A U.N. inquiry has concluded that Israeli authorities have been directly involved in attacks by settlers that have killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and that Israeli security forces have provided protection to settlers during such attacks, the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reported on Tuesday.
According to the commission, Israeli authorities have facilitated settler attacks through both financial and military support, in an environment the inquiry describes as one of impunity fostered by judicial and law-enforcement institutions. The report finds that attacks on Palestinian villages and agricultural land have increased dramatically since 2023, rising by 130 percent, and have included incidents involving groups of masked assailants.
"The increasing participation of Israeli security forces in settler attacks amounts to a de facto collapse of the distinction between settlers and soldiers," the report says, adding that Israeli security forces have routinely accompanied settlers and in some cases acted as a shield for the violence.
The commission’s findings note that Israeli authorities were contacted for comment but that the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel rejects the charge that its troops shield settlers during attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, characterising such actions as isolated, rogue incidents that violate military protocol and are subject to investigation. The inquiry notes, however, that Israeli and Palestinian rights groups say those investigations rarely result in punishment.
The report places the situation in the context of a population pattern in which hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live among millions of Palestinians on territory that Israel captured in a 1967 war, territory where Palestinians seek to establish a state. The commission reiterates that most countries and the U.N.'s top court consider the settlements to be a violation of international law, a position Israel disputes by citing historical and religious ties to the land.
In its tally of casualties and injuries, the United Nations figures cited in the report note that at least seven Palestinians were killed and 832 were injured last year, with near-daily attacks continuing into 2026.
The commission states that the escalation of settler violence has been used to advance state policy, alleging that it has furthered the unlawful occupation, the displacement of Palestinians and the de facto annexation of Palestinian territory. The inquiry documents a range of abuses by settlers, including assaults, abductions and the mistreatment of Palestinian children.
One case recorded by the commission took place on April 19, 2025, when a 12-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother were seized at knifepoint, dragged into an olive grove and tied to a tree with plastic restraints until their family intervened, the report says.
The report also recalls a July 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which stated that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
Alongside physical violence, the commission reports that settlers have committed or threatened sexual violence to instil fear and have harassed Palestinian women. "The relentless, daily assaults by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are intolerable - and must end," said the commission’s head, S. Muralidhar, an Indian former senior judge. He called on the international community to pressure Israel to dismantle settlements and outposts and to take steps to curb the violence.
Despite periodic condemnations and the dismantling of some unauthorised outposts, the commission concluded that Israeli authorities have not implemented sustained measures to stop the attacks.
HAMAS VIOLATIONS
The commission’s report also expresses grave concern about serious abuses documented in the Gaza Strip by Hamas-affiliated forces. It records that Hamas-affiliated forces were involved in at least 60 of 249 documented cases of executions and severe physical violence in 2024 to 2025, including beatings with metal pipes and bone-breaking carried out as punishment for alleged collaboration with Israel or for looting aid. In two instances the commission recorded public executions of 11 men.
The commission states that these acts amount to war crimes and violations of international law.
Regarding the events of October 7, 2023, the report finds that attacks on Israel that day by Hamas and other armed groups, which it says killed 1,200 people and involved hostage-taking and the destruction of property, constituted war crimes. Those attacks, the commission notes, precipitated an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and resulted in widespread destruction across the territory.
The commission also references a previous report in which it found that Israel had committed genocide during its military offensive in Gaza and that senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited these acts. Israel rejected those allegations as "scandalous."
The commission’s detailed documentation of abuses on both sides underscores the breadth of the inquiry’s mandate: to record incidents, attribute responsibility where supported by evidence and recommend steps to prevent further violations. The report calls for international pressure and remedial action, while also flagging that accountability mechanisms within the territories have frequently failed to deliver consequences for perpetrators.
How states and international institutions respond to the commission’s findings remains to be seen, but the report itself emphasises persistent patterns of violence, the alleged complicity of state actors in settler assaults, and severe abuses by armed groups in Gaza.