(Jerusalem) - Israeli forces escalated their atrocities in 2025, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2026. Israeli forces killed, maimed, starved, and forcibly displaced Palestinians and destroyed their homes and civilian infrastructure at a scale unprecedented in the recent history of Israel and Palestine.

Israel's campaign in Gaza resulted in the killing of more than 69,000 Palestinians, including more than 19,000 children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. An October US-brokered ceasefire led to the release of the remaining living Israeli hostages in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli detention, most without trial or charge. But grave abuses, including the Israeli authorities' crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians, persist. 

"The rules-based international order that grew out of the ashes of World War II is under assault amid the carnage and destruction in Gaza," said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The ceasefire has not stopped Israel's crimes, nor should it stop other countries from taking urgent action to address ongoing abuses and ensure justice."

In the 529-page World Report 2026, its 36th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Philippe Bolopion writes that breaking the authoritarian wave sweeping the world is the challenge of a generation. With the human rights system under unprecedented threat from the Trump administration and other global powers, Bolopion calls on rights-respecting democracies and civil society to build a strategic alliance to defend fundamental freedoms. 

Source: Human Rights Watch