UN inquiry accuses Israel of extermination and torture in West Bank, reaffirms Gaza genocide finding

Gaza findings

The UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, set up by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 and led by Navi Pillay, said in a report published on Monday, 26 October, that a ceasefire signed in October 2025 has not stopped what it describes as genocide by Israel in Gaza. Since that agreement, the commission says Israeli forces have expanded from controlling 53% of the territory to at least 60%. Israeli fire along the advancing front has killed at least 196 Palestinians over that period, including 18 women, 32 boys and 11 girls.

October 2025 (ceasefire signed)53%

Commission report, 26 October 2026 (at least)60%

October 2025 (ceasefire signed)

53 %

Commission report, 26 October 2026 (at least)

60 %

Data from the article text

The commission first accused Israel of genocide in Gaza last year, and its new report says Israel keeps carrying out genocidal acts there, with intent to destroy Palestinians in whole or in part. The breakdown by group shows that women, boys and girls make up a significant share of those killed since the truce, according to the commission's figures.

Women18

Boys32

Girls11

Women

18 people

Boys

32 people

Girls

11 people

Data from the article text

West Bank accusations

The same report accuses Israeli authorities and forces of crimes against humanity in the West Bank, namely extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and persecution. The commission says these acts were committed on overlapping discriminatory grounds, centred on nationality, race and ethnicity. It also documents a sharp deterioration since 7 October 2023: six Palestinians had been killed by airstrikes between 2008 and 6 October 2023, while 254 were killed between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2026.

2008 to 6 October 2023 (airstrikes)6

7 October 2023 to 30 September 2026254

2008 to 6 October 2023 (airstrikes)

6 people

7 October 2023 to 30 September 2026

254 people

Data from the article text

The commission's documentation is meant to support accountability, and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court or in other jurisdictions could draw on it to pursue perpetrators.

Settlements and displacement

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and more than three million Palestinians live there alongside about 500,000 Israelis in settlements that international law considers illegal. Since the attacks of 7 October 2023, the number of settlement outposts has risen rapidly. On 4 September, the UN human rights office accused Israel of forcibly displacing more than 33,000 Palestinians from three West Bank camps at the start of 2025, raising the possibility of a crime against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

Detention allegations

The report describes graphic accounts of sexual assaults by prison guards and soldiers against Palestinian detainees since October 2023. One account describes female guards strip-searching a pregnant Palestinian woman. Another describes guards beating a female detainee and hurling sexist insults while denying her access to a toilet and sanitary pads. The accounts could not be independently corroborated. The commission documented six recent cases in which guards at the Sde Teiman military prison sexually abused male detainees from Gaza, including one case the report describes as rape.

Israel's response and timing

Israel has rejected the findings, with its ambassador in Geneva calling the report an attempt to destroy the Jewish state and deny its right to exist. Israeli authorities have previously dismissed the commission's genocide finding as false and antisemitic. The report was published just before Israel's legislative elections, scheduled for Tuesday, 27 October. Israel denies both the genocide and the sexual assault claims in the report.