Its October 26 report classifies extermination, torture, rape, other sexual violence and persecution as crimes against humanity; Israel’s mission rejects the findings.
A UN investigative commission found in an 26 October 2026 report that Israeli authorities and forces committed crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank. It classified extermination, torture, rape, other forms of sexual violence and persecution based on grounds centered on nationality, race and ethnicity as crimes against humanity.
The commission said Israeli military operations, reinforced by sustained settler violence, formed a widespread and systematic attack on civilians. It also found that Israeli authorities intended to collectively punish West Bank civilians because of the Hamas attack from Gaza in October 2023.
Al Jazeera said the report examined killings and bodily and mental harm caused by Israeli and Palestinian security forces since October 2023. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The three-member commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021; its findings do not speak for the UN as a whole.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counted 1,143 Palestinians killed in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, from 7 October 2023, through 9 October 2026. At least 250 were children.
The commission previously found in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel rejects. The October 26 report concerns the West Bank.
Israel’s mission in Geneva rejected the West Bank report as part of what it called a campaign to demonize Israel. It urged the international community to repudiate the findings and demand the commission’s dissolution.
The United Farm Workers co-founder died at home in Bakersfield on 28 October 2026. She helped negotiate the first farmworker health and benefit plans; her family plans to follow up on a commemoration.
Also on 26 October, UN human rights commissioner Volker Türk separately warned that Israeli measures in Hebron raised serious concerns of ethnic cleansing. His warning concerned an ongoing operation in the city, not the commission’s report.
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