UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC 62 - Human Rights in OPT

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We shall now hold the interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including E Jerusalem and Israel, pursuant to Council Resolution S 30/1.

It is my pleasure to welcome the distinguished members of the Commission of Inquiry.

And I will now give the floor to Mr Srinivasan Mural Tiara, Chair of the Commission, for the presentation of the report.

So you have the floor.

Thank you, Miss Vice President.

Excellencies, good afternoon.

I speak before this Council while the most devastating attack against the Palestinian people since 1948 continues after more than 2 1/2 years, now with complete impunity.

In a conference room paper published in September 2025, the Commission found that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces had committed and were continuing to commit genocidal acts with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinian group in Gaza.

These findings followed the issuing of three binding orders of provisional measures by the International Court of Justice detailing the catastrophic conditions in Gaza and risks of irreparable prejudice to the rights of the Palestinian group.

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The report by the Board of Peace to the Security Council in May this year, pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2803, claims that the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza have improved.

Excellencies, This contradicts the findings of this Commission.

The Israeli Prime Minister has been clear.

Israel aims to seize at least 70% of the Gaza Strip in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement and international law.

The reality is that Palestinians continue to be killed and harmed in Gaza even after the ceasefire was announced in October last year, and the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza remains very much below the necessary levels needed.

The impact on children continues to be detrimental.

The conference room paper will be made available on the web page of this Commission next week, focusing specially on the violations committed against children before and after the ceasefire.

Furthermore, the public and severe mistreatment of the flotilla activists detained by the Israeli forces, disregarding international law, support the findings of the Commission in previous reports that Palestinian detainees were severely mistreated, including tortured, raped and sexually abused by the slavery forces.

Excellencies, the report presented to you today focuses on killing and causing bodily harm and mental harm by non state actors.

These acts are committed against Palestinians by settlers in the occupied West Bank and against Palestinians and Israelis by Hamas in Gaza and armed groups and others in the West Bank.

While their origins and motivations differ, these groups operate within environments engineered by Israel, including the continuing Israeli offensive in Gaza despite the 20 October 2025 ceasefire.

Hamas has exploited the vacuum resulting from the relentless Israeli attacks and the destruction of Gaza, whereas violence with settlers is the direct result of Israeli policies that facilitate and support their actions.

Excellencies, Palestinian lives in the occupied West Bank are more at risk than ever.

From 1st January 2025 to 30th April 2026, Israeli settlers killed at least 15 Palestinians and injured at least 1296 Palestinians.

In 2025, at least 7 Palestinians were killed and 832 Palestinians were injured.

This marks 130% increase in killings and injuries over the year 2024.

This trend continues in 2026, with attacks carried out on a daily basis and at least 8 Palestinian civilians killed by settlers just in the first four months of the year.

When violence becomes so routine and it is met with almost complete impunity, it sends a devastating message that Palestinian lives are worthless and meaningless and that they can be taken day after day without consequences.

This surge in settler attacks comes against a landmark advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in July 2024 declaring that Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian territories are lawful and that Israel must immediately end the occupation, seize all new settlement activities, and evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian territory.

Settlers have increasingly resorted to sexual violence to instil, fear and humiliate Palestinians in order to pressure communities and force them to leave the land.

Since 2023, the Commission has verified the rape of a Palestinian man and two cases of attempted rape.

Meanwhile, settlers have consistently intimidated, intimidated and harassed Palestinian women and girls, constraining their daily life.

Violence against women and children contribute to the forcible displacement of Palestinian communities.

The targeting of these groups constitutes an instrumental factor in pushing Palestinian families and communities to leave their homes.

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Settler violence in the West Bank functions as a means of implementing Israeli state policies, with both the state and violent settler groups working in collaboration towards the same strategic objective.

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This expansion, as previously pointed out by the Commission, takes the form of entrenchment and expansion of Israeli settlements.

De facto annexation of Palestinian territory and forced displacement of Palestinians from their land.

Members of the Israeli security forces are routinely involved in attacks.

They accompany, protect and participate in these attacks, reinforcing a pattern in which Israeli forces assist in perpetrating violence instead of protecting the occupied violence population from violence.

Now we move on to the violence by the armed Palestinian groups, including Hamas Excellencies.

Since it seized power in Gaza in 2007, Hamas has repeatedly exploited security vacuums and humanitarian crisis resulting from Israeli attacks and escalations of hostilities to target suspected collaborators and political opponents with extreme physical violence.

In a surge of punitive violence in September 2023, the Commission identified 249 cases of executions and severe physical violence in 2024-2025, resulting in at least 108 deaths and 384 injured.

The Commission found that Hamas affiliated forces were involved in at least sixty of these incidents.

Hamas also recorded and published the execution of alleged perpetrators as a form of public humiliation and to instil fear and deterrent opponents.

Public punishments, particularly against perceived collaborators, have long lasting repercussions on the victims and their families, including shame and stigma.

Palestinians in Gaza are essentially trapped between the structural violence and mass atrocities of Israeli forces and settlers and the fear based rule of Hamas, effectively becoming victims of all sides.

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The Government of Israel must immediately end the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, seize all new settlement activities and remove all settlers and settlements in compliance with the advisory opinion of July 2024 of the International Court of Justice.

It must also take all possible preventive measures to prevent to protect Palestinians from settler violence and ensure accountability.

Above all, Israel needs to remove all obstructions to fulfil exercise of Palestinian peoples right to self determination.

The de facto authorities in Gaza, controlled largely by Hamas, must immediately stop all extrajudicial punishments of civilians, including executions, torture and mental, physical and sexual violence, and ensure accountability and reparation to the victims and their families.

The Government of the State of Palestine must also fulfil its obligations and investigate and prosecute crimes committed by armed groups in Gaza to the extent possible.

My final words are directed to the Member States of the United Nations, many of which are represented here today.

All States must fulfil their obligations under international law as provided by the Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice.

States must not recognise as legal situations arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.

This means not to render aid or assistance that supports or maintenance the occupation, including by ending arms transfers and the provision of direct and indirect financial support to settlements.

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According to our practise, we will begin by hearing from the delegations of countries concerned.

And I will first give the floor to Israel.

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I note that the delegation of Israel is not in the room, so I will give the floor to the delegation of State of Palestine.

Excellency, you have 5 minutes.

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I say the race.

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I will now give the floor to the Independent Commission for Human Rights of the State of Palestine.

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Madam Vice President, the Independent Commission for Human Rights, ICHR welcomes the report of the Commission of Inquiry.

ICHR warns that continued international inaction and Israel's entrenched impunity have allowed the occupying power to act without effective restraint in Gaza.

ICI SHAR unequivocally condemns extrajudicial executions, torture, unlawful detention, and unlawful punishment documented in the report.

These grave violations require independent investigation and accountability.

However, while the report recommends grave violations by armed groups in Gaza, it does not address Israel's responsibility for occupation linked armed armed groups or for armed chaos in areas under its effective control.

This gap is critical.

Israel has systematically destroyed Palestinian civil, police, judicial and administrative structure, while enabling conditions in which armed groups operate outside any legal framework.

ICHR has documented occupation linked armed groups involved in abductions, unlawful detention, torture, extrajudicial executions, armed attacks against civilians, intimidation and interference with humanitarian aid.

Israel cannot create, arm, protect, facilitate or tolerate such groups, then evade responsibility for the consequences.

In the West Bank, including E Jerusalem, settler violence backed by political, military, legal and financial support, together with movement restrictions and outpost legalisation, reinforces apartheid and accelerates de facto annexation.

Ochre reported that settler attacks causing causalities or property damage averaged 6 per day in 2026, the highest annual rate on record.

In February 2026, Israel's Security Cabinet approved unprecedented procedures to register West Bank West Bank land as state land, institutionalising land seizure, accelerating de facto annexation and reinforcing apartheid through permanent facts on the ground.

Therefore, ICIHR urges this Council to 1st hold Israel accountable for structure requires in Gaza, including its role in creating, facilitating, tolerating or failing to prevent violations by occupying occupation linked armed groups.

Second, hold Israel accountable for state backed settler violence in the West Bank, including E Jerusalem, and ensure accountability for the official settlers, military actors and institutions enabling such violence.

Third, support the Commission's recommendations to address Israeli settlers in the Secretary General's Children and Armed Conflict report.

Finally, demand an immediate and end to the unlawful occupation, apartheid, annexation and settlement enterprise.

And I thank you.

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HRC 62 - Human Rights in OPT - 15 June 2026