Israel has continued committing genocidal acts against Palestinian civilians in Gaza even while the ceasefire agreement has been in force, and is committing crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank, a report by UN human rights experts published on Monday alleges.
The UN’s independent commission of inquiry noted that Israel is holding its first general election since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. The report, released on the eve of the vote, examines the causes of violence by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the commission said. It alleges that Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children and using torture, rape and sexual violence as part of a wider plan to displace and subjugate the Palestinian population.
Israel immediately rejected the allegations.
The report, presented to the UN General Assembly, says Israeli air strikes, shelling and gunfire killed 1,431 Palestinians in Gaza between the ceasefire of October 10, 2025, and the end of September 2026, 300 of them children. It rejects the claim made in May by the Board of Peace, set up at the initiative of US President Donald Trump, that the ceasefire was “broadly holding”.
The independent commission is made up of three human rights experts. Until the International Court of Justice in The Hague rules on South Africa’s genocide case over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, the commission’s combined findings are regarded as the most authoritative legal analysis on the question.
In a statement with the report, the commission’s chair, Indian lawyer Srinivasan Muralidhar, said: “The deliberate killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians and the destruction of homes in the West Bank, together with Israel’s persistent denial of responsibility, are part of a wider strategy to eliminate and displace Palestinians and push them into conditions in which they cannot live.”
The commission’s other two members are Chris Sidoti, an Australian expert in international human rights law who has served since the commission was set up in 2021, and Zambian judge Florence Mumba, who served on the international criminal tribunals set up to investigate war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Citing a series of Israeli air strikes, shelling and sniper attacks in Gaza, the commission said these show that the Israeli authorities and forces “continue to commit genocidal acts with genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza in whole or in part”.
Israel’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva called the report “misinformation” and an attempt to demonise Israel.
Israel’s ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, condemned what he called efforts by bodies such as the UN commission of inquiry “to delegitimise Israel and deny its fundamental right to exist and defend itself”.
Allegations of abuse of children and sexual violence
The UN panel first accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza war in September 2025. The commission was then led by Navi Pillay, who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The new report says the Israeli government and security forces have deliberately caused death, serious bodily harm and mental harm to Palestinian children, acts the commission calls “age-based persecution”.
It says that since its March 2025 report on sexual violence, the commission has verified further cases of sexual violence against people detained from Gaza and the West Bank, including gang rape, sexual touching, forced nudity and invasive body searches.
The commission also investigated two cases of sexual violence against participants in a flotilla of about 50 boats seized in the Mediterranean while trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
The panel said Israeli forces’ use of lethal force against Palestinians in the West Bank is also increasing, with 1,080 Palestinians killed there since the ceasefire agreement.
This month, medics carried away on a stretcher a local council member wounded by Israeli troops’ gunfire in the West Bank village of Abu Falah.
Violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has risen sharply. But by the commission’s count, Israeli security forces were responsible for 95 percent of Palestinian deaths and 82 percent of injuries in the period.
The commission said the combined effect of Israeli military operations and settler violence amounts to “a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of the West Bank”, constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It said the targeting of children by security forces and settlers was deliberate and part of the attack on the civilian population.
More than 34,000 Palestinians displaced in the West Bank
The report says more than 34,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes by Israeli military operations between January 2025 and August 2026.
The commission said this is the largest displacement of Palestinians in the territory since Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The report also makes allegations against the Palestinian Authority, which runs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It says the authority used excessive force, causing deaths, in large operations targeting Palestinians wanted by Israel, operations coordinated with the Israeli authorities.
At least 14 Palestinians were killed in these operations, carried out over about two years up to October 2025, the commission said. The report adds that the Palestinian Authority cracked down on criticism of the operations, targeting journalists and human rights defenders to suppress dissent.
Palestine’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, said: “We are committed to upholding the rule of law and human rights in law enforcement, in particular freedom of expression and the right of journalists and human rights defenders to do their work. Action will be taken against any misconduct.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report