Israel is pursuing permanent military control of Gaza while entrenching a Jewish majority across the occupied West Bank, a new UN inquiry found.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel presented its report in Geneva on Tuesday, coinciding with the opening of the UN General Assembly.
It said Israeli forces have "systematically destroyed" civilian life in Gaza since October 2023, while policies in the West Bank are designed to forcibly remove Palestinians and expand settlements, making a Palestinian state impossible.
The Commission found that Israeli authorities deliberately deprived Palestinians in Gaza of resources indispensable for survival by demolishing homes, farmland, water systems, and health facilities.
It said 75 percent of the enclave had been seized by July 2025 through buffer zones and "corridors" carved into Palestinian territory, severely reducing habitable land.
"These actions deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza," the Commission wrote.
It also condemned explicit incitement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers, and said responsibility for genocidal acts rests with the State of Israel.
Commission chair Navi Pillay said Israel must "immediately end and reverse" land confiscation in Gaza and warned that policies undertaken in the name of security have only "deepened the misery of the Palestinian people and deprived them of resources indispensable for their survival".
West Bank annexation push
The report also presented a parallel military campaign in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where Israeli policies since October 2023 show "clear intent" to annex territory and forcibly transfer Palestinians.
It denounced government support for settler violence, military operations that razed refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem, and the approval of the E1 settlement expansion plan.
"I am particularly appalled by the Israeli finance minister Smotrich’s announced plan of annexing 82 per cent of the occupied West Bank," Pillay said. "These developments corroborate our findings. Israeli encroachment into the entirety of the West Bank and the dispossession and relocation of Palestinian communities are now explicit goals."
The Commission also found discriminatory housing and land policies against Palestinian citizens of Israel, describing them as part of a broader effort to secure a Jewish demographic majority throughout all territory under Israeli control.
The inquiry named six senior officials it said bear the greatest responsibility: Netanyahu, current and former defence ministers Yoav Gallant and Israel Katz, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, settlements minister Orit Strock, and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
South Africa presses ICJ genocide ruling
The report comes as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the ICJ to go further by issuing a binding ruling that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza at the General Assembly in New York
"South Africa has acted in the interests of saving lives by insisting that the ICJ should make a ruling that indeed genocide is being committed in Gaza and that it should stop. We have the ultimate responsibility to ensure and protect the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination," Ramaphosa said.
South Africa filed its case against Israel in December 2023. Since then, the body has issued a series of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocide and allow humanitarian aid. More than a dozen countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Ireland, Spain, Türkiye and Chile, have joined the case in support of South Africa.
Ramaphosa added that there is a "growing global consensus" following the UN inquiry’s findings, and hailed Monday’s UN conference on the two-state solution as "historic".
With new recognitions from Canada, Australia and the UK, 159 UN member states now recognise Palestinian statehood. "Palestinians deserve a peaceful state alongside a peaceful Israel," he said. "The long overdue announcement by an increasing number of countries to recognise the state of Palestine is testament to this determination."
Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 65,382 Palestinians and wounded nearly 167,000, most of them women and children. Thousands remain buried under rubble.