UN Report Details Israeli Crimes Against Humanity in Palestine, Including Extermination, Rape, and Torture
The UN-mandated commission of inquiry found that Israel's genocidal acts are ultimately aimed at "blocking any viable attempts to realize Palestinians’ right to self-determination."
A United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry on Monday issued a report detailing Israeli crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories, while also affirming that Israel's genocide continues in Gaza, despite a nominal yearlong ceasefire.
"Israel has committed war crimes and the crimes against humanity of extermination, persecution, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, intentionally targeting Palestinian civilians as it continues to commit genocide in Gaza," the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a summary of the 19-page report.
"In Gaza... Israeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts even after the so-called ceasefire agreement, with the intent to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part," OHCHR saids of the report, which was authored by the UN-mandated Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
"Israeli forces have also deliberately killed and inflicted serious bodily and mental harm against children in the West Bank—as they have in Gaza—committing age-based persecution against Palestinian children," the report found. More than 21,500 Palestinian children, including over 1,000 infants, have been killed in Gaza over the past three years.
The commission documented cases of rape and sexual assault of Palestinians, including at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in Israel, where, according to the report, a prisoner "was raped with a stick and forced to insert it into his mouth until he vomited."
Previous reporting, including by The New York Times, detailed sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, including one man who died after allegedly being sodomized by an electric baton.
The commission's report also affirmed that Israeli forces sexually abused Global Sumud Flotilla activists who were seized upon the high seas and abducted to Israel, including one male activist who was raped with a metal detector.
The report comes as Israeli forces intensify a military lockdown and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, including expulsions and home demolitions in Hebron, following the killing of two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers by Palestinians resisting the nearly half-century occupation, and ahead of Tuesday's Israeli elections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—is trying to shore up support for his far-right coalition ahead of the elections. Netanyahu and other senior officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have vowed to annex parts or all of the West Bank and to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
Netanyahu and members of his Cabinet have also said that Israel is planning to launch the biggest military operation in the West Bank since it was captured and occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War. Both the occupation and colonization of the West Bank are illegal under international law.
More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. Roughly 1.9 million others have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times. Israel's conduct in Gaza is the subject of a genocide case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. A ruling is not expected until at least 2029.
The new report shows how the scale of deadly violence has increased dramatically in the West Bank. Six Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes there between 2008 and October 6, 2023, compared with 254 killed in aerial bombardments between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2026.
OCHCR has documented 1,143 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and October 9, 2026. At least 250 of those killed were children.
“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,” Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the commission of inquiry, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, Israel’s expansion of territorial control in Gaza continues to result in the killing and harming of Palestinian civilians."
The commission also faulted the Palestinian Authority for targeting Palestinians for voicing dissent to its policies and actions and for its failure "to conduct effective and impartial investigations into incidents of killings and to ensure effective remedy, including financial compensation to victims and their family members."
The report found that Israel's actions ultimately are designed to thwart any possibility of an independent Palestinian state.
“Seizing maximum land while minimizing the Palestinian population in relation to size, autonomy, and viability stems from Israel’s colonizing policies and is rooted in historical practices and patterns of action, resulting in the excessive and discriminatory application of lethal force, displacing, injuring, and killing Palestinians over generations,” said Muralidhar.
“Attempting to equate Palestinian statehood with a threat to the existence of Israel is blocking any viable attempts to realize Palestinians’ right to self-determination," he added.
Israeli settlers set fire to a house and attack Palestinians in Turmus 'Ayya, a town in the illegally occupied West Bank, on October 19, 2026. (Photo by Avishay Mohar/Facebook)
