The Independent Commission of Inquiry of the United Nations on the Occupied Palestinian Territories accused Israeli authorities and security forces of supporting attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. This was reported by the Reuters agency.
The commission's report notes that Israeli authorities created conditions for settler actions through financial and military support. It was also emphasized that security forces in many cases accompanied and protected the settlers.
According to UN data, since 2023, the number of attacks against Palestinian villages and agricultural lands has increased by 130 percent. Over the past year, at least seven Palestinians have been killed as a result of these attacks, and 832 people have been injured to varying degrees.
"The involvement of Israeli security forces in settler attacks is increasing. This effectively means that the distinction between settlers and the military is disappearing," the report states.
According to the commission, such actions serve a policy of displacing Palestinians from their lands and annexing territories.
The report also documented cases of violence by settlers against Palestinian children. In particular, in April 2025, a 12-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother were threatened with a knife, abducted, and tied to a tree.
The chair of the commission, Navi Pillay, strongly condemned the acts of violence, emphasizing that the daily attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are an absolutely unacceptable situation.
At the same time, the report also recorded violations committed by the Hamas movement. According to the commission, of the 249 documented cases of killings and severe violence in 2024–2025, at least 60 involved forces linked to Hamas.
In its previous reports, the UN commission also assessed the attacks by Hamas and other armed groups on Israel on October 7, 2023, as war crimes. Additionally, the commission stated that Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip bear signs of genocide. Israel has denied these allegations.
