1. This report provides an overview of the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory between 7 October 2023 and 31 May 2025, following the coordinated attacks on southern Israel by Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent large-scale assault on Gaza by the Israeli military. The intensified hostilities since precipitated a sharp deterioration of the already-dire human rights situation across the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory, encompassing Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, marked by unprecedented levels of killing of Palestinians by Israeli military and security forces, and the tightening and escalation of Israel’s long-standing practices of control over Palestinian lives, lands and territory. These developments resulted in the mass displacement of Palestinians from most parts of Gaza and increasingly large areas of the West Bank.
2. The report outlines concerning conduct by the Palestinian authorities and Palestinian armed groups in the same period that impacted the rights of Palestinians, Israelis, and other individuals, including indiscriminate rocket fire, concerns over allegations of colocation of military objectives and civilians potentially to prevent the targeting of those objectives, and the holding and mistreatment of Israeli and other hostages. Many of the acts committed by Palestinian armed groups over this period constituted serious breaches of international humanitarian law, which in some cases may amount to international crimes.
3. The Israeli military’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities, along with other practices, involved gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in many cases may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes. The cumulative effects of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023, which compounded the damaging effects of over 58 years of occupation and 18 years of blockade and closure of the strip, created conditions of life incompatible with Palestinians’ continued existence as a group in much of Gaza. Many of these trends and their impacts were present in the Israeli military’s large-scale siege and attacks on North Gaza between 6 October 2024 and 19 January 2025, which is analyzed as an emblematic case study in this report.
4. In parallel, the West Bank experienced an alarming surge in the unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces against Palestinians, including through the deployment of means and methods of the use of force designed for warfare. Coercive and discriminatory Israeli practices and legislative measures proliferated and intensified, deepening Israel’s neartotal control over, and violation of, Palestinians’ political, civil, social, economic and cultural rights. These developments came amid intensified Israeli settlement activity, associated displacement, and administrative moves and rhetoric by Israeli officials promoting the application of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank – together consolidating Israel’s annexation of large parts of the territory.
5. The deleterious human rights situation was further compounded by the Palestinian autorities’ intensified unlawful use of force against Palestinians in the West Bank, practices of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture, and a crack-down on civic space.
6. Considered together, Israeli Government’s measures and steps across Gaza and the West Bank reflected a concerted and accelerating practice of undermining the fabric of Palestinian life while consolidating the annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and forcibly displacing Palestinians from much of their land and territory. The cumulative effect of the Israeli practices detailed in this report was to entrench Israel’s unlawful presence in the Palestinian territory and, in doing so, to render increasingly tenuous the prospect of the Palestinian people’s exercise of their right to selfdetermination, including the realization of an independent and sovereign State. Furthermore, an appraisal of the totality of Israel’s policies and practices raises serious concerns about its compliance with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders and its obligations to prevent the commission of acts within the scope of Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
7. This report is based on monitoring conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including open-source monitoring, and information collected by other United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In gathering, assessing, and verifying the information contained in this report, OHCHR applied its standard methodology. OHCHR was not granted access to Israel to monitor and document human rights violations and engage with witnesses and victims. This report provides an overview of key trends and developments over the reporting period and complements other OHCHR reports covering overlapping periods of time by including information not previously covered.
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Conclusion and recommendations:
120. Palestinian armed groups committed serious violations on 7 October 2023, some of which amounted to war crimes and potentially other crimes under international law. Palestinian armed groups also continued to fire inherently indiscriminate weapons into Israel, causing harm to civilians and civilian objects. Throughout the reporting period such armed groups continued the holding of hostages, who reported torture and other ill-treatment, including through being held in inhumane conditions and experiences of sexual and other gender-based violence. Most hostages who died in Gaza died while held in secret detention, either killed by their captors or impacts of the conflict occurring around them, leaving their families distraught for news and confirmation of their fate. Some practices by Israeli authorities, as described in this report, also constituted or may amount to hostage-taking. Every person held as a hostage has gone through immense suffering and pain, both mental and physical, including prolonged fear and anxiety, as have their families. The High Commissioner condemns hostage-taking in all its forms and reiterates that the use of hostages or detainees as ‘bargaining chips’ cannot be tolerated, much less, normalized in any situation.
121. Throughout the reporting period, Israeli authorities intensified a pattern of severe violations of the rights of Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This included the Israeli military’s repeated violation, on a broad scale, of the basic principles of international humanitarian law in Gaza, leading to tens of thousands of killings of Palestinian civilians, a large proportion of which appear unlawful. It has also directed attacks on civilian or protected objects, including healthcare and medical facilities, and attacks on civilians including journalists, civil defenders, health workers, humanitarian actors and police in a routine and repeated fashion, 307 raising recurrent concerns of war crimes. Meanwhile, the use of unnecessary and disproportionate force in the West Bank led to hundreds of unlawful killings, in many cases also amounting to war crimes. In both Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli military and other security forces have forced displacement on a mass scale, in circumstances that violate international humanitarian law and, in many cases, amount to forcible transfer as well other war crimes. Meanwhile, the deliberate and unlawful destruction of wide swathes of Gaza, the emptying and destruction of large parts of refugee camps in northern West Bank, and an escalation in the imposition of systematic discriminatory movement restrictions on Palestinians, alongside the longstanding coercive environment, forced Palestinians from their homes with strong indications that Israel intends their displacement to be permanent, raising concerns over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.
122. These violations occurred within the broader context of Israel’s consolidation of its continued unlawful presence in the Palestinian territory, the expansion of unlawful Israeli settlements across the West Bank, and more than 18-years of unlawful closure and blockade of Gaza, which was intensified during the reporting period. These led to starvation, deaths from malnutrition, and a confirmation of famine in parts of Gaza by the competent expert body. Food scarcity has gender-specific impacts, particularly on women and children, disproportionately impacting girl children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Additionally, limited food resources and restricted mobility increase the exposure of women and girls to gender-based violence, both in public spaces and within the private sphere, in strained households.
123. While the Israeli military sought the return of Israelis and others held hostage in Gaza, and while many attacks may have targeted military objectives, its conduct also involved egregious violations of international law, including total sieges and constant unlawful impediments to the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance and other essentials of life to Gaza, mass forcible displacement amounting to forcible transfer in both Gaza and the West Bank, and extensive unlawful killings.
124. Taken together, the repeated violations across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the overwhelming failure to take steps to mitigate or end civilian harm and damage in Gaza, despite indisputable evidence of such harm since the early stages of the escalation, indicate a pattern of conduct directed towards a dual goal: first, collective punishment of Palestinians, including for violations committed by Palestinian armed groups; and second, the forced displacement, emptying and ethnic cleansing of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which would allow further settlement and annexation. Incitement and derogatory and dehumanizing language targeted at Palestinians as a group from Israeli officials was also observed with no accountability. Many of the violations of international law by the Israeli military and other security forces against the civilian population, addressed in this report, were committed in a routine fashion. Many of these violations amounted to war crimes. They may also constitute crimes against humanity, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.310 Israeli practices across Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, indicated a concerted and accelerating effort to consolidate annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
125. The cumulative effect of Israeli policies and practices described in this report has also been to consolidate the system of discrimination, oppression, domination and segregation312 facing Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, deepening the denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. The concerted nature of the Government of Israel’s implementation of violent and discriminatory measures against Palestinians, together with steps to advance Israeli annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 313 raise concern that they would result in the permanent displacement of Palestinians from their lands and territory in Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
126. The Israeli military’s choices of means and methods in its conduct of hostilities in Gaza and other measures continued to impose on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group.
127. It is essential that there is due reckoning for all these violations, through credible and impartial judicial bodies, and that, in the meantime, all relevant evidence is collected, preserved and investigated.
128. The High Commissioner for Human Rights calls upon Israel to:
a) Ensure compliance with and implement fully the provisional measures indicated by the International Court of Justice in its orders relating to the proceedings brought under the Genocide Convention, including taking all measures to prevent the commission of acts of genocide, ensuring with immediate effect that its military does not engage in acts of genocide, taking all measures to prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide, and taking all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay and in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, noting also its obligations as an Occupying Power in this regard;
b) End its unlawful presence in the Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible and in a manner consistent with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 19 July 2024 and General Assembly resolution ES-10/24 of 18 September 2024;
c) Respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law in the conduct of hostilities and in the context of occupation, and repress and ensure accountability for all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including by investigating alleged violations and duly prosecuting alleged perpetrators where applicable;
d) Ensure that any use of force outside of hostilities complies with international human rights law and standards, including by regulating the use of live ammunition, ensuring all its forces are trained on the standards for the use of potentially lethal force, ensuring that forces are adequately equipped and trained in the use of less-lethal weapons and that all law enforcement operations are planned and implemented to minimize the threat to life and refraining from using tactics and weaponry developed for warfare, and by adopting and enforcing appropriate disciplinary and penal sanctions for members of its forces who do not respect such regulations;
e) Promptly subject all incidents of use of force in law enforcement operations that result in death or injury to independent, impartial, transparent, thorough and effective criminal investigation; hold the individuals responsible for violations accountable; and provide appropriate redress to victims;
f) Ensure that all Palestinians displaced from and within Gaza and the West Bank are allowed to return to their homes as rapidly as possible by creating safe conditions for return, ensuring the provision of necessary infrastructure in places of return, and providing adequate alternatives to those whose homes have been rendered uninhabitable; ensure adequate standards of living, including the provision of adequate accommodation as long as people remain displaced; and refrain from any further unlawful displacement of Palestinians;
g) Take urgent measures to end all discriminatory and unlawful practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including ending all practices that amount to collective punishment, and to repeal all discriminatory legislation;
h) Ensure that the right of freedom of movement is guaranteed to all Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with any restrictions on freedom of movement strictly in accordance with international law;
i) Respect the rights of Palestinian children, including the right to life, and ensure that they are treated with due consideration for their age. They should be detained only as a measure of last resort, for the shortest appropriate period of time and fully in accordance with international human rights law;
j) Ensure that journalists, human rights defenders and civil society actors, including women’s human rights defenders, are able to conduct their activities without harassment or being subjected to legal proceedings that are in violation of international human rights law, and that their rights are respected and protected;
k) Ensure that cases of killings, intimidation or attacks against journalists and civil society actors are thoroughly investigated, with a view to ensuring accountability;
l) Grant visas and full access to OHCHR international staff in order that they can carry out critical mandated work on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
129. The High Commissioner also calls upon all duty bearers, including Israel, the State of Palestine and, as applicable, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups to:
a) Prevent, repress and punish all violations and abuses of international human rights law, including unlawful killings; conduct prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and effective investigations into alleged violations and abuses by duty bearers and private actors; and ensure that perpetrators are held accountable, including duly prosecuting alleged perpetrators where applicable, and ensuring victims are provided with redress;
b) Immediately end all practices that may amount to arbitrary detention, hostage taking and enforced disappearance as well as torture or other ill-treatment, and to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained;
c) Ensure that the rights to freedom of expression and association are respected and protected and that civil society actors can conduct their legitimate activities safely and freely;
130. The High Commissioner further calls upon Palestinian armed groups, as applicable, to:
a) Cease firing indiscriminate projectiles; and
b) Refrain to the extent feasible from co-locating military objectives and civilians and civilian infrastructure, and comply fully with all other applicable obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.
131. The High Commissioner further calls upon all parties to the conflict in Gaza to:
a) Fully implement the ceasefire and take meaningful steps durably to end the conflict;
b) Refrain from directing attacks against Palestinian cultural property or using cultural and historic sites for military purposes and to take special care during hostilities to avoid damage or destruction to historic monuments and buildings dedicated to religion, art, science and education.
132. The High Commissioner also calls upon all States to:
a) Exert their influence to prevent international law violations and crimes by all parties to the conflict in Gaza and uphold their obligation under international law to take action to prevent and punish atrocity crimes, including genocide;
b) Cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel facilitating violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
c) Exercise extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law in national courts, consistent with international standards, and cooperate with the International Criminal Court further to the Rome Statute, and encourage Israel to cooperate in good faith with the United Nations, including OHCHR, in line with the International Court of Justice’s ruling of 22 October 2025;
d) Comply with obligations under international law to neither recognize as legal nor aid or assist the maintenance of the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
