UN investigators accuse Israel of extermination in West Bank

United Nations investigators declared on Monday that Israel has committed crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank. The report identifies extermination, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence as key offenses. These findings suggest a pattern of systematic attacks on civilians in the territory.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued the document the day before Israeli voters head to the polls. The commission stated that Israeli military operations, supported by sustained settler violence, constitute a widespread and systematic attack. The panel noted that Israeli authorities intended to collectively punish West Bank civilians following the Hamas attack of October 2023.

Israel’s mission in Geneva rejected the findings. It described the report as part of a misinformation campaign aimed at demonizing the state. The mission urged the international community to repudiate the commission’s findings and demand its immediate dissolution. It argued that the report portrays Israel's very existence as criminal.

The three-member team was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021. Navi Pillay, the former South African High Court judge who chaired the investigation until November 2025, received the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month. The commission does not speak for the UN as a whole but operates under a specific mandate to investigate the occupied territory.

The report covers killings and bodily harm caused by both Israeli and Palestinian security forces since October 2023. It concludes that conditions in the West Bank have deteriorated gravely since that time. The commission previously determined in September 2025 that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel has flatly rejected.

The release of the report coincided with a military clampdown in Hebron. Israeli forces conducted expulsions and demolitions there following a gun attack last week. This action reflects the ongoing tensions in the region as the election approaches.

Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows that 1,143 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem between October 7, 2023, and October 9, 2026. At least 250 of those killed were children. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that more than 74,500 people have died in the military offensive on Gaza since the war began.