Israeli forces have perpetrated atrocity crimes in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have also perpetrated atrocity crimes.

BACKGROUND:

For nearly three years, Israel has launched bombardments from air, land and sea, as well as repeatedly imposed complete sieges on Gaza. Israel’s initial bombardment and siege followed a deadly assault by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups into Israel on 7 October 2023. Since then, Israel has killed over 70,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, and injured over 167,000. Thousands more are estimated to be missing or buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Nearly 80 percent of infrastructure across the Gaza Strip has been damaged or destroyed.

Numerous independent UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, have determined that Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, and Israel determined that Israel has committed at least four of the five acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, including imposing measures to prevent births. In response to the case brought by South Africa against Israel for allegations of genocide, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued three sets of provisional measures since January 2024 that demand Israeli authorities prevent genocide. Israel has consistently defied these orders.

On 21 November 2024 the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two Israeli government officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and a Hamas official for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

During their assault on 7 October 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups attacked civilian areas in Israel and perpetrated flagrant violations of international law, including capturing and forcibly taking hundreds of civilians as hostages. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 5,400 injured. The CoI found that members of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, including deliberately killing, injuring and mistreating civilians and taking hostages. The CoI identified patterns indicative of sexual violence, including sexual desecration of corpses.

Palestinian territory – encompassing the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem – has been occupied by Israel since 1967. The UN Special Rapporteur has determined that Israel has imposed a system of racial oppression and discrimination that satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for apartheid, a crime against humanity. A July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion details that Israel’s continued presence in the OPT is unlawful, asserting that Israel must end its presence as rapidly as possible.

Since October 2023 existing patterns of violence in the Occupied West Bank have also escalated, including settler attacks, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian fatalities and injuries. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that settlers sometimes act with the acquiescence and collaboration of Israeli forces and authorities. There has also been a sharp increase in disproportionate force by Israel, including airstrikes, violent military tactics during incursions and search-and-arrest operations and bulldozers sent to refugee camps. In January 2025 Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the northern Occupied West Bank. The ongoing assault has forcibly displaced over 40,000 Palestinians, marking the largest wave of forced displacement in the Occupied West Bank since 1967.

OHCHR has reported a significant increase in extrajudicial executions, mass detentions and enforced disappearances of Palestinians in the OPT since October 2023. According to the CoI, Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinian detainees is an “intentional policy,” involving acts that amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity. Detainees have been subject to physical, psychological, sexual and reproductive violence, used as human shields and frequently denied adequate food and medical care.

On 10 October 2025 the first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel – based on a so-called 20-point peace plan announced by United States (US) President Donald Trump – came into effect in Gaza. The agreement called for the suspension of all hostilities; the release of all remaining hostages (living and deceased) in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees; the daily entry of some 600 trucks of humanitarian aid; and the withdrawal of Israeli troops to a demarcated line, leaving approximately 58 percent of Gaza under Israeli control.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to conduct attacks on Gaza and obstruct aid delivery, killing over 1,000 Palestinians and allowing only a fraction of the agreed upon aid trucks into Gaza. In May OHCHR released a report documenting large-scale violations, including atrocity crimes, across the OPT between October 2023 and May 2025 and warning that the “ceasefire has not led to any form of meaningful accountability for violations committed in the preceding years.”

In early February Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of measures expanding Israeli authority in areas under Palestinian administrative control in the Occupied West Bank and easing restrictions on land acquisition. Since the start of 2026, over 3,000 Palestinians have been displaced, while Israeli forces have largely demolished the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) compound in Occupied East Jerusalem. Against this backdrop, OHCHR concluded that Israel’s policies of discrimination and racial segregation in the Occupied West Bank resemble apartheid and has raised concerns of ethnic cleansing across the OPT. Amnesty International has similarly documented a state-led and state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Documentation of Israel’s torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees has been mounting. A report released in April by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the OPT details Israel’s systematic use of torture against Palestinians since October 2023 and finds that custodial and non-custodial deliberate practices meet the threshold for genocide. In May Israel was listed, for the first time, in the annex of the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence. Adding to earlier findings of genocide, the CoI recently issued a report in June concluding that Israeli forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza and war crimes in the Occupied West Bank.

Following the adoption of UNSC Resolution 2803 in November 2025, which enacted President Trump’s plan for Gaza, including the establishment of a transitional governance body and the deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF), US officials launched the ceasefire’s second phase in January. In early July Hamas announced plans to dissolve its government in Gaza, allowing for the Palestinian technocratic committee under Resolution 2803 to take its place.

ANALYSIS:

For nearly three years Israel has subjected Palestinians in Gaza to genocide. Israeli authorities’ rhetoric, coupled with the conduct of Israeli forces, reflects an intent to destroy a substantial part of the Palestinian population. Israel’s military assault on the Occupied West Bank has heightened the risk of further atrocities.

The mass displacement of Palestinians in the OPT likely amounts to the war crime and crime against humanity of forcible transfer. Israel’s sieges on Gaza amount to intentional starvation of civilians as a method of warfare – a war crime – and may also constitute a crime against humanity and an act of genocide.

Hamas’ indiscriminate rocket attacks violate international law. Hamas’ security forces have also committed grave abuses against Palestinians in Gaza, including arbitrary arrests, summary executions and torture.

While the ceasefire provides urgently needed relief, atrocities will persist until there is a permanent ceasefire, the root causes of violence are addressed and a sustainable, just political solution is achieved. The fragility of the agreement is compounded by ongoing punitive measures by Israel.

The US plan for Gaza raises serious legal and political concerns, including departures from the mandate authorized by UNSC Resolution 2803, compliance with international law and the lack of Palestinian representation. The planned ISF’s sweeping powers risks sidelining accountability and undermining Palestinian self-determination.

Under IHL, an occupying power is prohibited from transferring parts of its civilian population into occupied territory, also known as “settler implantation.” Israel’s seizure and demolition of Palestinian and Bedouin land and property, together with ongoing settlement expansion, have resulted in forced evictions, arbitrary displacement and forcible transfer, practices that undermine the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and threaten their cultural existence. Measures recently approved by Israel’s security cabinet further entrench its unlawful control over the Occupied West Bank and signal intensifying efforts to accelerate the annexation of Palestinian territory.

RISK ASSESSMENT:

• • • Repeated ceasefire violations, risking a return to large-scale bombardments, ground offensives and siege tactics.
    • Enabling conditions for the crimes of forced displacement and forcible transfer.
    • Escalating violence, attacks and arbitrary arrests in the Occupied West Bank.
    • Institutionalized systematic racial oppression and discrimination against Palestinians and the de facto and illegal annexation of Palestinian land.
    • No effective accountability for cycles of deadly hostilities between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.

NECESSARY ACTION:

Hamas and Israel must respect the terms of the ceasefire agreement. A permanent ceasefire in Gaza must be established and equally applied in the Occupied West Bank.

All states, including those with influence, must apply diplomatic and economic pressure on Israel to lift the aid blockade on Gaza, urge both parties to uphold the ceasefire agreement and ensure independent monitors oversee its implementation. Israel must immediately halt its military assault on the Occupied West Bank, repeal measures aimed at annexation of Palestinian land and implement the ICJ’s provisional measures. Israel must cease illegal settlement-related activity, apartheid policies, the occupation of Palestinian territory and collective punishment of Palestinians.

Any international stabilization force must respect Palestinian consent and include robust safeguards, accountability measures and a clear exit plan. States must implement Resolution 2803 in accordance with international law. The international community must also support a Palestinian-led recovery and reconstruction of Gaza, ensuring that Israel neither obstructs nor benefits from it.

States should join the Hague Group to reaffirm their collective role in supporting accountability and a political solution grounded in international law. All states must defend the mandate of the UNRWA and adequately fund its vital operations.

All parties should unequivocally condemn anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate speech. Leaders must refrain from spreading and engaging in dehumanizing rhetoric and actions.

States parties to the Genocide Convention should support the ICJ proceedings and refrain from attempts to impede the Court’s independent work or discredit its findings. The ICC must be allowed to conduct its mandate independently and impartially and all states should cease any impediments, intimidation, retaliation or improper influences against the Court and its officials. Israel should ratify the Rome Statute and cooperate with all UN-mandated investigative mechanisms.

For more on the Global Centre’s advocacy work on the situation in the IOPT, see our IOPT country advocacy page.