A joint report released by 12 Israeli human rights groups says 2025 has been the most “deadly and destructive” year for Palestinians since 1967, with Israel doubling its killings and displacement of civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The statement, issued on Tuesday 2 December, said Palestinian suffering has reached its worst recorded levels, according to official figures.
“Violations that were considered exceptional at the start of the war became part of daily practice,” the groups said.
Israel’s two-year genocide in Gaza, combined with intensified killings, kidnappings and forced displacement in the occupied West Bank, formed the basis for concluding that 2025 was the “deadliest and most destructive year” for Palestinians.
The report was issued by Bimkom (Planners for Planning Rights), Gisha, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, HaMoked (Center for the Defence of the Individual), Yesh Din, Combatants for Peace, Ir Amim, Emek Shaveh, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Breaking the Silence, and Torat Tzedek, all of which are known for documenting human rights abuses against Palestinians.
While 2023 and especially 2024 were devastating, the report said “the outcomes in 2025 reveal a sharp deterioration, with the death toll nearly doubling, displacement becoming common almost across the entire enclave, and hunger becoming a cause of mass death.” The groups added: “Violations that were considered exceptional at the start of the war became part of daily practice.”
Figures released by the groups show that the death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza reached more than 36,000 in March 2024 and rose to 67,173 by October 2025. More than 20,000 children and around 10,000 women were killed — nearly half of all casualties — and an estimated 10,000 bodies remain under the rubble. The number of wounded surpassed 170,000 but is believed to be significantly higher.
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Displacement and starvation
The report said 1.9 million people in Gaza were displaced in 2025 — around 90% of the population, up from one million in 2024. Many were displaced repeatedly, in some cases five or six times, as neighbourhoods and key civilian infrastructure collapsed.
The Israeli-engineered famine also deepened the crisis. The groups said 461 people died from starvation by October 2025, including 157 children. A further 2,306 Palestinians were killed and 16,929 injured while waiting for aid deliveries in what the groups called a “daily tragedy,” arguing the Israeli army had made it part of its wartime strategy.
The 1967 Arab-Israeli war resulted in Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, the Syrian Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, triggering mass displacement of an estimated 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians.
Settler violence and detainees
The occupied West Bank also saw a major rise in settler violence. Around 1,200 attacks by illegal settlers were recorded between 2023 and 2024. In 2025, the situation escalated further as 44 Palestinian herding communities were fully displaced and 10 were partially emptied, displacing 2,932 Palestinians, including 1,326 children.
More than 1,085 Palestinians were killed and 10,700 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers, as well as over 20,500 arrests.
The number of Palestinians held without charge rose from 1,000 in 2023 to 3,577 in 2025 — three times the pre-war average. At least 98 Palestinians died in Israeli custody due to torture, denial of medical treatment and inhumane detention conditions. Abuses included beatings, torture, starvation and sexual assault.
The groups said: “2025 revealed a reality previously unimaginable: a state operating without limits, systematically violating international law, dismantling the very values it claims to uphold. Israel cannot claim morality or self-defence.”
