GENEVA - Palestinian civilians are being systematically and deliberately subjected to severe violations of human rights law by all parties to the region's conflict, trapped between Israeli forces and settlers on one side and the fear-based rule of Hamas on the other, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a new report today.
The report to the UN Human Rights Council concluded that the State of Israel is primarily responsible for actions of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, while Hamas-affiliated forces are responsible for acts committed by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
"Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions, whereas Hamas-affiliated forces have exploited the vacuum created by relentless Israeli attacks and widespread destruction of Gaza," said Srinivasan Muralidhar, Chair of the Commission. "What is alarmingly similar is the deliberate infliction of suffering on Palestinian civilians. While their origins and motivations differ, both operate within environments engineered by Israel."
Settler attacks against Palestinians continue to increase. In 2025 at least seven Palestinians were killed and 832 Palestinians were injured. This marks a 130 per cent increase in killings and injuries over the year 2024. This trend continues in 2026 with attacks carried out on a daily basis.
The report found that Israeli authorities are directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, caused physical and mental harm, and displaced Palestinian communities. Israeli authorities have enabled such attacks through financial and military support while Israeli judicial and law enforcement authorities have granted impunity for settler violence for decades.
The Commission found that settler violence in the West Bank functions as a means of implementing Israeli State policy, with the State and violent settler groups and individuals working towards the same strategic objectives, including the maintenance of the unlawful occupation, the entrenchment of illegal Israeli settlements, the annexation of Palestinian territory and the displacement of Palestinians from their land.
Settlers have assaulted, abducted and abused Palestinian children while they were engaged in activities such as playing, going to school, or tending to animals and fields. The deliberate targeting of children in such circumstances is particularly egregious as it results in immediate physical and mental harm and also in long term psychological impacts, disrupting children's education, preventing freedom of movement and undermining their basic sense of security.
The Commission found that settlers committed or threatened to commit sexual violence against Palestinians with the aim of instilling fear and humiliation. Settlers' harassment and intimidation of Palestinian women and girls drastically limit their day-to-day activities, inhibit their access to public spaces, such as schools and work, and decrease their possibilities of escaping abusive situations, such as intimate partner violence.
"The relentless, daily assaults by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are intolerable - and must end. Israel must stop supporting this violence and ensure that its security forces safeguard the Palestinian civilian population," said Muralidhar. "The international community must exert concerted pressure on Israel to fulfil its obligations under international law and to take immediate decisive action to dismantle settlements and outposts, and end settler violence once and for all."
In Gaza, the Commission identified 249 cases of executions and severe physical violence in 2024-2025, resulting in at least 108 deaths and 384 injured. The Commission found that Hamas-affiliated forces were involved in at least 60 of these incidents, including two public executions of 11 men. These acts amount to the war crimes of murder and torture, and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law.
"The Commission is gravely alarmed by the severity and public nature of Hamas' punitive measures in Gaza, which inflict profound trauma on an already severely traumatized civilian population," said Muralidhar. "Any future framework for peace and stability in Gaza must include a clear and enforceable commitment to accountability."
The report also found a notable increase in the killing and harming of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups and Palestinian individuals in 2023, raising serious concerns that such attacks violate the principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.
Many of the measures imposed by Israel in response to attacks, including the recently passed death penalty law, are incompatible with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and may amount to international crimes.
The Commission's report will be presented to the Human Rights Council's 62nd session on 15 June 2026 in Geneva.
Read the full report in English or Arabic.
