Fresh UN-commissioned findings have placed Israel under renewed international scrutiny, with investigators accusing Israeli forces of committing the crime against humanity of “extermination” in the occupied West Bank while continuing to carry out “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said Israeli forces had also perpetrated other crimes against humanity and war crimes in the West Bank, a territory Israel has occupied since 1967.
The body — which operates under a UN mandate but does not speak for the United Nations as a whole — first reached its “genocide” determination in a September 2025 report on Israel’s war in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
In its latest report, released a day before Israel’s general election, the commission said Israel has mounted a “widespread and systematic attack” against civilians in the West Bank, driven by military operations and bolstered by sustained violence by settlers.
“The 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,” the report said.
Israel dismissed the accusations. On X, its foreign ministry called the document “not a human rights report but a propaganda document detached from reality, aimed at undermining Israel’s right to self-defence, delegitimising the Jewish state, and legitimising jihadist terrorism against its citizens”.
The three-member investigative team was created by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021.
South African former High Court judge Navi Pillay, who led the investigation until November 2025, won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month.
The new report examines killings and physical and psychological harm attributed to both Israeli and Palestinian security forces since October 2023.
It said conditions in the West Bank have worsened sharply since Hamas’s October 2023 attack from Gaza.
Israeli forces interacting with press in the Farsh al-Hawa area of Hebron
‘Unliveable’ conditions in West Bank
Investigators said Israeli authorities “intended to collectively punish” West Bank civilians in response to the Hamas assault.
“The targeting of Palestinian civilians across different locations in the West Bank indicates a high level of coordination and organised planning and is the product of state policy,” the report said.
It added that the pattern of actions by Israeli authorities suggested “they knew and intended settler violence” would serve as part of the broader widespread and systematic attack in the West Bank.
“The intentional killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians and destruction of homes in the West Bank combined with Israel’s persistent denial of responsibility form part of a broader strategy to exterminate and displace Palestinians and impose conditions of life that are unliveable,” commission chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar said.
“Attempting to equate Palestinian statehood with a threat to the existence of Israel is blocking any viable attempts to realise Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” the Indian judge said in a statement.
The report detailed cases in which the commission said it concluded Israeli forces meant to cause severe harm and death to civilians — conduct it said amounts to war crimes, including wilful killing.
Israeli forces ‘continue to commit genocidal acts’
Hamas’s October 2023 attack left 1,221 people dead, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israeli attacks, the report noted, have driven nearly Gaza’s entire population from their homes and killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry — figures the UN considers reliable.
The aftermath of an Israeli attack in Khan Younis in Gaza earlier this month
“The cases investigated for this report show that the Israeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza,” the report said.
The inquiry called on Israel to “end the commission of genocide in Gaza” and to act immediately on its “obligations to prevent and punish genocide and incitement to genocide”.
It also said Israel should “immediately end the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory”, and dismantle all settlers and settlements.
Palestinian Authority ‘targets’ dissenters – UN report
The commission also levelled criticism at the Palestinian Authority, saying “Palestinian state violence has targeted and continues to target members of opposing Palestinian armed groups and repress Palestinian civil and political opposition”.
It said the Palestinian Authority faces a crisis of credibility and legitimacy and “targets Palestinians who voice dissenting civil and political views… resulting in killings”.
“The Palestinian Authority has also failed to conduct prompt, effective and impartial investigations into incidents of killings.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Palestinian Authority.
The commission is scheduled to present the report to the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday.
‘Ethnic cleansing’ concerns over Israel’s West Bank operation – UN
Separately, the UN warned that an Israeli military operation in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank, has prompted serious fears of “ethnic cleansing”. The operation began after a deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen.
Hebron’s municipality — the largest city in the Palestinian territory — said 3,189 people had been forced from their homes since the operation began.
The attack near Hebron happened on Friday
The move followed Friday’s attack in which two Palestinian gunmen shot dead two soldiers at a checkpoint near the city, just days ahead of Israel’s elections.
The two gunmen were later killed in a shootout.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a major operation in response.
Israeli forces then entered the Hebron neighbourhood of Ein Deir Baha — where the assailants lived — and ordered residents to leave, according to the account in the report.
Israel’s military told AFP it had detained 40 people across the West Bank — including 20 in the Hebron area — after carrying out searches at more than 400 sites since the start of the operation.
The army said the operation “is expected to continue for several days” and would concentrate on Ein Deir Baha, where the attackers came from.
UN rights chief Volker Türk said Israel’s “aggressive operation” had led to “demolished homes and commercial property, and deprived residents of the ability to move freely”.
“Those who have been displaced must be allowed to return home,” he said in a statement.
“Threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing,” he added.
Mr Türk said the “sweeping steps taken raise grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force – which must end”.
He said the lockdown was confining many people to their homes and immediate neighbourhoods.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said ‘settler violence is surging’
“Declarations by senior Israeli government officials indicate that the measures implemented are punitive in nature and designed to instil fear,” he said, adding “this is unacceptable”.
Mr Türk said: “Those who have been displaced must be allowed to return home.
“Israel must ensure compensation and reparation for unlawful evictions and demolitions, and associated displacement.
“Collective punishment is a grave violation of international law.
“Threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing.”
Speaking earlier in Cairo, UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was deeply alarmed by Israel’s actions in the West Bank.
“Evictions are unrelenting with Palestinians driven from their lands. Settler violence is surging,” he said.
He added: “We are seeing an increasingly coercive environment, with the spectre of ethnic cleansing looming ever larger.
“This must end.”
Mr Guterres said there could be no durable peace in the Middle East “without the realisation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.
