UN Commission: Israeli Occupation Seeks Permanent Control Of Gaza, Jewish Majority In Opts

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GENEVA, Sept 23 (KUNA) -- The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, warned of the Israeli occupation Government's clear intent to establish permanent control over the Gaza Strip and ensure a Jewish majority in the West Bank and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories (OPTs).
I a new report, issued in Geneva on Tuesday, the Commission Chair Navi Pillay expressed shock by the Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich's recently announced plan of annexing 82 percent of the occupied West Bank and by the approval of a plan cementing the E1 settlement expansion with Prime Minister Netanyahu asserting that this will ensure there will be no Palestinian State.
Pillay stressed that these developments corroborate the Commission's findings on Israeli expansion in the West Bank and the displacement of Palestinians, which Israeli officials now openly declare as a policy goal.
She underlined the urgent need for widespread condemnation of such plans and "abhorrent" statements.
The report identified six Israeli ministers as likely bearing the most responsibility for international crimes relating to land and housing as well as other crimes identified in the Commission's previous reports Former Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant and current Minister of Defence Israel Katz are responsible for actions of Israeli security forces in Gaza Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of Settlements and National Projects Orit Strock are jointly responsible for driving settlement construction and expansion in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem.
It accused Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir of being responsible for mistreatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli occupation prison authorities.
It also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being ultimately responsible for Israeli occupation's conduct in the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and is directly responsible for ordering the commission of acts that constitute war crimes crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide.
The commission stated that Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence Galant are also responsible for the crime of incitement to genocide.
The Commission found that Israeli occupation had extensively and systematically destroyed civilian infrastructure in Gaza especially in corridors and the buffer zone expanding areas under its control to 75 percent of the Strip by July 2025, saying these measures severely undermined Palestinians' ability to exercise their right to self-determination.
The Commission concluded that the destruction of civilian facilities and the forcible transfer of residents deliberately deprived Palestinians of essential resources for survival amounting to acts of genocide by imposing living conditions calculated to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza in whole or in part.
"Israel must immediately cease the confiscation of Palestinian land in Gaza including for the creation and expansion of the buffer zone and corridors and return all confiscated lands to their Palestinian owners," Pillay stressed.
The report further noted that since October 2023 Israeli occupation policies in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem have shown clear intent to forcibly transfer Palestinians expand Jewish settlement presence and annex the territory in its entirety, moves that block the possibility of Palestinian statehood entrench indefinite occupation, and encourage settler violence.
The Commission documented that Israeli occupation military operations in Jenin Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps since early 2025 had altered the geographic landscape by destroying buildings and infrastructure and displacing residents.
It also found that successive Israeli occupation governments inside Israel had enacted laws and policies restricting Palestinian towns preventing integration into Jewish localities and deepening socio-economic barriers. Some laws were explicitly discriminatory while others had discriminatory effects reinforcing segregation.
The Commission stressed that similarities between land and housing policies applied to Palestinians inside Israel and those in the West Bank indicate the existence of a comprehensive strategy aimed at securing a Jewish majority across all territories under Israeli control thereby undermining Palestinian geographical self-determination.
The Commission urged the Israeli occupation to cease committing genocide in Gaza immediately comply fully with the International Court of Justice's provisional measures and its 2024 advisory opinion end the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory dismantle settlements and repeal discriminatory land and housing policies inside Israel.
The Commission's report will be presented to the 80th session of the UN General Assembly on October 28, 2025.
Earlier this month the Commission accused Israeli occupation of committing four out of five genocidal acts in Gaza with the intent to destroy Palestinians reiterating that responsibility for committing genocide and for failing to prevent and punish it lies with Israel as a State. (end)
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