UN report flags ethnic cleansing concerns over Israel’s Gaza actions
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New Delhi: Israel's destruction of Gaza neighborhoods and aid blockades "appeared to aim at a permanent demographic shift," raising fears of ethnic cleansing, the UN's human rights office said in a report to the Human Rights Council.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented patterns from November 2024 to October 2025 showing intensified attacks that "raise concerns over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank," per a February 19 press release. These included forcible transfers and denial of humanitarian aid.
The report highlighted Israeli forces' lethal attacks as potentially deliberate targeting of civilians—acts amounting to war crimes. It noted "continued killing and maiming of unprecedented numbers of civilians," famine in parts of Gaza, and infrastructure devastation creating "conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence" for Palestinians as a group.
OHCHR linked at least 463 starvation deaths, including 157 children, to aid restrictions, warning that large-scale starvation to destroy an ethnic group could constitute genocide.
In the West Bank, it cited systematic force by Israeli security, arbitrary detentions, torture, and home demolitions amid a "pervasive climate of impunity." Israel's justice system has taken no meaningful accountability steps, the report stated.
"Impunity is not abstract – it kills. Accountability is indispensable. It is the prerequisite for a just and durable peace in Palestine and Israel," said High Commissioner for human rights Volker Turk.
The OHCHR also condemned Palestinian Authority force and Hamas abuses against hostages, including sexual violence, torture, and deprivation post the October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostage.
Israel's subsequent Gaza campaign killed over 68,000 Palestinians, damaged 81% of structures, paused by a US-brokered October 10, 2025, ceasefire. Sporadic strikes continue, killing over 600 more, per Gaza officials.
OHCHR infographics noted 20,179 child deaths in Gaza over two years—"a classroom of children killed every day"—and 2,435 Palestinians slain accessing food from May 27 to October 8, 2025.
(With inputs from AP)