Eurasia Press & News
The UN has called on Israel to prevent “acts of genocide” in Gaza and raised concerns over “ethnic cleansing” across the Palestinian enclave and the occupied West Bank. A new UN report has confirmed that Israel has committed “serious violations of international humanitarian law” which “may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes”.
Gaza Genocide
A new report investigating Israel’s conduct in the war on Gaza up until May 2025 and published by the UN Human Rights Office on Monday concluded that Israel has committed “serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in many cases may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes”.
Several investigations, including those by the UN, Amnesty International, B’Tselem and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have concluded that Israel’s war on Gaza constituted genocide, with over 72,700 Palestinians have been killed since 2023.
The UN report said while the Israeli army was seeking the return of “hostages” and some attacks hit military targets, many of these killings were “unlawful”.
Now, despite the US-backed ceasefire which took effect in October 2025, Israel continues its attacks on Gaza, killing hundreds and also restricting the entry of much-needed aid.
Israel has drastically escalated its attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip in the five weeks since halting its joint bombing with the United States of Iran, redirecting its firepower to the devastated Palestinian enclave.
Conflict monitor ACLED, which tracks Israeli attacks in Gaza, said in a report on Wednesday that Israel had carried out 35 percent more attacks in April than in March.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 120 Palestinians, including eight women and 13 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the US-Israel war on Iran halted on April 8, a 20 percent increase compared with the five weeks prior when Israel was striking Iran.
Israeli forces still occupy more than half of Gaza’s territory, where they have demolished many of the remaining buildings and forced out all residents. More than two million people now live in a tiny strip of territory along the coast, mostly in damaged structures or makeshift tents.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called upon Israel to “prevent the commission of acts of genocide”, to ensure displaced Palestinians are allowed to return home, and to “end its unlawful presence in the Palestinian territory”.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called upon Israel to “prevent the commission of acts of genocide”, to ensure displaced Palestinians are allowed to return home, and to “end its unlawful presence in the Palestinian territory”.
Concerning the current situation, Ajith Sunghay, the head of UN Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said at a press briefing on Monday that the ceasefire has not led to “meaningful accountability” or “any fundamental reckoning with the underlying driver – the protracted occupation”.
Occupied West Bank
Violent raids by settlers and the forces in the West Bank have also been increasing.
The UN report warned that Israel’s “concerted and accelerating practice of undermining the fabric of Palestinian life while consolidating the annexation of large parts” of the occupied territories represents a deeply troubling trajectory.
In regard to the violence in the West Bank, he said: “Israeli military and police forces and settlers are killing more and more Palestinians with impunity, often together.”
“Impunity only fuels recurrence,” Sunghay noted. “Most of the horrors documented here, and those documented for decades before, have gone unpunished, with no prospect of justice for the victims.”
He said that the rate of forcible displacement “is unseen in decades”, describing Israeli settlement expansion there as “unprecedented”.
Since the start of the Gaza genocide, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,096 Palestinians, with children making up around 20 per cent, or one in five.
“Settler attacks are routinely carried out with the support, acquiescence, or participation of Israeli security forces,” he said.
“The Israeli Government has intensified the militarisation of the settler movement, shielded them from accountability, and now actively benefits from settler violence as a catalyst for its stated annexation agenda.”
Sunghay said the dispossession in the West Bank is “matched in intensity with the record rate of settlement expansion” which has increased by 80 per cent since the Government took office, with 102 new settlements added to the 127 that existed previously.
Furthermore, 33,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced by Israel from three refugee camps last year – Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams – are still unable to return to their homes.
“Israeli authorities are forcing Palestinians out of their homes around the Old City in East Jerusalem at alarming levels, turning their properties over to settlers, or making room for settlement projects including a park and a cable car project,” he said.
The report also documented other patterns that have persisted, including the torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody, which includes sexual violence and even rape, denial of sufficient food and medical care.
“Discriminatory practices have further reinforced Israel’s violation of the prohibition of apartheid and racial segregation,” he said.
