GENEVA

Israel is seeking permanent control of the Gaza Strip while ensuring a Jewish majority in the occupied West Bank and inside Israel, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel said in a new report Tuesday.

The commission found Israeli policies since October 2023 show "clear and consistent" intent to "forcibly transfer Palestinians, expand Israeli Jewish civilian presence and annex the entirety of the West Bank," blocking Palestinian self-determination.

It warned that these measures are part of a broader strategy to prevent any future Palestinian state.

"I am particularly appalled by the Israeli Finance Minister (Bezalel) Smotrich’s recently announced plan of annexing 82 percent of the occupied West Bank, and by the approval of a plan cementing the E1 settlement expansion, with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu asserting that this will ensure there will be no Palestinian State," said Navi Pillay, the commission chair.

"Israeli encroachment into the entirety of the West Bank and the dispossession and relocation of multiple Palestinian communities are now explicit goals, which Israeli officials proudly boast about," she stressed, adding that these measures are "abhorrent and must be condemned widely."

The report said Israeli military operations in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps since early 2025 destroyed buildings, displaced residents, and amounted to collective punishment. Some demolished structures were labeled "terrorist homes" by the army, but the commission found the actions were not militarily justified.

In Gaza, the inquiry found that Israeli authorities "extensively and systematically" demolished civilian infrastructure in corridors and buffer zones, expanding control over 75% of the territory by July.

It said such actions have "substantially reduced the territory available for Palestinians, with significant implications for their ability to exercise their right to self-determination."

The report also accused Israeli authorities of systematically reducing Gaza's territory and resources, saying actions inflicted conditions of life calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, "which is an underlying act of genocide."

"Israel must immediately end and reverse its confiscation and use of Palestinian land in Gaza, including for the creation and expansion of the buffer zone and corridors. It must return all confiscated land to its Palestinian owners," Pillay said.

"Israeli confiscation and control of land ostensibly carried out for security purposes have not achieved more security for anyone but have deepened the misery of the Palestinian people and deprived them of resources indispensable for their survival, including the capacity to produce food."

The report also noted that inside Israel, successive governments have implemented laws and policies confining Palestinian localities and hindering integration. It said similarities with measures in the West Bank point to a broader policy "intended to secure a Jewish majority in all areas under Israeli control, reducing the possibility of geographical self-determination for the Palestinian people."

The commission named Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, current Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Settlements and National Projects Orit Strock, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as bearing the greatest responsibility for international crimes linked to land and housing, with Netanyahu and Gallant also found responsible for incitement to genocide.

The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly’s 80th session on Oct. 28 in New York.

Last week, the commission concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza by committing "four of the five" genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.