Justice Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told Arab News that Palestinians are trapped between two systems of violence: Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank, which rose 130 percent in a single year, and Hamas-affiliated forces carrying out hundreds of executions, beatings, and mutilations in Gaza.
Palestinians Sandwiched Between Two Lawless Groups
“They are trapped,” Muralidhar said. “Trapped from both ends. The borders are all sealed, you have security forces all around you, and then you have to deal with the Palestinian armed groups themselves.” He described the population as “sandwiched between two groups which do not believe in any rule of law, in any form of justice.”
The commission’s latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva documents that settler attacks in the West Bank increased by 130 percent in a single year, while in Gaza, Hamas-affiliated forces carried out 249 cases of executions and severe physical violence between August 2024 and January 2026, resulting in at least 108 deaths and 384 injuries.
Systematic Destruction in Gaza and West Bank
Muralidhar said Gaza and the West Bank are living through conditions designed to be unsurvivable. “These families are now under perpetual fear of attacks at any time, because Israel has consistently and persistently violated the ceasefire,” he said. He pointed to the “systematic destruction of the entire infrastructure in Gaza” — electricity, water, sanitation cut off — making “any form of decent living simply impossible,” and pushing families south into encampments in “extremely insanitary conditions.”
In the West Bank, the commission found settler violence is not the work of rogue individuals but a deliberate extension of state policy. “The period since 2023 has been characterized by a significant rise in large-scale organized attacks against Palestinian villages and agricultural land involving groups of masked attackers, many of them armed and accompanied by Israeli security forces,” Muralidhar said, reading from the findings.
Children Targeted as Victims and Perpetrators
Among the most disturbing findings is the targeting of children — as victims, and increasingly as perpetrators. On April 19, 2025, two siblings, a 12-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, were abducted by settlers while playing outside their home in Beit Furik. The settlers dragged the children at knifepoint to an olive grove, covering their mouths, and tied them to a tree with plastic hand ties before the family found and freed them.
Muralidhar noted that Israeli children, some as young as 12, are being pulled out of school and deployed by settlers to commit violence. “I think this is a systematic attempt at brainwashing the young population of Israel,” he said. “There is a hate being instilled into the young Israeli minds, which is making them actually target other children — younger than them, older than them.”
Sexual Violence Used to Expel Families
The report also documents sexual violence used by settlers to force Palestinian families off their land. In Khirbet Humsa on March 13, 2026, settlers beat women and girls and “threatened them with rape if the family did not leave the land. One man was stripped, sexually assaulted, his genitals zip-tied, and he was dragged and paraded while being beaten.” Israeli police told the commission seven people were arrested, but no investigative or judicial outcomes are known.
Hamas Internal Repression in Gaza
Turning to Gaza, Muralidhar traced Hamas’ internal repression to the collapse of law and order under Israeli assault. The commission documented 249 cases of executions and severe physical violence, including kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks, and beatings framed as punishment for alleged collaboration with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, or theft. Victims’ identities were often published online, exposing them to further violence.
World Inaction and Call for Justice
Muralidhar criticized the international community’s inaction. “We are not finding any concrete action being taken by the world community, despite clear evidence of violation of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and the breach of ceasefire agreements.” He said the commission’s findings go beyond war crimes to crimes against humanity and genocide, and that states party to relevant conventions have a legal obligation to act by exercising universal jurisdiction.
