A United Nations commission stated on Monday that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Territories. The findings focused predominantly on the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The document accused Israel of extermination, persecution, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. Investigators said these acts involved the intentional targeting of Palestinian civilians.
Report co-author Chris Sidoti spoke to journalists via video link at the UN in New York on Tuesday. He said political and military authorities in Israel were responsible for these crimes against humanity.
Sidoti said persecution was inflicted on the basis of gender and age, specifically targeting Palestinian children. He described this legal conclusion as the main addition to the body of analysis offered by the commission over the past five years.
Co-author Florence Mumba told reporters there is a broader strategy of authorities working alongside Jewish settlers in the West Bank. She described the effort as concerted and akin to ethnic cleansing.
Mumba said the aim of authorities and settlers is to seize as much land as possible. This is done by ill-treating Palestinians, killing them and their children, and using sexual violence.
Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar pointed to egregious examples of violence against civilians. The report found that 1,083 Palestinians were killed and 10,940 were injured by Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, 2023.
Muralidhar detailed specific incidents, including the death of a seven-month-old baby shot in the head by a soldier on June 6, 2026. He also cited the March 2026 killing of a family of four in a car within the Tubas governorate, and an eight-month pregnant woman shot twice in the back while fleeing the Nur Shams refugee camp on February 9, 2025.
Operations in the West Bank since June 2025 led to the largest displacement of Palestinians in the area since 1967. Muralidhar stated that airstrikes and land seizures displaced 34,176 people. The report also documented an increase in sexual violence against detainees, including forced nudity and cavity searches.
Muralidhar urged Israeli authorities to end land appropriations and return confiscated property to Palestinian owners. He called on UN member states to halt actions supporting illegal settlements and praised the UK and Netherlands for banning trade from those areas.
