UN inquiry accuses Israel of crimes against humanity in the West Bank

A United Nations inquiry panel has accused Israeli forces and authorities of carrying out crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank, detailing allegations that include extermination, torture, and sexual violence.

The findings, presented in a report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, covered events between October 7, 2023, and September 2026. The three-member panel determined that conditions across the West Bank experienced severe deterioration following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel. According to the inquiry, Israeli state operations, alongside ongoing settler violence, functioned as a coordinated and widespread campaign against the civilian population.

The investigators concluded that Israeli authorities intended to collectively punish West Bank residents. The panel stated that actions by Israeli forces amounted to persecution based on discriminatory grounds such as race, ethnicity, and nationality, alongside serious crimes including rape and torture.

The inquiry drew attention to a substantial escalation in deadly air strikes in the territory. While six Palestinians were killed by aerial bombardment in the West Bank between 2008 and early October 2023, the death toll from air attacks surged to 254 over the subsequent three-year period. Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar stated that civilian deaths, injuries, and property destruction formed part of an overarching strategy aimed at exterminating and displacing Palestinians while rendering life unlivable.

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva dismissed the document, describing it as a distorted campaign intended to delegitimize the country. The mission urged the international community to discard the panel's conclusions and called for the body to be dissolved.

The report also assessed the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, asserting that genocidal acts have persisted despite a truce arranged by the United States. According to health authorities in Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians have lost their lives in the fighting, which has displaced most of the enclave's residents. Additionally, the commission investigated the Palestinian Authority, noting that its security forces had suppressed political dissent and restricted civic freedoms through the mistreatment of journalists and rights monitors.

The release of the report coincided with an extensive Israeli security operation in Hebron following a recent shooting incident. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk criticized the resulting measures, warning that the confinement and forced movement of more than 2,000 residents, along with home demolitions, constituted unlawful collective punishment. Turk warned that threats to clear local neighborhoods raised deep concerns regarding potential ethnic cleansing and insisted that affected residents must receive reparations and be permitted to return.