Israel has strongly rejected a new United Nations report that claims the country continued to commit genocide in Gaza even after a ceasefire began last October. The report comes from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and covers events from the start of the war on October 7, 2023, up to September this year.
According to the commission, Israeli authorities kept carrying out genocidal acts with the clear intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, either fully or in part. The situation in the occupied West Bank also grew worse during the same period. A previous report by the same body last September had already accused Israel of genocide and claimed that top officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had encouraged these actions. Israel called those earlier findings scandalous.
The Israeli mission in Geneva described the latest report as part of a misinformation campaign aimed at demonising the Jewish state. Ambassador Daniel Meron said the effort to undermine Israel’s right to exist and defend itself continues through bodies like this UN commission.
The report states that Israeli forces kept using heavy munitions, drones, artillery and sniper fire in crowded civilian areas even during the ceasefire. It also noted that the so-called Yellow Line, originally presented as a temporary demarcation, is steadily moving deeper into Gaza and turning into a de facto border. This, the commission said, shows Israel’s expanding control over the territory.
Palestinian authorities report that more than 74,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began, following the Hamas-led attack that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. In the West Bank, the commission found a sharp rise in Palestinian deaths from airstrikes and said Israeli military operations together with settler violence form a widespread attack on civilians. It concluded that Israeli forces committed crimes against humanity including extermination, torture and persecution based on nationality, race and ethnicity.
Commission Chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said the killing of civilians and destruction of homes form part of a broader plan to displace Palestinians. Military operations since early 2025 have caused the largest displacement in the West Bank since 1967. The commission also criticised the Palestinian Authority for targeting critics and noted that journalists and human rights workers have been killed or injured.
Israel has urged the international community to reject the report’s conclusions and stand against what it calls distortions of the facts.
