Gaza ceasefire hasn't stopped Israel committing genocide, UN inquiry finds

Israel has continued to commit genocide in Gaza since last October's ceasefire, a United Nations commission has found.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry also found Israeli forces had committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence.

The report, released the day before Israel's general election, said the country's forces had targeted Palestinians in Gaza and that the situation in the West Bank had "deteriorated gravely" since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel.

It also comes as Israel presses on with a massive military operation in the West Bank city of Hebron, which has displaced more than 3,000 people, according to municipal authorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the operation after Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers on Friday, local time.

The war in Gaza started after Hamas-led attacks on Israel in 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

Israel responded with a campaign that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of Gaza's population, according to its health ministry.

Last September the UN commission, chaired at the time by 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Navi Pillay, found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel rejected the report, labelling it "distorted and false", and has continuously denied allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In June the commission released another report accusing Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, which Israel condemned as full of "errors and distortions".

In the West Bank

The report released overnight mainly focused on the actions of Israeli forces since October 2023, but also found "sustained settler violence" in the West Bank had formed part of Israel's "widespread and systemic attack" against Palestinian people.

The report said 254 Palestinians had been killed by air strikes in the West Bank between October 7, 2023 and the end of September this year. That compares to six deaths by air strikes from 2008 until the October 7 attacks, the commission found.

It found that sexual violence had been used to displace Palestinian people, while accusing Israeli forces of deliberately killing and injuring children in the West Bank.

Military operations since January last year have led to the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967, with more than 34,000 Palestinians displaced as of August, the report said.

Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said Israel's actions in the West Bank were part of "a broader strategy to exterminate and displace Palestinians" while imposing "unliveable" conditions in the area.

Israel's foreign ministry said the report was "a propaganda document detached from reality" and accused it of "delegitimising the Jewish state and legitimising jihadist terrorism against its citizens".

The Israeli mission in Geneva said the latest report was part of a "misinformation campaign to demonize the State of Israel".

"The attempt to destroy the Jewish state … continues today through efforts by actors such as the UN Commission of Inquiry to undermine Israel's legitimacy and deny its fundamental right to exist and defend itself," ambassador Daniel Meron said in a statement.

Mr Muralidhar said Israel's "excessive and discriminatory application of lethal force" against Palestinians over generations stemmed from its "colonising policies".

"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," he said.

In Gaza

The report found Israeli authorities had continued to commit "genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza", since the commission made its first accusation of genocide in September 2025.

It said much of the killing and harm was a direct result of Israel's expansion into Gaza.

When the ceasefire was declared in October 2025, the IDF held roughly 51 per cent of the territory — the boundary of that was referred to as the "Yellow Line".

The report said that line had become a "steadily encroaching de facto border", rather than a temporary ceasefire demarcation, and that Israeli-controlled areas had expanded to at least 60 per cent of Gaza.

From the ceasefire signing until early April, at least 196 Palestinians — including 43 children — had been killed near the Yellow Line, the commission said.

It found that Israeli forces continued using heavy munitions, drones, quadcopters, artillery and sniper fire in densely populated areas during the truce.

The commission also made findings against the Palestinian Authority, which oversees parts of the West Bank, saying its targeting of Palestinians with dissenting views including journalists and human rights defenders had resulted in killings.

Mr Muralidhar said despite "an increase in unnecessary and disproportionate" force since the October 7 attacks, the authority had failed to properly investigate the killings.

There was no immediate reaction from the Palestinian Authority.