The 94-page document provides a clear account of horrific war crimes, even as a wave of pro-Israel commentators try to discredit its findings.
A UN committee this month report published, according to which Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian children since October 7, 2023, and in the process has committed genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Since then, the UN has come under intense attack, with a leading journalist being dragged away simply for highlighting the report. When Sky News' Alex Crawford highlighted the UN's findings on X (formerly Twitter), Jake Wallis Simons, the Jewish Chronicle His former editor-in-chief accused him of „spreading the usual baseless propaganda, amplified by the usual actors, serving the usual dark agenda.”.
Stephen Pollard, who is Telegraphand other mainstream media outlets, shared Crawford’s post with the comment: „Wow – who would have expected @AlexCrawfordSky to publish stories with no evidence behind them just to slander the only Jewish state in the world? I’m shocked!” Israel’s Foreign Ministry echoed these attacks, calling the UN report a „slanderous farce” and „as outrageous propaganda as any before.”.
A more serious – and more detailed – criticism was received from Spectator in his article, where commentator Jonathan Sacerdoti, the Campaign Against Antisemitism its founding curator argued that the UN report was essentially a fraud. „A UN body has once again accused Israel of the most serious crimes possible: this time the deliberate killing of children,” Sacerdoti wrote. „And once again, when one actually opens the report, the evidence is simply not there.”
If Sacerdoti's claim is correct, then this UN report should be immediately withdrawn with a formal apology and its writers should be fired. These are very serious allegations from a respected writer in one of Britain's most widely read political magazines. They demand a response. Below we examine whether Sacerdoti's claims hold water.
Baby shot by quadcopter
First, Sacerdoti writes: „The UN’s independent international commission of inquiry has released a 94-page document alleging that Israel ‘deliberately targeted’ Palestinian children during the war in the Gaza Strip – a term that suggests war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
But the UN report does not „allegate” war crimes, as Sacerdoti claims. It specifically states that Israel has committed such crimes, noting on page 76: „Based on the evidence reviewed, and consistent with its previous reports, the Commission finds it well-founded that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces continue to commit the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, as well as war crimes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” There is no „allegation.” The report is clear.
Let us turn to Sacerdoti’s argument about one of the cases documented by the committee, in which a 10-day-old baby was shot by a quadcopter. He writes: „Take the report’s own featured example (paragraphs 59-60): a ten-day-old baby was allegedly shot in the head by an Israeli ‘quadrocopter’ while breastfeeding in a tent in the Nuseirat camp in April 2024. The committee argues that since it happened in broad daylight, the drone operator ‘would have been able to see into the tent’ – and from this single conclusion, it draws the conclusion that the baby was deliberately targeted. For this to be true, a drone would have had to hover close to the ground, see through the canvas, select the head of a 35cm baby and fire a precision shot, all based on a photo of a bullet, without chain evidence, ballistics analysis and no eyewitness claiming to have seen a drone at all.”
Sacerdoti makes several dubious claims. First, he says the quadcopter „would have had to see through the canvas” to target the baby. This is false—the quadcopter could have shot the baby after entering the tent. On page 16, the UN report states: „On 12 April 2024, at 13:00, a 10-day-old baby boy was shot by a quadcopter while his mother was breastfeeding him in their tent in Nuseirat camp. The mother was alone in the tent when a single bullet from the quadcopter struck the baby’s head and exited the back of the skull, hitting the pillow behind the mother.” The report does not state that the shot was fired from outside the tent.
Second, Sacerdoti claims that the commission only „viewed a photo of a bullet.” This is false—the report specifically notes that the commission „viewed and analyzed images of the bullet that hit the infant.” Third, Sacerdoti says, „no eyewitness claims to have seen a drone.” How does he know this? In the methodology section (page 4), the commission specifically states: „We consulted multiple sources of information; collected and verified thousands of open-source materials; and conducted remote and in-person interviews and focus groups with victims and witnesses.”
Invisible borders
According to Sacerdoti's analysis, there is "one case cited in the report that may seem more plausible at first glance, based on a soldier's own account (a December 2024 Haaretz-investigation), about the shooting of a Palestinian teenager near a restricted corridor in Gaza”. Sacerdoti frames this as an unfortunate series of accidents that led to a 16-year-old boy being accidentally killed for entering a restricted zone. Yet he fails to mention that the Haaretz Article 1 confirms that these lines marking the forbidden zones were „invisible borders” and „even soldiers serving in ambushes say it was not always clear where these lines were drawn.” The child was therefore killed after crossing a line that he may not have known about.
Sacerdoti omits the soldier's testimony from the Haaretzthat his unit reveled in using a ridiculous amount of force against the child — despite having no idea if he was armed: „We responded as if it was a big armed raid. We took up position and just fired. I think dozens of bullets, maybe more. We just shot the body for about a minute or two. People around me were shooting and laughing.”
While Sacerdoti says it was only after the shooting that Israeli forces learned that the victim was a child, this Haaretz article, which quotes the soldier as saying: "We went to the body, frozen in blood, took a picture and took the phone. It was just a boy, maybe 16 years old." Sacerdoti also omits that the Haaretz According to him, even after discovering that the dead child was a civilian, the unit justified the killing, and the commander falsely labeled the victim a "terrorist.".
„"Target shooting" theory
Sacerdoti also questions the expertise of the UN report. He writes: „A cited doctor speculates that Israeli soldiers used children for ‘target shooting’ and that they were hit, but this kind of speculation and guesswork is not evidence.” This is not just „speculation”; the doctor quoted on page 13 of the report comes to this conclusion „based on the clustering of injuries,” citing a „very clear pattern.”.
Nick Maynard, a British gastroenterologist surgeon who volunteered at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, told Channel 4 News in July 2025: „We saw multiple injuries, predominantly young teenage boys, some as young as 11, 12, 13, 14, who had been shot at food distribution points. And I hear the same story from every patient I’ve treated… they were shot by Israeli soldiers or quadcopters… and they were hit in multiple different parts of their bodies.”
The committee has published a damning report that draws a number of damning conclusions about the conduct of the Israeli military. All supporters of Israel have the right to respond. While Sacerdoti has made a fair – and valuable – attempt to clear the Israeli military of its terrible crimes, we believe the weight of evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. We have reached out to Sacerdoti to give him an opportunity to respond to our criticisms. No response has been received by the time this article goes to press.
Peter Oborne and Irfan Chowdhury
The UN report available here. We do not ask readers to take Sacerdoti's word, nor ours. We urge them to study it for themselves and draw their own conclusions.
