UN Commission Says Israel Kept Committing Genocidal Acts in Gaza After Ceasefire. Israel Demands Its Dissolution

A UN commission of inquiry said Monday, Oct. 26, that Israel has kept committing genocide in Gaza even after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. Israel rejected the findings in full.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said Israeli authorities are "continuing to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza." The same commission made a genocide finding in a September 2025 report, which Israel called scandalous.

This is a UN-appointed investigative panel. It is not a court, and it has no power to convict anyone.

What the commission alleges

The report covers violations against Palestinian children from the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, through September of this year. It says Israeli forces kept using heavy munitions, drones, quadcopters, artillery and sniper fire in densely populated areas during the ceasefire.

The commission also says the "Yellow Line," presented as a temporary ceasefire demarcation, has crept deeper into Gaza and is turning into a de facto border. According to the commission, Israeli forces have gone from controlling 53% of Gaza at the October 2025 signing to at least 60% now.

It says Israeli fire across that advancing front has killed at least 196 Palestinians, including 18 women, 32 boys and 11 girls.

A separate figure comes from Gaza's Health Ministry. It says Israeli attacks since the ceasefire have killed at least 1,551 Palestinians and injured 5,573. The two numbers measure different things, and neither has been independently verified in the reporting.

On the overall war, Palestinian authorities put the Gaza death toll above 74,000. Muralidhar told the UN General Assembly that more than 75,000 Palestinians have been killed across the occupied territories since Oct. 7, 2023, including at least 21,500 children and 11,000 women.

West Bank accusations

The commission accused Israeli soldiers and prison guards of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank, naming extermination, torture, rape and other sexual violence, and persecution.

It says Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank rose from six between 2008 and Oct. 6, 2023 to 254 between Oct. 7, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2026. It also says it recently documented six cases of Israeli guards sexually abusing male Gaza detainees at the Sde Teiman military prison.

The Associated Press said it could not independently corroborate the graphic accounts of sexual assault on Palestinian detainees described in the report. Israel has long denied accusations of genocide and of sexual assault by its forces.

The panel did not spare Palestinian institutions. It said Palestinian security forces have increasingly used unnecessary or disproportionate force against Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023. It also said the Palestinian Authority has failed to conduct effective and impartial investigations into killings or to provide remedies to victims' families.

Israel's response

Israel's mission in Geneva called for the commission's dissolution. It said the report was part of a "misinformation campaign to demonize the state of Israel and portray its very existence as criminal."

Ambassador Daniel Meron said: "The attempt to destroy the Jewish state ... continues today through efforts by actors such as the UN Commission of Inquiry to undermine Israel's legitimacy and deny its fundamental right to exist and defend itself."

The commission's report starts from the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, in which fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages.

That is also where Israel's defenders begin. Historian Victor Davis Hanson, speaking on his podcast this month, argued that Gaza lies in rubble because Hamas refused to return hostages or hand over those who took part in the massacre, and because it put civilians at risk by routing tunnel entrances and exits through hospitals, mosques, schools and homes. Hanson said Israel waited 20 days before invading. The commission's report, as described, does not address that argument directly. Genocide requires proof of intent, and that is where the commission and Israel are furthest apart.

The demands on other governments

Muralidhar called on Israel to end its occupation, evacuate settlements and remove obstacles to Palestinian self-determination. He urged UN member states to stop any political, military, economic or financial help that sustains the occupation and settlements.

He also said states must use all available means to prevent and punish genocide and must support the International Criminal Court, citing recent U.S. sanctions against the court and its officials.

Muralidhar delivered his remarks by video link. He said he was unable to obtain a visa to travel to New York despite his efforts.

The commission describes its mission as documenting allegations and evidence in minute detail to support accountability. AP noted its findings could be used by ICC prosecutors or in other jurisdictions. Whether any prosecutor acts on this report, and whether any government changes its support for Israel because of it, remains to be seen. Israel is demanding that the body that wrote it be shut down.