Tuesday 09 / June / 2026
Gaza: Palestinian civilians are "trapped" between the "mass atrocities" committed by Israel's security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, and the "fear-based rule of Hamas" in Gaza, a United Nations commission's inquiry released Tuesday has found.
Palestinians were being "systematically and deliberately subjected to severe violations of human rights law by all parties to the region's conflict," the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, said in a statement releasing its report.
The investigative team last year concluded that Israel had committed "genocide" during its war in Gaza, which began in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Israel is "primarily responsible" for the actions of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which Palestinians view as their future capital, the UN commission said in a press release.
Violence in the West Bank has spiked since October 2023. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,080 Palestinians, according to Palestinian Health Ministry data.
Israel says at least 46 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed by Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in that time.
"Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions," the statement said.
The UN accused Israel of allowing settler violence to function "as a means of implementing Israeli state policy" that seeks to entrench Israeli settlements in the West Bank, annex Palestinian territory and displace Palestinians from their land.
Israel accuses the UN commission of "systematic anti-Israel discrimination."
What did the report say about Palestinians civilians in Gaza?
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas and its affiliated forces are "responsible for acts committed by Palestinian militants" in the war-torn enclave.
Civilians in Gaza are being "violently repressed and controlled by the very faction that claims to govern them," the statement said.
"Hamas-affiliated forces have exploited the vacuum created by relentless Israeli attacks and widespread destruction of Gaza," said Srinivasan Muralidhar, the Commission's chair.
"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," Muralidhar added.
Over 72,000 Palestinians civilians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza health officials and the UN.
