NEW YORK (17 November 2025) – The United Nations
Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting
the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs
of the Occupied Territories warned today that Israel’s
genocidal practices in Gaza have inflicted unimaginable pain
and suffering.
Presenting its latest report
to the General Assembly today, the Committee said that
Israel continues to expand its presence and control of
territory in Palestine, Syria and Southern Lebanon.
“Israel’s constant claims to a borderless “Land of
Israel” are incompatible with a just and lasting peace and
will bring nothing but more suffering and dispossession to
the Middle East region if not reined in by the international
community,” the Committee said.
Appointed by the
General Assembly in 1968 to investigate Israeli practices in
Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel
since 1967, the Special Committee heard firsthand from
numerous interlocutors how policies, actions, and practices
of the Government of Israel led to atrocity crimes and the
total subjugation of those under its occupation and
apartheid system, fueled by the abhorrent dehumanisation of
the Palestinians.
“For almost three months, Israel
blocked entry of humanitarian aid in Gaza, resulting in
famine. In the West Bank, since the 7 October attacks,
Israeli officials have effectively given colonising
settlers, through support of the Israel security forces, a
carte blanche to intimidate, subjugate, ethnically cleanse,
attack, and in some cases kill, those living under its
occupation at will, in order to steal and drive them of
their homes and land,”, the Committee
said.
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“Despite binding orders and authoritative
opinions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and
arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court
(ICC), Israel has been acting with complete impunity,
sustained by continued diplomatic, financial, and military
support through powerful third States, and the absence of
international sanctions,” the Committee said.
The
report also documents the ramping-up of racist, genocidal
and expansionist rhetoric by Israeli leaders and the
consolidation of Israeli control in the region.
“In
Syria, Israel is working to double the settler population in
the occupied Golan and claims it will stay indefinitely in
newly occupied areas further inside Syria,” it
said.
According to the report, in Lebanon, Israel’s
actions killed and injured thousands, including the highest
numbers of medical workers killed and injured in any armed
conflict in the world in 2024.
“The international
community must act. There must be accountability for these
and other egregious violations of international law,” the
Committee said.
As a first step, the Committee
recommended that Member States impose sanctions and a full
arms embargo to compel Israel to fully halt its assault on
Palestinians, comply with the ceasefire in Gaza, and
withdraw from all occupied territory in the region. Member
States should fully cooperate with the ICC and exercise
universal jurisdiction.
“It is critical that Member
States investigate or prosecute corporate entities, dual
citizens, and other actors complicit in violations of
international law. It cannot be right that someone from
another nation goes to Israel, enlists in the army, commits
war crimes and simply rejoins society without any
accountability,” the Committee said.
This report
covers developments from August 2024 to July
2025.
Read the full report A/80/365 here:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a80365-report-special-committee-investigate-israeli-practices-affecting
*
The
United Nations Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of
the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories was established by the UN
General Assembly resolution
2443 (XXIIII) in December 1968 to examine the
human rights situation in the occupied Syrian Golan, the
West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza
Strip.
