In a June 25 CityNews segment (“UN Report Accuses Israel Over Gaza Children,” journalist Brandon Rowe treated a controversial United Nations commission’s allegations against Israel as credible news rather than outrageous claims that deserved little attention.

Watch the full segment below:

In his two-minute report on Gaza, Rowe aired claims that Israel deliberately targeted children and committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. At the same time, he gave viewers almost no context to evaluate these claims, such as Hamas’ disregard for Palestinian lives, the unreliability of Gaza casualty claims, or the record of the UN commission making the accusation.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory may sound like a neutral and authoritative body. Viewers were not told that the commission has faced longstanding criticism over its mandate and inherent bias against Israel. Most UN commissions investigate a particular event over a defined period of time. But this commission was given an open-ended mandate: permanent scrutiny of Israel.

Despite this, Rowe opened with the commission’s central accusation – that Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian children – as if it were a serious finding by a reputable, neutral body. He used a clip from chair Srinivasan Muralidhar claiming that the commission had found “indisputable evidence” of the “deliberate, targeted killing of Palestinian children.” Muralidhar was appointed after the commission’s original members resigned in 2025, following years of controversy over bias and alleged antisemitic rhetoric by its members.

Rowe let Muralidhar’s phrase “indisputable evidence” do all the work while sharing none of that evidence. He even amplified claims that killing children was part of a pattern by Israel “that amounts to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.” Most significantly, he included no discussion of Hamas using the ceasefire to rearm while using children and civilian spaces as shields.

Rowe also aired a claim by former commission member Chris Sidoti, himself repeatedly accused of minimizing antisemitism, saying that Israeli authorities “need to be held accountable.” Israel does not target Palestinian children. It targets Hamas terrorists and military infrastructure embedded inside civilian areas, a reality Rowe largely left out while airing the commission’s most inflammatory claim.

Rowe also quoted Gaza resident Rana Yassin saying, “there’s absolutely no such thing as a ceasefire,” and “Every day there are massacres.” Video footage showed suffering in Gaza, but emotional testimony should not substitute for legal or military context amid such serious allegations against Israel. Since the ceasefire, Israel’s operations have largely targeted imminent threats, terrorist leaders, and ceasefire violations, including 17 documented operations during June 2026. The “assassinations” that Yassin mentioned likely refer to targeted strikes against armed Hamas operatives.

Despite having airtime for these three voices condemning Israel, Rowe included no clips of experts evaluating these claims from an Israeli perspective. He did briefly state that Israel “strongly rejects the findings” of the commission. Later, he acknowledged that Israel had called attention to Hamas’ brutal tactics in its rebuttal. But he didn’t mention what those tactics actually were.

Instead of presenting any Israeli voices, Rowe actually broadened the indictment. He aired Muralidhar’s claim that “settler violence in the West Bank” is part of Israel’s “unlawful territorial expansion.” That is a sweeping accusation of coordinated state-backed violence.

Rowe offered no evidence that these incidents reflected Israeli state policy. Nor did he provide any explanation of why it belonged in a report about Gaza children.

But here, too, Rowe left out the broader context. Judea and Samaria, Israel’s historical heartland, are themselves major arenas of Palestinian terrorist activity, weapons trafficking, armed cells, and attacks against Israelis. Treating Israelis as the primary source of violence in the area erases the security reality Israel faces every single day.

Rowe has previously produced what we consider heavily slanted Gaza coverage for CityNews. Past reports have relied heavily on unverified Palestinian claims while giving limited attention to Hamas’s role or Israel’s security needs.