UN Commission Documents 1,080 Palestinian Deaths in West Bank, Cites Crimes Against Humanity

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory presented a casualty count Tuesday that it says it has documented, not estimated: 1,080 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023, and September 30, 2026.

The breakdown given by commission member Srinivasan Muralidhar of India at a hybrid briefing lists 784 men, 237 boys, 22 women and seven girls. The commission also documented 10,009 Palestinians injured by Israeli forces in the same territory over the same period.

Those figures cover the West Bank only. They are separate from, and in addition to, the death toll in Gaza, which the commission's members referenced but did not fold into Tuesday's West Bank data.

Legal findings

Commission member Chris Sidoti of Australia told the briefing that the body's legal analysis found Israel's political and military authorities responsible for crimes against humanity in the West Bank, including extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other sexual violence, carried out through what he described as the intentional targeting of Palestinian civilians.

Florence Mumba of Zambia, the third commission member, said the pattern behind the killings and injuries reflects a land-acquisition strategy.

"It's obvious that the aim by the Israeli authorities and the settlers is to get as much land as possible, get the Palestinians out of the area by ill-treating them, killing them, sexual violence against them, killing the children," Mumba said.

A call to cut assistance

Muralidhar used the briefing to press the Security Council and member states, naming the United States specifically, to reconsider political, military and economic assistance to Israel. He argued that without sustained international pressure, the violence documented in the West Bank, and what he called Israel's ongoing acts of genocide in Gaza, will continue unresolved.

"Unless there is sufficient pressure brought upon by the international community... to take decisive action in stopping Israel from continuing with its acts of genocide in Gaza and crimes against humanity in West Bank, we are not going to see any resolution," Muralidhar said.

The commission also called on all states not to recognize Israel's occupation or its settlements as lawful, a position consistent with its earlier findings but delivered here alongside a specific, numbered casualty record rather than general condemnation.

What the record does and does not establish

The commission's findings are the product of an official UN investigative mandate, and its casualty figures and age/sex breakdown are presented as documented data rather than estimates. Its conclusion that Israel committed crimes against humanity is a legal determination by the commission, not a court ruling, and Israel has historically rejected the commission's mandate and findings. The characterization of events in Gaza as genocide, voiced by Muralidhar, remains a disputed legal question internationally, separate from the West Bank casualty data presented Tuesday.

The West Bank has seen escalating Israeli military operations and settler violence since October 2023, a period during which international attention has focused overwhelmingly on Gaza. Tuesday's briefing puts a specific, sourced number on what has been happening in the West Bank over the same three years.