A displaced Palestinian child looks through a tear in the wall of a tent, in Gaza City, May 6, 2026. Photo: file/REUTERS
President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday called on influential countries and the international community to impose a “significant cost” on Israel for crimes against Palestinian children and to prevent a repetition of crimes that were exposed in a recent United Nations investigation.
Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, the independent UN investigation said on Tuesday. The report of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.
About 30% of those killed in the Gaza conflict were children, according to the report. The UN commission said Palestinian children were deliberately targeted and killed during the war, even after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025. It said this was a key element establishing the genocidal intent of Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza.
Responding to the investigation’s findings, the president said in a post on X that he was “deeply disturbed” by them.
“The murder of over 20,000 children is a stain on our collective conscience. Pakistan strongly condemns these atrocities and calls for immediate accountability.
“The international community, particularly influential countries, must impose a significant cost on Israel for these crimes and take effective measures to prevent their repetition,” the president said.
He also called for an end to violence and the protection of Palestinian children in accordance with international law.
President expresses grave concern over UN findings on Gaza
“I am deeply concerned by the findings of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which concludes that Palestinian children in Gaza have been deliberately targeted, resulting in an unprecedented loss of…
– The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) June 25, 2026
Child deaths
The report found the proportion of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts. Between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children were killed, around 30% of the total number of deaths. By comparison, in hostilities in Gaza in 2008-2009 and 2014, children accounted for approximately 24% of conflict-related deaths, according to the report.
Israeli forces continued to use high payload munitions and weapons with long-range effects in densely populated residential areas despite the increase in child casualties, the commission said. “This indicates that such attacks, which killed such a large number of children, were intentional,” he said.
Read: Dutch report documenting Israeli shootings of Palestinian children in Gaza wins European Press Prize
He said he believed the children were being targeted collectively because Israeli security forces considered the civilian population as a whole to be associated with Hamas and other armed groups.
The conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza, including widespread attacks, repeated displacements and famines caused by the blockade of aid, food and medicine, severely damaged the health and development of children, leading to preventable deaths and trauma, according to the report.
Read more: UNICEF calls Gaza ceasefire a ‘deadly illusion’
The investigation also found that attacks on health and reproductive facilities affected the survival of newborns and reported increases in miscarriages, and that almost all children in Gaza needed psychological support.
