The extrajudicial killing of Palestinian children in Gaza by Israeli soldiers is “systematic and widespread”, and intended to “destroy” the Palestinian people, a UN expert said.

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, made her comments following the release of video footage showing the execution-like shooting of a child in central Gaza by an Israeli drone, Al Jazeera reported.

The harrowing video clip captures the killing and then a missile attack on those who went to the child’s rescue.

“While these scenes are hard to process, it is important to understand that extrajudicial executions of Palestinian civilians – often children – are absolutely not isolated incidents,” Albanese wrote in a post on social media.

“These events represent a part of the systematic and widespread actions being carried out by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The rationale? The opportunity to target (and destroy) the Palestinians, which the State of Israel appears determined not to let slip away,” she said.