UN probe: Palestinians ‘trapped’ between Israeli forces, settlers and Hamas
6/9/2026 2:03:10 PM
Palestinian civilians are caught between “mass atrocities” of Israeli forces, settlers and Hamas’s rule, a UN-mandated inquiry says.
Civilians across war-ravaged Gaza and the occupied West Bank are being “systematically and deliberately” subjected to severe rights violations, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry added.
The investigative team, which last year concluded that Israel had committed “genocide” in the war in Gaza, highlighted in a new report that “ordinary Palestinians find themselves trapped between the structural violence and mass atrocities of Israeli forces”, and what it described as the “fear-based rule of Hamas”.
And in the occupied West Bank, which has seen soaring violence since Israel’s war on Gaza started in October 2023, it described how Palestinian civilians were increasingly targeted by Israeli settler attacks.
“Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions,” commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said in a statement.
Civilians across war-ravaged Gaza and the occupied West Bank are being “systematically and deliberately” subjected to severe rights violations, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry added.
The investigative team, which last year concluded that Israel had committed “genocide” in the war in Gaza, highlighted in a new report that “ordinary Palestinians find themselves trapped between the structural violence and mass atrocities of Israeli forces”, and what it described as the “fear-based rule of Hamas”.
And in the occupied West Bank, which has seen soaring violence since Israel’s war on Gaza started in October 2023, it described how Palestinian civilians were increasingly targeted by Israeli settler attacks.
“Violence by settlers is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable and protect their actions,” commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said in a statement.