The head of a UN inquiry commission has declared that Israeli military actions in Gaza constitute a targeted campaign against children that demands international prosecution. Justice S. Muralidhar, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, delivered these explosive findings in an exclusive interview with RT India on Tuesday.
He described the violence as “unjustified and disproportionate… in considerable terms.” The commission’s report paints a devastating portrait of systematic attacks on the most vulnerable civilians in one of the world’s most densely populated conflict zones.
Pattern Of Deliberate Child Targeting
The evidence gathered by the panel points to a chilling pattern of infants being singled out for lethal force.
“When you shoot a 10-day-old baby breastfeeding on his mother… through his head, you can by no means label such a baby as an enemy of the State of Israel and justify these kinds of attacks.”
Muralidhar emphasized that Israeli quadcopters equipped with thermal imaging technology possess the capability to distinguish between children and adults with precision.
The commission documented numerous instances of newborns sustaining gunshot wounds specifically to the head and neck, wounds designed to inflict maximum fatal damage.
He further revealed that Israeli forces deployed tiny cube-shaped pellets that spread like cluster munitions and obliterated internal organs.
The former chief justice of the Odisha High Court stated unequivocally that babies had become special targets in the military campaign.
Perhaps most disturbingly, he cited Israeli soldiers appearing on television to describe how they targeted children using quadcopters, noting that their commanders had complimented them for these actions.
Systematic Destruction Of Medical And Educational Infrastructure
The commission found that Israeli forces demolished ninety-seven percent of all schools in Gaza, a figure Muralidhar insisted could not be justified by claims that Hamas used such facilities as operational bases.
“The excuse that Hamas could be using hospitals and schools as bases to carry out its attacks will not justify completely demolishing 97% of all of Gaza’s schools.”
He accused Israeli forces of carrying out airstrikes on the most densely populated areas with full knowledge that children comprised a substantial portion of the resident population.
The destruction extended to hospitals where patients remained inside during demolition operations.
Medical equipment was systematically destroyed while doctors faced obstruction preventing them from importing replacement equipment or emergency medications.
The commission concluded that this pattern of evidence, drawn from forensic and medical sources, revealed a deliberate strategy rather than collateral damage.
Genocidal Targeting Of Reproductive Health And Orphaned Children
Muralidhar identified what he termed a genocidal pattern aimed at preventing future Palestinian generations from surviving or being born.
“One of the elements of genocide is to prevent childbirths.”
He stated that pregnant mothers were deliberately targeted and denied adequate nutrition, leaving them severely malnourished and unable to sustain healthy pregnancies.
The commission documented attacks on reproductive health facilities alongside the targeting of newborn infants.
Israeli forces also struck orphanages, compounding the catastrophe for children already bereaved by the conflict.
The report cites over fifty-eight thousand children who have been orphaned during the two-year span of hostilities.
Muralidhar expressed profound dismay at what he characterized as a catastrophic failure by the international community to enforce legal accountability.
“The failure of all UN member states… to prevail upon Israel to comply with the three provisional orders of the International Court of Justice, [which] weakens the international legal order.”
The commission’s findings emerge against the backdrop of a war that began following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in more than 250 hostages being taken.
Israel’s subsequent military campaign has devastated large swathes of Gaza, with local health authorities reporting over 73,000 Palestinians killed and more than 173,000 injured.