Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are caught between attacks by Israeli settlers and the Islamist group Hamas, an international commission of inquiry commissioned by the UN said today.
“Palestinian civilians are systematically and deliberately subjected to serious violations of international law and human rights (…) trapped between Israeli forces and settlers on the one hand and the Hamas regime of terror on the other,” the committee warns in a report on the violence perpetrated by non-state actors in these areas.
“What bears a disturbing similarity is the deliberate infliction of suffering on Palestinian civilians. Although their origins and motivations differ, both phenomena take place in contexts created by Israel,” Srinivasan Muralidar, chairman of the committee, said in a statement.
In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the committee stressed the responsibility of the State of Israel in the settlers’ actions against the Palestinian population.
The violence in the West Bank has seen a sharp rise since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, following an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel.
The report says at least seven Palestinians were killed and 832 wounded in Israeli settler attacks in 2025, a 130% increase from 2024.
According to an overall estimate by AFP, based on Palestinian Authority figures, at least 1.080 Palestinians – militants and civilians – have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 2003.
Some acts of violence were committed “in cooperation with the Israeli military authorities” in order to put pressure on Palestinians to leave the area, the report claims.
“The increasing involvement of Israeli security forces in settler attacks amounts to a de facto breakdown of the separation between settlers and soldiers,” it adds.
The settlers, according to the report, consider their actions “part of a ‘holy war’ aimed at liberating all of Israel’s territory.”
The committee also notes that attacks on Palestinian villages and farmland have seen a 130% sharp increase since 2023, including incidents involving masked perpetrators. Israeli security forces often accompany settlers and act as a shield for the violence.
The actions of the settlers and the state of Israel have the same strategic goal, the report believes: “maintaining the illegal occupation, establishing illegal Israeli settlements, annexing Palestinian land and expelling Palestinians from their land.”
These attacks, which sometimes targeted children, were also accompanied by sexual violence, mostly against women and girls, the report said.
The committee documented incidents of assaults, abductions and abuse of Palestinian children by settlers. In one incident, on 19 April 20205, a 12-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother were abducted at knifepoint. They were then dragged to an olive grove and handcuffed with plastic handcuffs to a tree until their family intervened.
“The daily and incessant attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are unacceptable and must stop. Israel must stop supporting this violence and ensure that its security forces protect Palestinian civilians,” Srinivasan Muraldar stressed.
In September 2025 the same committee, which has been mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but does not speak for the organization, had accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza since October 2023 with the aim of “destroying” Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the Israeli military have not currently responded to a request for comment.
Israel rejects accusations that the army is covering up for settlers in their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, saying these are isolated incidents that violate army protocol and are under investigation.
“Hamas’ punitive measures”
In its new report, the committee also recorded 249 incidents of “executions and serious physical violence” in the Gaza Strip in 2024 and 2025 in which at least 108 people were killed and 384 injured.
“The Committee is deeply concerned about the seriousness and public nature of the punitive measures taken by Hamas in Gaza, which are inflicting deep trauma on a civilian population already bearing severe trauma,” Muralidar said.
The report also notes the increasing number of deaths and injuries among Israeli civilians from the actions of Palestinian armed groups and individuals. In addition to the approximately 1,200 people killed on October 7, 2023, “a total of 60 Israeli civilians were killed between 2023 and 2025,”
The attacks, it says, violate the principles of international humanitarian law and amount to “war crimes”. It also considers the measures imposed by Israel in retaliation to be possible “crimes against international humanitarian law”.
The commission is not a legal body, but its investigations can increase diplomatic pressure and serve to gather evidence that can be used by the courts.
She will present her report at the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council next week in Geneva.
