World / Tue, 27 Oct 2026 TheWire.in

Muralidhar Takes on US, Israeli Criticism of UN Report on Gaza Genocide

A UN Commission of Inquiry report accuses Israel of continuing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank despite the ceasefire. Commission member Justice (Retd) S. Muralidhar rebutted Israeli and US criticism of the findings. A UN Commission of Inquiry report accuses Israel of continuing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank despite the ceasefire. Commission member Justice (Retd) S. Muralidhar rebutted Israeli and US criticism of the findings. In his opening remarks to the presentation of the report, Muralidhar said the killing of unarmed Palestinians had continued in Gaza and the West Bank despite the ceasefire.

Justice (Retd) S. Muralidhar, via Wikimedia Commons. Backdrop: Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

New Delhi: A new UN report that reasserts the charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and documents its continuation even after the October 2025 “ceasefire” triggered sharp exchanges yesterday at the United Nations between Israeli and American diplomats on one side and the Indian head of the UN commission which authored the report, Justice (Retd) S. Muralidhar, on the other.

The report, submitted to the General Assembly, concluded that Israeli authorities and forces continued to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide after the ceasefire.

Israel’s envoy to the UN dismissed the report as “historical fiction”, while the United States called its findings baseless and accused the UN of institutionalised antisemitism.

Responding to the remarks, Muralidhar described the US representative’s remark that Israel was treated as “the Jew among nations” as “a thoughtless and tasteless comment, and maybe even racist”.

“I would strongly resist this attempt by the United States to delegitimise the work of this commission,” he said during the exchange at the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on Monday.

Muralidhar defended the commission’s methodology, saying its conclusions rested on evidence collected and analysed under established protocols aligned with those of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. “We don't arrive at conclusions unless we are completely satisfied,” he said, adding that the commission was prepared to share its evidence with any adjudicatory body.

He also rejected the allegation that the commission had ignored Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. “I must also point out to the representative of Romania that this commission was among the earliest to bring out a full-fledged report on what happened on October 7, 2023.

Also read: UN Inquiry Says Israel Continues Genocide in Gaza Through Deliberate Targeting of Palestinian Children

This commission has listed out the atrocities committed by Hamas. Only in June this year, we submitted a separate report on the actions of non-state actors, which included those of the Palestinian armed groups and Hamas,” he said.

Muralidhar also condemned Israel’s personal attacks on members of the commission, including Navi Pillay, who was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. “It is also extremely regrettable that the stellar reputation of Ms. Navi Pillay, the most deserved winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is sought to be tarnished in this way, and I think that should be condemned,” he said.

The report examined killings and bodily and mental harm inflicted by Israeli and Palestinian actors since October 2023, including sexual and gender-based violence, as well as the underlying causes of the continuing violence. Israel had not responded to two requests for information from the commission.

According to the report, more than 72,600 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and more than 1,000 in the West Bank between October 7, 2023 and October 9, 2025.

After the ceasefire, between October 10, 2025 and September 30, 2026, another 1,431 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 137 in the West Bank.

In his opening remarks to the presentation of the report, Muralidhar said the killing of unarmed Palestinians had continued in Gaza and the West Bank despite the ceasefire. “Israel is acting with impunity, and it is high time for the world community to act, and it should act now,” he said.

Muralidhar addressed the committee by video after not receiving a visa to travel to the United States. He said the absence of in-person engagement meant that “the voices of the victims and witnesses which form the basis of the Commission’s findings are reduced to mere electronic transmissions rather than through personal engagement”

The commission’s findings, the report noted, contradicted a May 2026 report by the Board of Peace to the Security Council, which claimed that the ceasefire had largely held and brought “enormous relief to the civilian populations”.

The commission investigated seven cases of killings and bodily or mental harm in the West Bank between November 2023 and June 2026, documenting six. It found that the victims were unarmed and posed no threat, and concluded that Israeli soldiers had intentionally killed them. Most of the victims were children, including an infant.

One case concerned a 7-month-old baby killed in Hebron on June 5, 2026. According to the report, the child’s father slowed down and stopped his car before raising his hands, but an Israeli soldier fired two rounds into the vehicle, hitting the baby in the head. The Israeli military claimed that the car had accelerated towards soldiers.

In another case, on March 15, 2026, a family travelling in a car in Tammun came under fire. The mother, father and two younger sons were killed by shots to the head, while two older sons were injured and assaulted, the report said.

Also read: 20,179 Children Killed in Genocide, Over 12 Lakh Kids Food-Deprived: Gaza Health Ministry

The commission recorded a sharp increase in Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank, with six Palestinians killed in such strikes between 2008 and October 6, 2023, compared with 254 between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2026. As of August 2026, 34,176 Palestinians remained displaced following Israeli military operations.

The report concluded that Israeli military operations and settler violence in the West Bank formed part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population”. It said they served common objectives, including “the entrenchment of Israeli settlements, the annexation of Palestinian territory and the displacement of Palestinians from their land”. It also found that Israel had committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as persecution in the West Bank.

On sexual violence in detention, the commission said it had verified four additional cases since its March 2025 report. These included gang rape, genital violence, groping, threats, forced nudity and invasive cavity searches. Some cases involved detainees from the West Bank. The report said sexual violence was used “to displace, subjugate and destabilise the Palestinian people”.

The commission also examined actions by Palestinian Authority security forces. It found that they had increasingly used unnecessary or disproportionate force against Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, and that the authority had failed to conduct effective and impartial investigations into killings or ensure remedies for victims and their families.

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