A UN report warns intensified Israeli attacks and forcible transfers in Gaza and the West Bank raise serious concerns over ethnic cleansing and permanent demographic change.

GENEVA: Israel’s intensified attacks and forcible transfers of Palestinians raise serious concerns over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank, a United Nations report stated.

The UN human rights office said the cumulative impact of Israel’s military conduct and blockade had created conditions increasingly incompatible with Palestinians’ continued existence as a group in Gaza.

Intensified attacks and the methodical destruction of entire neighbourhoods appeared to aim at a permanent demographic shift, the office concluded in its report covering November 2024 to October 2025.

This, together with forcible transfers aiming at permanent displacement, raises concerns over ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.

In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the report cited systematic unlawful force, widespread arbitrary detention and extensive unlawful home demolitions.

These violations were altering the character and demographic composition of the occupied West Bank, raising serious concerns of ethnic cleansing.

The report condemned the continued killing of unprecedented numbers of civilians and the spread of famine in Gaza.

During the reporting period, at least 463 Palestinians, including 157 children, starved to death in the territory.

Palestinians faced the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risking being killed while trying to get food, the report said.

The situation of famine was the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government, with the deaths from hunger foreseeable and repeatedly foretold.

Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups continued to hold Israeli and foreign hostages as bargaining tools.

The rights office said the hostages’ treatment amounted to war crimes.

Israeli forces, Hamas, and other Palestinian armed groups committed serious violations of international humanitarian law and atrocity crimes, the report concluded.

UN rights chief Volker Turk recently warned the world was witnessing rapid steps to change permanently the demography of the occupied Palestinian territory.

The report concluded Israeli practices indicated a concerted effort to consolidate annexation and deny Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

It said a pervasive climate of impunity existed for serious violations by Israeli authorities in the Palestinian territories.

Impunity is not abstract—it kills, Turk said in a statement accompanying the report.

Accountability is indispensable as the prerequisite for a just and durable peace in Palestine and Israel.

 The Sun Malaysia