UN says Israeli actions raise fear of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza, West Bank; Israel rejects claims

Israel’s attacks and alleged forcible transfers of Palestinians “raise concerns over ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the United Nations said Thursday.

The report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights looked at the period of November 1, 2024, to October 31, 2025. Most of the fighting in Gaza stopped in October 2025 with a US-brokered hostage-ceasefire deal.

Israel’s permanent mission in Geneva dismissed the report’s claims about Israel’s actions, and said in a statement that the UN human rights office had lost its credibility. “Office of the High Commissioner is engaged in a vicious campaign of demonization and disinformation against the State of Israel,” it said.

The report briefly mentioned and condemned the holding and mistreatment of hostages by Hamas, and said this may amount to war crimes.

The UN human rights office said the cumulative impact of Israel’s military conduct during its war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, along with its blockade of the territory, had inflicted living conditions “increasingly incompatible with Palestinians’ continued existence as a group in Gaza.”

“Intensified attacks, the methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods and the denial of humanitarian assistance appeared to aim at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza,” the office said.

“This, together with forcible transfers, which appear to aim at a permanent displacement, raise concerns over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank,” it continued.

Israel insists it only takes actions necessary for its security due to the ongoing terror threat emanating from the Palestinian territories, and that it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties while combating murderous organizations using the population as human shields.

In the Strip, Israel has issued evacuation orders ahead of operations in specific neighborhoods, resulting, during two years of war, in the internal displacement of almost all the territory’s residents.

In the northern West Bank, a counter-terror operation displaced tens of thousands of people, and houses were demolished during an effort to make dense, built-up areas used by gunmen accessible to the military going forward.

In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the report said the “systematic use of unlawful force” by Israeli security forces, “widespread” arbitrary detention and the “extensive unlawful demolition” of Palestinian homes was being carried out to “systematically discriminate, oppress, control and dominate the Palestinian people.”

These violations were “altering the character, status and demographic composition of the occupied West Bank, raising serious concerns of ethnic cleansing,” it said.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or, in several cases, by settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 65 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

The same period has also seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents. There have been very few arrests or indictments for such attacks.

UN alleges torture of Palestinian prisoners

The report alleged routine torture by Israeli forces of security prisoners, “including the use of sexual and gender-based violence, repeated beatings, waterboarding, stress positions, starvation and medical negligence,” according to an advance version of the report available on OHCHR’s website.

It also alleged a brutal gang-rape by Israeli Prison Service personnel of a Palestinian prisoner, identified as a male Palestinian journalist, in the West Bank. The report did not provide a citation for that detailed account except to say that it was “documented by OHCHR.”

Israel says that all its forces act in accordance with international law, and that any reports of action to the contrary are investigated and, if found to be true, lead to the prosecution of any perpetrators.

In Gaza, the report condemned the continued killing and maiming of “unprecedented numbers of civilians,” the spread of famine — which Israel and some experts have denied — and the destruction of the “remaining civilian infrastructure.”

During the 12 months covered in the report, at least 463 Palestinians, including 157 children, starved to death in Gaza, it said, using figures that Israel has strongly disputed.

“Palestinians faced the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risking being killed while trying to get food,” said the report, which heavily criticized the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The organization aimed to provide aid without helping Hamas, but saw repeated deadly incidents in which troops and contractors reportedly opened fire during chaotic scenes at distribution points.

“The situation of famine and malnutrition was the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government,” with the deaths and suffering from hunger “foreseeable and repeatedly foretold,” the UN charged.

Brief mention, condemnation of Hamas hostage-holding

At one point, the report also noted that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups had continued, throughout the reporting period, to hold Israeli and foreign hostages seized on October 7, 2023. The rights office said the hostages’ treatment may have amounted to war crimes.

During the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, Hamas-led terrorists massacred 1,200 people, most of them civilians, many of them brutally murdered, and took 251 people hostage to Gaza. The last living and dead hostages were returned following the October 2025 ceasefire deal.

Last week, UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that the world was witnessing “rapid steps to change permanently the demography of the occupied Palestinian territory.”

On Tuesday, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed to encourage “emigration” from the Palestinian territories.

And on Wednesday, UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo warned the Security Council that steps by Israel to tighten control of areas of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority amount to “gradual de facto annexation.”

Thursday’s rights office report concluded that, considered together, Israeli practices “indicated a concerted and accelerating effort to consolidate annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to deny Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”

The report said there was a pervasive climate of impunity for serious violations of international law by the Israeli authorities in the Palestinian territories.

“Impunity is not abstract — it kills. Accountability is indispensable. It is the prerequisite for a just and durable peace in Palestine and Israel,” Turk said in a statement.