UN-mandated inquiry accuses Israel of "extermination" in the West Bank and says genocide in Gaza has continued; Israel rejects the findings

As of 1:42 p.m. ET, Oct. 26, 2026

A United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry said Monday that Israel has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence in the occupied West Bank, and that Israeli forces have continued to commit genocidal acts in Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire. Israel rejected the findings and called for the commission to be dissolved.

The findings come in a new report to the UN General Assembly by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, according to a statement from the UN human rights office (OHCHR). The three-member commission was set up by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 and does not speak for the UN itself, Al Jazeera and AFP reported. Its conclusions are findings by investigators, not a ruling by a court. The findings could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court or in other jurisdictions, The Associated Press reported.

What the commission says

In the West Bank, the commission said Israel, "through military operations reinforced by sustained settler violence," has waged a widespread and systematic attack against civilians since Oct. 7, 2023, and that Palestinians there are being targeted on the basis of their nationality, race and ethnicity, gender and age, according to OHCHR. The commission said Israeli authorities "intended to collectively punish" West Bank civilians over the Hamas attack, Al Jazeera and AFP reported.

The commission said six Palestinians were killed by airstrikes in the West Bank between 2008 and Oct. 6, 2023, compared with 254 between Oct. 7, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2026, according to OHCHR. It said military operations since January 2025 had caused the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967, with 34,176 people still displaced as of August 2026.

"The intentional killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians and destruction of homes in the West Bank combined with Israel's persistent denial of responsibility form part of a broader strategy to exterminate and displace Palestinians and impose conditions of life that are unliveable," the commission's chair, Srinivasan Muralidhar, said in the OHCHR statement.

In Gaza, the commission said Israeli authorities and forces "continue to commit genocidal acts even after the so-called ceasefire agreement," according to OHCHR. Since the ceasefire was signed in October 2025, Israeli forces have gone from controlling 53% of Gaza to at least 60%, and Israeli fire along the advancing front has killed at least 196 Palestinians, including 18 women, 32 boys and 11 girls, the commission said, according to AP. The commission first concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel rejects, Al Jazeera and AFP reported.

The report also describes accounts of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees by Israeli guards and soldiers. AP said it could not independently corroborate multiple graphic accounts in the report. The report also criticized the Palestinian Authority over violence against members of rival armed groups and repression of civilian and political opponents, and for failing to investigate such acts, the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA reported.

Israel rejects the report

Israel's mission in Geneva called for the commission's dissolution and said on X that the report was an example of the body's "misinformation campaign to demonize the state of Israel and portray its very existence as criminal," AP reported. "The international community must reject these distortions, repudiate the commission's findings and demand its immediate dissolution," the mission said, according to Al Jazeera and AFP.

"The attempt to destroy the Jewish state did not end in 1948. It continues today through the efforts of actors such as the UN Commission of Inquiry, which seeks to undermine Israel's legitimacy and deny its fundamental right to exist and to defend itself," Israel's ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, said, according to Keystone-SDA. Israel has long criticized the commission's work and denied accusations of genocide in Gaza and of sexual assault by its forces, AP reported.

Context

The report was released a day before Israel's general election on Tuesday, Al Jazeera, AFP and Keystone-SDA reported. The Gaza war began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to AP. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, AP reported.

The commission called on Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice's July 2024 advisory opinion, immediately end what it called the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, and remove all settlers and settlements, according to OHCHR.