‘There are risks’: Ex-India judge behind damning UN report on Gaza children
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- Srinivasan Muralidhar chairs the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry that found Israel 'deliberately targeted and killed' Palestinian children, documenting at least 20,179 child deaths — nearly 30% of all Palestinian fatalities — between October 2023 and October 2025.
- The 94-page report also recorded more than 44,000 children injured, an estimated 58,000 orphaned, and patterns of sniper and precision-drone strikes on children, aid blockades fuelling starvation, and systematic targeting of maternity and neonatal facilities.
- The commission recommended UN member states halt arms transfers to Israel that 'have involved or could involve the commission of genocide' and arrest ICC-wanted Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the report in its entirety, calling it a 'libellous sham' and accusing the UN commission of ignoring Hamas's 'cynical use of Palestinian children as human shields' — a claim Muralidhar dismissed as a 'myth.'
- Muralidhar's own career includes convicting 16 police personnel for the 1987 Hashimpura custodial killings of over 40 Muslim men and life-imprisoning Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots; in 2020 the Indian government transferred him overnight, allegedly to stop him from acting against a BJP politician.
- Under PM Modi since 2014, India has become Israel's most reliable arms buyer, purchasing 37% of its exports; the Adani Group runs a Hyderabad joint venture with Israel's Elbit Systems manufacturing Hermes 900 drones and acquired Israel's largest port in Haifa in January 2023.
- Muralidhar extended liability beyond states, telling Al Jazeera that 'conflict liability … falls on any state or company whose trade or technology ends up sustaining a war, wherever that war is being fought.'
Why it matters: An Indian jurist is now calling for an arms embargo against Israel while India simultaneously accounts for 37% of Israeli arms exports and operates a Modi-linked joint venture manufacturing Hermes 900 drones — putting Delhi's 'most reliable buyer' status in direct tension with the accountability framework a retired Indian judge is asking the world to enforce.
