Gaza ceasefire has not stopped Israeli 'genocidal acts', UN commission says

<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/10/26/live-israel-election-benjamin-netanyahu/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/10/26/live-israel-election-benjamin-netanyahu/">Israel</a> continues to commit atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza despite a year-old ceasefire, UN investigators said on Monday, as they also accused the Israeli military of <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/search/?query=war+crimes" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/search/?query=war+crimes">war crimes</a> and crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank.

The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/10/16/un-secretary-general-race-grynspan/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/10/16/un-secretary-general-race-grynspan/">UN</a> Independent International Commission of Inquiry said Israel was “continuing to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza”. Since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, Israeli forces have expanded their territorial control from 53 per cent of <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/2026/10/25/two-uae-convoys-carrying-260-tonnes-of-aid-arrive-in-gaza/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/2026/10/25/two-uae-convoys-carrying-260-tonnes-of-aid-arrive-in-gaza/">Gaza</a> to at least 60 per cent, the commission said.

Israeli fire along the advancing front has killed at least 196 Palestinians, including 43 children, during that period, according to the report. “Israel’s expansion of territorial control in Gaza continues to result in the killing and harming of Palestinian civilians who approach or cross the Yellow Line,” commission chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar said. More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the year since the ceasefire, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The yellow line marks the border between areas under Israeli military control and the rest of the Gaza Strip, under the ceasefire agreement. The report, submitted to the UN General Assembly, also accused Israeli authorities of committing crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank, including extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence. Investigators said Israeli military operations, reinforced by settler violence, amounted to a widespread and systematic attack on Palestinian civilians.

“The targeting of Palestinian civilians across different locations in the West Bank indicates a high level of co-ordination and organised planning and is the product of state policy,” the report said. The commission found that Israeli air strikes killed 254 Palestinians in the West Bank between October 2023 and September 2026, compared with six between 2008 and October 2023. It also documented the displacement of more than 34,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, describing it as the largest displacement in the territory since 1967.

The findings come amid growing international scrutiny of Israel's military operations and its conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories. The three-member commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate alleged breaches of international law in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Its findings could be used as evidence in future international criminal proceedings, although the commission itself has no power to prosecute alleged perpetrators. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2025/07/15/navi-pillay-israel-un-resigns/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2025/07/15/navi-pillay-israel-un-resigns/">Navi Pillay</a>, a former South African High Court judge who led the investigation until November 2025, won the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/europe/2026/10/09/navi-pillay-wins-nobel-peace-prize-for-promoting-international-law/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/europe/2026/10/09/navi-pillay-wins-nobel-peace-prize-for-promoting-international-law/">Nobel Peace Prize </a>earlier this month.

Israel rejected the findings. Its mission in Geneva called for the commission to be dissolved, accusing it in a statement on social media of conducting a “misinformation campaign to demonise the state of Israel and portray its very existence as criminal.” Israel has long challenged the commission’s findings and has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide in Gaza and sexual violence by its forces.