Israeli authorities are directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, while Israeli security forces provide protection to settlers, a UN investigation said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The report of the Commission of Inquiry in the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israeli authorities enabled settler attacks through financial and military support, in a climate of impunity fostered by judicial and executive authorities.
The report said attacks on Palestinian villages and farmland had increased since 2023, increasing by 130%, including incidents by groups of masked attackers. Israeli security forces routinely monitored settlers and acted as a shield for the violence, the report said.
The Israeli prime minister's office and the military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel rejects accusations that its troops protect settlers during attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, saying such incidents are isolated cases that violate military protocol and are investigated. Israeli and Palestinian rights groups say such investigations rarely lead to punishment.
Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live among millions of Palestinians on land Israel captured in the 1967 war, where Palestinians hope to build their own state. Most countries and the UN's highest court consider such settlements a violation of international law, a claim Israel disputes, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
At least seven Palestinians were killed and 832 wounded last year, with violence continuing in 2026 in the form of almost daily attacks, according to the UN.
"The increased involvement of Israeli security forces in settler attacks represents a de facto collapse of the distinction between settlers and soldiers," the report states.
The report states that such violence was used to advance state policies, including illegal occupation, displacement of Palestinians, and annexation of Palestinian territory.
The commission documented cases of attacks, abductions and abuse of Palestinian children by settlers. In one incident on April 19, 2025, a 12-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother were abducted at knifepoint, taken to an olive grove and tied to a tree with plastic ties until their family intervened.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding advisory opinion that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements is illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible, in its strongest findings to date on the conflict.
The commission also alleged that settlers committed or threatened sexual violence to instill fear and harass Palestinian women.
“The ongoing, daily attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are unacceptable — and must stop,” said the commission’s chairman, S. Muralidhar, a former senior judge from India. He called on the international community to pressure Israel to dismantle the settlements and enclaves and limit the violence.
Despite periodic condemnations and the removal of some unauthorized enclaves, Israeli authorities have not taken sustainable measures to stop the attacks, the report said.
Hamas violations
The report also expressed serious concern about the grave abuses documented in the Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory, by the Hamas militant group that controls it.
The commission found that Hamas-affiliated forces participated in at least 60 of the 249 documented cases of executions and severe physical violence in 2024–2025, including beatings with metal pipes and breaking bones as punishment for alleged collaboration with Israel or aid looting.
In two cases, 11 men were publicly executed. The commission stated that such actions constituted war crimes and violations of international law.
The commission found that the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups, which killed 1.200 people and included hostage-taking and destruction of property, constituted war crimes. The attacks triggered an Israeli offensive on Gaza, which killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of the territory.
The Commission's previous report found that Israel committed genocide during its military offensive in Gaza, and that senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, encouraged these actions. Israel has dismissed the allegations as "scandalous."
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