A United Nations commission of inquiry has accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank, including extermination, torture and rape, while also continuing \u201cto commit genocide in Gaza\u201d despite a ceasefire brokered by the United States.<\/p>\n
The report, published on Monday by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, examined killings and physical and mental harm inflicted by state actors from October 7, 2023, through September of this year.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
It was released the day before Israel\u2019s general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n The commission found that the situation in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, had \u201cdeteriorated gravely\u201d since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n It said Israeli military operations<\/a>, reinforced by sustained violence by settlers, amounted to a \u201cwidespread and systematic attack\u201d on civilians, and that Israeli authorities \u201cintended to collectively punish\u201d residents of the occupied West Bank for the Hamas-led attack on Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Israeli authorities and forces have committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence in the West Bank, as well as persecution based on intersecting discriminatory grounds, with nationality, race and ethnicity at its core,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n Extermination<\/p>\n The commission also found a sharp rise in deaths from air strikes in the territory.<\/p>\n Six Palestinians were killed in air attacks in the occupied West Bank from 2008 to October 6, 2023, it said, compared with 254 from October 7, 2023, to September 30, 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cThe intentional killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians and destruction of homes in the West Bank combined with Israel\u2019s persistent denial of responsibility form part of a broader strategy to exterminate and displace Palestinians and impose conditions of life that are unlivable,\u201d said Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n \u201cMeanwhile, Israel\u2019s expansion of territorial control in Gaza continues to result in the killing and harming of Palestinian civilians who approach or cross\u201d the so-called Yellow Line that demarcates Israeli-controlled areas in the enclave, he said.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s mission in Geneva called the report part of the commission\u2019s \u201cmisinformation campaign to demonize the State of Israel and portray its very existence as criminal\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe international community must reject these distortions, repudiate the commission\u2019s findings and demand its immediate dissolution,\u201d the mission said in a statement.<\/p>\n Continued genocide<\/p>\n The commission, which does not speak for the UN as a whole, first concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza during the war that followed the October 7 attacks. Israel has flatly rejected the UN commission\u2019s finding.<\/p>\n In its new report, the commission said Israeli forces had continued to commit \u201cgenocidal acts\u201d against Palestinians in Gaza despite the ceasefire brokered by the US last October, with attacks intended to \u201cdestroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part\u201d.<\/p>\n At least five Palestinians, including a seven-year-old girl, were killed<\/a> in Israeli air attacks across Gaza on Monday, according to medical officials there. The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 74,500 people have been killed in the genocidal war, which has displaced nearly all of the territory\u2019s population.<\/p>\n The report also examined abuses by Palestinian security forces. It found that the Palestinian Authority had targeted people who voiced dissent, and that the killing and wounding of journalists and human rights defenders had steadily narrowed space for civil society.<\/p>\n The three-member commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021.<\/p>\n Navi Pillay, a former South African High Court judge who led it until last November, won the Nobel Peace Prize this month.<\/p>\n West Bank lockdown<\/p>\n The report was released as Israeli forces carried out a crackdown<\/a> in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after a shooting near the city last week. Israel imposed a lockdown on Hebron on Friday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to extend it across the entire West Bank.<\/p>\n Later on Monday, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, condemned the Hebron operation. He said threats to empty and erase neighbourhoods raised \u201cserious concerns of ethnic cleansing\u201d.<\/p>\n According to Turk, the lockdown had already forcibly displaced more than 2,000 Palestinians, led to the demolition of homes and prevented residents from moving freely.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sweeping steps taken raise grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force \u2013 which must end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n