A United Nations-mandated investigative commission has said Palestinian civilians are increasingly caught between the actions of Israeli forces, attacks by settlers, and what it described as Hamas’s oppressive governance in Gaza.
In a report released on Tuesday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry stated that Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank are being subjected to severe human rights violations in a manner it described as “systematic and deliberate.”
The commission, which previously concluded that Israel had committed “genocide” during the Gaza war, said the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians extends beyond the conflict itself, noting that many civilians are also experiencing repression under Hamas administration.
According to the report, residents of Gaza are facing a dual burden.
“Ordinary Palestinians find themselves trapped between the structural violence and mass atrocities of Israeli forces and the predatory, fear-based rule of Hamas,” the commission stated.
The report also highlighted a significant increase in violence across the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Investigators said Palestinian civilians in the territory have increasingly become targets of attacks by Israeli settlers.
Commission chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar said settler violence is closely linked to Israeli government policies.
“Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions,” Muralidhar said in a statement.
He added that Hamas-affiliated forces had taken advantage of conditions created by sustained Israeli military operations and widespread destruction across Gaza.
‘Deliberate Infliction of Suffering’
Muralidhar argued that despite differing motivations and origins, both situations have resulted in significant hardship for Palestinian civilians.
“What is alarmingly similar is the deliberate infliction of suffering on Palestinian civilians. While their origins and motivations differ, both operate within environments engineered by Israel,” said Muralidhar, an Indian judge.
The three-member commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international law and human rights in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
A substantial portion of the latest report focused on developments in the West Bank, a territory that has remained under Israeli occupation since 1967.
According to figures cited in the report, at least 1,080 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 2023, based on data from the Palestinian health ministry.
Official Israeli data shows that at least 46 Israelis, including both civilians and military personnel, were killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations over the same period.
The inquiry further found that between January 2023 and December 2025, at least 26 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,570 injured in incidents involving settlers.
Investigators noted that the trend has continued into 2026, with attacks reportedly occurring on a daily basis.
Calls to End Settlement Expansion
The commission concluded that Israel bears responsibility for enabling settler activity and violence.
According to the report, settler attacks serve as a mechanism for advancing broader objectives linked to settlement expansion, territorial annexation and the displacement of Palestinians.
Settler violence, it said, “functions as a means of implementing Israeli state policy,” adding that both settler actions and state policies are focused on the “entrenchment of Israeli settlements, annexation of Palestinian territory and displacement of Palestinians from their land.”
The report urged Israel to take immediate action to halt the violence and comply with international obligations.
Among its recommendations, the commission called on Israel to “immediately end the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory,” cease all new settlement activities, and remove settlers and settlements from occupied Palestinian land.
Israel has consistently rejected the commission’s findings, accusing it of “systematic anti-Israel discrimination.”
Hamas Accused of Torture and Extrajudicial Killings
Beyond its findings on Israel and settler violence, the commission also accused Hamas-affiliated forces of committing serious abuses against Palestinians in Gaza.
The report said investigators documented incidents amounting to the “war crimes of murder and torture,” including executions, physical assaults and other forms of abuse.
According to the inquiry, 249 cases involving executions and severe physical violence were recorded between 2024 and 2025, resulting in at least 108 deaths and 384 injuries.
The commission said Hamas-affiliated forces were linked to at least 60 of those incidents.
Among its findings, investigators alleged that Hamas members had “tortured Palestinian civilians in the Nasser Medical Complex” in Gaza.
However, the report stressed that such actions do not strip hospitals of the protections granted under international humanitarian law.
The commission called on Gaza’s de facto authorities to end all forms of extrajudicial punishment against civilians.
It recommended “that the de facto authorities in Gaza immediately stop all extrajudicial punishments of civilians, including executions, torture, and mental, physical and sexual violence”.
The report also urged authorities to avoid using civilian facilities, including hospitals, in ways that compromise their humanitarian role.
They should “refrain from using civilian objects, including hospitals, for any purpose incompatible with their humanitarian and civilian functions,” the commission added.
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