UN legal committee hears calls for accountability over West Bank and Gaza violence
At the UN legal committee’s opening, Palestine’s observer cited thousands of settler attacks and more than 1,300 Gaza deaths. A UN inquiry found institutional Israeli support for settler violence, while the Gaza death toll alone cannot establish the cause of every death.
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The UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee opened its 81st session on 5 October 2026 with delegates discussing international terrorism and the role of law in addressing conflict. The observer for the State of Palestine called for accountability, saying the UN had documented 6,100 settler attacks against Palestinians since 2023 and alleging that the Israeli state supported them. She also said Israel had killed more than 1,300 people in Gaza since a ceasefire was announced about a year earlier. [1]
UN humanitarian agency OCHA records show the scale of settler violence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It lists 4,575 attacks causing casualties or property damage from January 2023 to December 2025, and more than 1,600 in 2026 through 14 September. The figures are broadly comparable with the observer’s tally, but do not reproduce her exact count or her average of about five attacks a day. They count incidents, not people killed or injured, and do not establish state responsibility for each attack. [2] [3] [5]
A UN commission of inquiry has reported evidence beyond the incident count. After examining six selected attacks, it found direct involvement or tacit support by Israeli security forces. It also concluded that state measures enabled settler violence and that Israel had breached its duty to protect Palestinians. The commission acknowledged occasional Israeli condemnations and outpost dismantling, but found no sustained restraint of attacks. Israel rejects allegations that its troops shield settlers, saying such conduct breaches military protocol and is investigated, Reuters reported in June 2026. [6] [7]
On Gaza, OCHA relayed a Ministry of Health total of 1,431 deaths since the announcement of a ceasefire agreement on 10 October 2025, updated through 30 September 2026. The ministry operates under Gaza’s de facto authorities. The update includes people who died of wounds and bodies recovered from rubble, so the cumulative figure does not by itself establish how many died as a result of Israeli attacks after the announcement. [4]
The UN’s Humanitarian Country Team reported in a 1 July 2026 statement that the UN had verified the killing of 196 Palestinians in Israeli attacks near areas where Israeli forces were deployed between 10 October 2025 and early April 2026. That narrower finding documents lethal attacks after the ceasefire announcement, but is not a total for all Gaza or the full subsequent year. [8]
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