A United Nations investigation has concluded that Israel is committing crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank, including extermination, torture, rape and persecution, while continuing its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The findings are contained in a report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, submitted to the General Assembly this month.
The commission concluded that Israeli military operations and settler violence in the West Bank since October 2023 form part of a widespread and systematic attack against Palestinian civilians, driven by Israeli state policy.
It also accused Israeli authorities of deliberately targeting Palestinian children, using sexual violence as a weapon of war and pursuing a longstanding policy of seizing Palestinian land while reducing the Palestinian population.
The report states: “The Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and security forces have committed the crime against humanity of extermination against the civilian population in the West Bank since 7 October 2023.”
Investigators reached similar conclusions regarding torture, rape, other forms of sexual violence and persecution on the grounds of nationality, race and ethnicity.
Palestinian children deliberately targeted
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One of the report’s most disturbing findings concerns the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli forces.
The commission concluded that violence against children was not simply a consequence of military operations but formed part of an intentional pattern of persecution.
It states: “The Commission concludes that Israeli authorities and forces committed age-based persecution against Palestinian children in the West Bank, as they did in Gaza, which is a crime against humanity.”
The report documents several incidents in which unarmed Palestinians, including children and an infant, were allegedly deliberately killed despite posing no threat.
In one case, a seven-month-old baby was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier in Al Khaleel/Hebron in June 2026.
According to the investigation, video footage showed the baby’s father slowing down and stopping his vehicle near Israeli soldiers before raising his hands. Nevertheless, a soldier opened fire without warning, killing the baby and injuring both parents.
The Israeli military claimed the vehicle had accelerated towards soldiers, but the commission found that the available evidence contradicted this explanation.
In another incident in March 2026, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian mother, father and their two youngest sons inside a vehicle in the northern West Bank. Two older children survived but were subsequently assaulted by soldiers, according to the report.
Sexual violence and torture
The commission also documented further cases of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees, including rape, sexual humiliation and abuse.
In one incident at Megiddo prison in 2025, a male Palestinian detainee was allegedly gang raped with objects by prison guards while being mocked, photographed and threatened with further sexual violence. The victim suffered serious injuries and was denied medical treatment.
The commission also investigated cases involving Palestinian women subjected to invasive searches, forced nudity and degrading treatment.
It concluded that sexual violence was being used not merely against individual detainees but as part of a broader strategy to humiliate, punish and subjugate the Palestinian population.
The report states: “Sexual violence as a tactic of war has been used to displace, subjugate and destabilize the Palestinian people by humiliating and punishing on individual and collective levels.”
Investigators said the widespread impunity surrounding such crimes indicated tacit support from Israeli authorities.
Genocide continuing in Gaza
The report reaffirmed the commission’s previous conclusion that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
It found that Israeli forces continued carrying out genocidal acts even after the October 2025 ceasefire.
According to the report, more than 1,431 Palestinians were killed in Gaza between 10 October 2025 and 30 September 2026, including at least 300 children and 130 women.
Investigators also raised serious concerns about Israel’s expansion of territorial control through the so-called Yellow Line, which was initially presented as a temporary ceasefire boundary.
By September 2026, Israeli-controlled areas had expanded to at least 60% of Gaza, while the commission identified new military bases and other infrastructure suggesting the arrangements were becoming permanent.
The report found that Palestinians had been killed after approaching or crossing poorly marked military boundaries.
In one incident, 11 Palestinians, including seven children, were killed when Israeli forces attacked a vehicle approximately 120 metres outside the Yellow Line.
Satellite imagery examined by investigators contradicted the Israeli military’s reported claim that the vehicle had crossed the boundary.
Israeli policy dating back to the Nakba
The commission placed its findings within the wider history of Israel’s establishment in 1948 and the mass displacement of Palestinians during the Nakba.
It concluded that the expulsion of Palestinians and the seizure of their land were not isolated historical events but reflected policies that have continued across generations.
The report states: “Since the 1947-48 war, Israel has continuously striven to expand territorially and displace Palestinians through violence.”
Investigators described an enduring Israeli approach of acquiring the maximum amount of land while minimising the Palestinian population.
They linked this policy to statements by senior Israeli officials, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has publicly advocated maximising territorial control while minimising the number of Palestinians living under Israeli sovereignty.
The commission said these policies had contributed to a military culture in which Palestinian lives were routinely disregarded and civilians were treated as legitimate targets.
More than 75,000 Palestinians killed
According to the report, more than 75,000 Palestinians had been killed across the occupied Palestinian territories since 7 October 2023, including at least 21,500 children and 11,000 women.
In the West Bank alone, 1,080 Palestinians were killed and 10,940 injured between October 2023 and September 2026.
The commission found that Israeli authorities had failed to carry out effective investigations or provide remedies to victims’ families in the cases it examined.
Israel did not respond to two requests for information submitted by the commission.
The Israeli military has maintained that its operations are directed against security threats and Palestinian armed groups, while Israeli officials have argued that military actions in Gaza were responses to ceasefire violations.
However, the commission concluded that Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians was systematic, discriminatory and rooted in longstanding state policies.
