Israel kept committing genocide in Gaza after truce: UN
GENEVA: Israel continued to commit genocide in Gaza after last October’s US-brokered ceasefire in the enclave, a UN commission said in a report that Israel dismissed as part of a “misinformation campaign”.
The report, published on Monday by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, examined violations against Palestinian civilians, including children, since Hamas’ raid on Oct 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent onslaught on Gaza, up to September this year.
It said Israeli authorities had kept committing “genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza”, and that the situation had also continued to deteriorate in the occupied West Bank.
Another report by the commission in September last year found that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, incited these acts — accusations that Israel called scandalous.
Inquiry finds continued use of heavy weapons, drones, artillery in densely populated areas
The Israeli mission in Geneva said the latest report was part of a “misinformation campaign to demonise 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.
The commission found that Israeli forces continued using heavy munitions, drones, quadcopters, artillery and sniper fire in densely populated areas during the ceasefire in Gaza.
It said the “Yellow Line”, which was presented as a temporary ceasefire demarcation, was encroaching increasingly into Gaza, and becoming a de facto border, which the report said reflected Israel’s expanding territorial control of Gaza.
Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
In its report to the UN General Assembly, the commission said the situation in the occupied West Bank had also deteriorated sharply, with the number of Palestinians killed in airstrikes increasing from six between 2008 and Oct 6, 2023, to 254 between Oct 7, 2023 and Sept 30, 2026.
The report said Israeli military operations, alongside sustained settler violence, formed part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population since Oct 7, 2023.
“The commission concludes that 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.”
Commenting on the report, the Israeli mission said the international community should reject what it described as distortions, and “repudiate the commission’s findings”.
Commission Chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said the intentional killing of Palestinian civilians and destruction of homes in the occupied West Bank formed part of a broader strategy to exterminate and displace Palestinians.
Military operations since January 2025 have led to the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967, with 34,176 Palestinians remaining displaced as of August 2026, the report said.
The commission also faulted the Palestinian Authority, saying it had targeted Palestinians who voice dissenting views and that journalists and human rights defenders had been killed and injured.
Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2026
