UN probe accuses Israel of 'extermination' in West Bank

Israel has committed the crime against humanity of "extermination" in the West Bank, while continuing to commit "genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza, United Nations-mandated investigators have said.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said Israeli forces had also committed other crimes against humanity and war crimes in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

The commission, which does not speak for the UN itself, first determined in a September 2025 report that Israel had committed "genocide" in the war in Gaza following Hamas's deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

In a new report, which comes the day before Israel's general election, the investigation found that in the West Bank, through military operations reinforced by sustained settler violence, Israel has waged a "widespread and systematic attack" against civilians.

"The Israeli authorities and forces have committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence in the West Bank, as well as persecution based on intersecting discriminatory grounds, with nationality, race and ethnicity at its core," it said.

Israel rejected the allegations, with its foreign ministry on X calling it "not a human rights report but a propaganda document detached from reality, aimed at undermining Israel's right to self-defence, delegitimising the Jewish state, and legitimising jihadist terrorism against its citizens".

The three-member investigative team was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021.

South African former High Court judge Navi Pillay, who chaired the investigation until November 2025, won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month.

The commission's new report focused on killings and bodily and mental harm caused by both Israeli and Palestinian security forces since October 2023.

It found that the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated gravely since the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas's attack from Gaza that month.

'Unliveable' conditions in West Bank

The commission found that the Israeli authorities "intended to collectively punish" West Bank civilians due to the Hamas attack.

"The targeting of Palestinian civilians across different locations in the West Bank indicates a high level of coordination and organised planning and is the product of state policy," the report said.

The conduct of Israeli authorities indicates that "they knew and intended settler violence" to be part of the widespread and systematic attack in the West Bank, it added.

"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," said commission chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar.

"Attempting to equate Palestinian statehood with a threat to the existence of Israel is blocking any viable attempts to realise Palestinians' right to self-determination," the Indian judge said in a statement.

The report cited cases where the commission concluded that Israeli forces intended to seriously harm and kill civilians, in acts which amount to war crimes including wilful killing.

Israeli forces 'continue to commit genocidal acts'

The Hamas attack in October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israeli attacks have displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza and killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

"The cases investigated for this report show that the Israeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza," the report said.

The inquiry urged Israel to "end the commission of genocide in Gaza" and act immediately on "obligations to prevent and punish genocide and incitement to genocide".

Israel should "immediately end the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory", and remove all settlers and settlements.

Palestinian Authority 'targets' dissenters - UN report

Turning to the Palestinian Authority, the report said that "Palestinian state violence has targeted and continues to target members of opposing Palestinian armed groups and repress Palestinian civil and political opposition".

The Palestinian Authority struggles with credibility and legitimacy, and "targets Palestinians who voice dissenting civil and political views... resulting in killings", it said.

"The Palestinian Authority has also failed to conduct prompt, effective and impartial investigations into incidents of killings."

There was no immediate reaction from the Palestinian Authority.

The commission was due to present its report to the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday.

'Ethnic cleansing' concerns over Israel's West Bank operation - UN

Meanwhile, the UN has warned that the Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, launched after a deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen, raises serious concerns of "ethnic cleansing".

The municipality in Hebron, the Palestinian territory's largest city, said in a statement that 3,189 people had been forced from their homes by the ongoing operation.

It followed Friday's attack in which two Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers at a checkpoint near the city, just days before the Israeli elections.

The gunmen were killed in a shootout.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged a major operation in response.

Israeli troops soon entered the Hebron neighbourhood of Ein Deir Baha, where the assailants lived and ordered residents to leave.

Israel's military told AFP it had arrested 40 people throughout the West Bank, including 20 in the Hebron area, after conducting searches in more than 400 sites since the start of the operation.

It added the operation "is expected to continue for several days" and would focus on the area where the attackers came from, Ein Deir Baha.

UN rights chief Volker Türk said that Israel's "aggressive operation" had resulted in "demolished homes and commercial property, and deprived residents of the ability to move freely".

"Those who have been displaced must be allowed to return home," he said in a statement.

"Threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing," he added.

Mr Türk said the "sweeping steps taken raise grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force - which must end".

He said the lockdown was confining many people to their homes and immediate neighbourhoods.

"Declarations by senior Israeli government officials indicate that the measures implemented are punitive in nature and designed to instil fear," he said, adding "this is unacceptable".

Mr Türk said: "Those who have been displaced must be allowed to return home.

"Israel must ensure compensation and reparation for unlawful evictions and demolitions, and associated displacement.

"Collective punishment is a grave violation of international law.

"Threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing."

Speaking earlier in Cairo, UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was deeply alarmed by Israeli actions in the West Bank.

"Evictions are unrelenting with Palestinians driven from their lands. Settler violence is surging," he said.

He added: "We are seeing an increasingly coercive environment, with the spectre of ethnic cleansing looming ever larger.

"This must end."

Mr Guterres said there could be no durable peace in the Middle East "without the realisation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination".