensure full compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

In the OPT, we've requested members of states to seize the transfer of arms and other equipments or items to the State of Israel or third states where they could or would be used to violate international law.

And we've asked them to conduct investigations under domestic or universal jurisdiction of Israeli individuals or organisations suspected of having participated in the unlawful acts of violence against Palestinian children.

There are also dual citizens.

Many of the citizens of these countries are serving on the Israeli Defence Defence Forces and when they return home, of course, action can be taken against them if the investigations into their actions show their involvement in any of the incidents that this Commission has talked about in its report.

So there is a variety of options available with the Member States.

I think this report will help them exercise those options and carry the mandate of this Commission forward for ensuring justice to all victims, victims who could be Israeli nationals, victims who could be Palestinians and others.

Could I just make one specific edition in relation to the 14 year old boy who bled to death over the period of 45 minutes?

The soldiers were members of the Paratrooper battalion operating under the command of the Menashe Brigade, also known as the 431st Territorial Brigade.

We know who they are.

I must also add that we have quoted specific instances of Israeli soldiers filming their own acts, including degrading toys of children or, you know, making statements about how they enjoy blowing up schools.

These are Israeli soldiers recording their own statements and putting up on social media.

And this is available in the public domain.

So it is actually astonishing that no action has been taken against any of these soldiers for going to this length in brazenly taking pride in destroying children's future and children's livelihoods and children's aspirations.

[Other language spoken]

We'll take a question online from Jeremy Launch from Radio France International.

I will read it for the moment.

Can you elaborate on the targeting of children directly at the head or upper body?

The report talks about some kind of, quote, game, unquote, used by soldiers targeting a different body part each day.

I must share with all of you that apart from the sources that we've quoted in the report, we also conducted oral hearings after we arrived here in Geneva this time.

And three of the doctors who were involved in treatment of children in Gaza spoke to us and they confirmed what the report has found on the basis of available material, that the gunshot wounds were specifically directed at the head and the neck 'cause maximum damage.

In one instance, A breastfeeding baby was shot by a quadcopter through the head and the baby now suffers a permanent paralysis.

So there have been all these instances quoted in the report of specific targeting of children quadcopters.

All of you are aware has thermal imagery.

It has infrared heat cameras which can tell you the shape of the body.

And so the soldiers are able to immediately detect sitting wherever they are, that this is a child who appears on the screen.

And indeed it is like a game for them.

And we have quoted that in the report where the soldiers say that they can.

I'll I'll let me quote this.

In the ITVX documentary Breaking ranks inside Israel's War, one Israeli soldier described the drones, in my opinion, are what most dehumanises the other side.

You see everything on the screen, you drop the bomb.

[Other language spoken]

You can sit in some basement of a house safe with your helmet off, scratching your balls, half dressed and kill Palestinians.

This is a quotation.

This is why I say Israeli soldiers have themselves put on the public domain so much incriminating evidence about what they've been doing.

[Other language spoken]

Do we have any more questions from the room?

OK, Nick from The New York Times.

[Other language spoken]

I just want to are you aware of any investigations carried out by Israeli authorities have resulted in prosecutions of any of the acts involved?

Is there a possibility that there are investigations and accountability that's going on that you haven't heard about?

Thank you for that question.

In fact, in our report, we do say this precise thing that you're adverting to.

We say that if there were any such investigations, the Commission is not made aware of its outcome.

So we would very much like the Israeli authorities to tell us.

In fact, today when they've released in the public domain a response to a report, they don't say which of these incidents have actually been investigated by them, whether its the settler violence against children, about these inhuman acts of soldiers against children.

The statements and pronouncements made by these soldiers, you know, victoriously asserting their, you know, there's a triumphalism in the tone of the Israeli soldiers.

And we are certain that no government could have left these incidents uninvestigated.

So through this press conference, we again appeal to the Israeli authorities to share with us any outcome of any of these investigations they may have carried out into the sexual violence against children, the dehumanising treatment of children.

You know, children are being subjected to shaming, public shaming.

They're asked to strip the photographs are taken of the children stripped down to their waists and they're uploaded on social media by Israeli soldiers.

I'm sure this is not some act that can be condoned by any government of its armed forces, of its uniformed armed forces.

So we will be very happy to know they can share with the entire world, of course share with the Commission what investigations they've carried out and what are the outcome of those investigations.

[Other language spoken]

Any follow up?

[Other language spoken]

Sorry.

[Other language spoken]

I was curious to know whether the information that you've accumulated has been shared with any specific legal bodies or whether there had been requests from any states for access to this information to follow up types prosecute people who have been identified as involved in these kinds of atrocities.

[Other language spoken]

I know for a fact that previously there have been requests made of the Commission and the Commission has shared information with countries and we have shared our information also with the 2 main adjudicatory bodies, the ICC and at South Africa's instance with the ICJ.

So, and we're open to doing that and we will continue to be of assistance to any country which is willing to exercise universal jurisdiction over what over persons accused of war crimes, crimes of against humanity and genocide.

[Other language spoken]

If there are no more questions from the room or online, I will leave it to the end of the press conference.

Do we have any final statements from any, any of the commissioners?

[Other language spoken]

Oh, sorry, do you want to go first?

The, the hardest decision we had to make in completing this report was the decision not to name the Palestinian children whose deaths, injuries and suffering.

[Other language spoken]

It was a hard decision because children have a right under the convention of the right to rights of the child to a name and and their identity.

And one of the difficulties in dealing with public understanding of the situation in Gaza and the West Bank is that these children are anonymised.

They're, they're anonymised in the statistics themselves of 10s of thousands of children affected in this way.

And they're certainly entitled to be recognised, to be named in death.

We didn't name them because we feared the consequences for their families.

We have a basic fundamental principle not to add further harm to the harm that people have already suffered.

And it was hard for us not to name these children.

But my final comment.

Is to plead with us all to see these children, to see them as individuals with identities, with lives that they must have been enjoying at least before October 2023 and futures that have now been cut short.

And to see in these children our own children and grandchildren.

Because this is a universal issue.

This is not merely A Palestinian issue, it's an issue that should affect us all.

[Other language spoken]

In my concluding remarks, I would like to say that once you read this report concerning what is happening to the Palestinian children, you will observe that there is a concerted effort to squeeze these Palestinian children, not giving them any outlet at all to play, to go to school, to get medical attention, even to be with their own families like you would expect every child to to, to want to be.

So you can see this suffocation which is going on from all angles by the Israeli authorities, and one can see that it is clear that the intention is to eliminate this group as the Palestinians as a group, which is a conclusion which is so frightening.

[Other language spoken]

As part of my concluding remarks, I want to share that when we had the oral hearings and doctors participating, they told us that many of the amputations they had to carry out on babies and very young children were without anaesthesia, without painkillers.

You can imagine the agony those children went through.

They also told us they've not seen the destruction of paediatric and neonatal facilities on this scale or the six hospitals.

Five were completely destroyed by the Israeli Defence Forces.

This is something the doctors were unable to even fathom why this was happening when we went into the causes.

One of the things that struck us in which we've quoted in our report is the general thinking of the far right politicians in Israel, one of whom we've quoted in para 81 of our report.

And this is a statement he makes in an interview with Israel's Channel 14 in May 2025, where he says every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy.

The enemy is not Hamas and it is not Hamas military wing.

Every child in Gaza is the enemy.

We need to conquer Gaza and colonise it and not leave a single Gazan child there.

There is no other victory.

Now this thinking has permeated into the Israeli Defence Forces, individual soldiers who are taking pride in destroying children's facilities, children's lives.

And this is to be contrasted and this is how I'd like to end this press conference.

This has to be contrasted with the statement made by a 13 1/2 year old boy whose mother was killed and two sisters were killed in an air strike.

And when one of our commissioners and investigators met him, and this is what he has said before my mother was killed, she told me I need you to be a good person in the society, like a doctor or engineer, and do good for others.

And this is what he says.

Despite everything that happened to my family, I will do anything that is good for the society.

And this is from a Palestinian boy who has to tell the whole world and remind them that we should not allow the humanity in each of us to get killed, despite what the Israeli Defence Forces might want to do.

And this is the humanity in each one of us that this Commission will appeal to because the time to act is now.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, commissioners, and thank you all for joining us today.

That brings us to the end of this press conference.

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