Remarks to the press on missing persons in Gaza

Ajith Sunghay – Head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Human remains believed to belong to 96 people from three Palestinian families have been recovered from under the rubble in Gaza City this month, around half were women and children.

One family, the Malakas, had lost 72 members in Israeli airstrikes on the family homes in November 2023. Only three bodies were recovered at the time. Remains believed to belong to 55 more members of the family were among those recovered this month. The remaining 14 family members are still missing beneath the rubble. Like many in Gaza, they may never be recovered. The sheer explosive power of heavy munitions sometimes left no recoverable remains. And it is increasingly difficult to distinguish rubble from remains as the years pass.

A survivor of the attack on the Malaka family homes told us that, for nearly three years, he felt “buried” beneath layers of grief and pain: “The pain of knowing they still lie in ruins, the pain of being unable to recover and bury them, and the ultimate pain of losing them.”

It is estimated that at least 8,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble across the strip. Palestinian Civil Defence teams have recovered over 800 bodies since the announcement of a ceasefire in October 2025 despite severe shortages of equipment, fuel, and personnel. At this pace, completing the recovery of the remaining bodies will take at least 10 more years. Even longer when accounting for the time needed to identify bodies, if it is ever possible.

It’s Israel’s obligation under international law to do everything possible to ensure these remains are found, identified, and buried with dignity in accordance with the families’ religious and cultural beliefs. Instead, the collective impact of Israel’s conduct is making any systematic, large-scale search, recovery, and identification effort nearly impossible.

Some families, like the Malakas, have been unable to recover the remains of their loved ones due to the lack of resources. Israeli authorities have been blocking the entry of the heavy machinery and trained personnel needed for large-scale recovery. At present, Palestinian Civil Defence teams report having only one excavator left and, at times, being forced to dig through rubble with their bare hands.

Some families in Gaza cannot reach the areas where their missing family members were killed to search for their remains. Israeli forces surround the Palestinian population in Gaza from all sides along the constantly shifting, so-called “yellow line”. Most of the territory of Gaza is now beyond the yellow line — inaccessible to Palestinians, including Civil Defence teams and families of missing persons. Reports are also mounting about Israeli soldiers removing and crushing rubble there — rubble laden with people’s remains.

Even when bodies are recovered, families are often unable to identify them. Israel has been blocking the entry of forensic and identification tools such as DNA and fingerprint kits, leaving families to identify remains by physical characteristics, or by guessing based on the location of the recovery.

If a natural disaster caused this scale of crisis, international mechanisms, deployment of specialized search and forensic teams, and massive resources to support large-scale operations of search, recovery, and identification would all be triggered. Yet the needs here, despite the human causes this time, are just as great, and I would urge similar kind of joined-up response here.
This predictably risks the loss of evidence needed to ensure every individual responsible for atrocity crimes is held to account. It also prolongs the anguish of thousands of families already living in perpetual fear, insecurity, and want. They have a right to know the fates of their children, parents, siblings, and cousins. They have a right to mourn them with dignity. And they have a right to justice.

Also read the statement by Volker Türk: "Türk says recovery of remains in Gaza three years later adds to Palestinian trauma", on missing persons in Gaza: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/09/turk-says-recovery-remains-gaza-three-years-later-adds-palestinian-trauma
 

Occupied Palestinian territory: UN report on large-scale violations, including atrocity crimes

Briefing on UN Human Rights High Commissioner's report on Israeli settlements Remarks by Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights - Palestine

Since the end of the period covered by this report, the pace of the concerted efforts by the Israeli government to seize as much Palestinian land as possible, with as few Palestinians in it as possible, is only becoming more relentless. To this end, Palestinians are pushed out of their homes and off their lands every day, to make room for more expansion of illegal settlements.

Israeli senior officials’ statements point to a policy to thwart Palestinian statehood and to do maximum, irreversible damage to Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Today, I will brief you on just a few trends that continued to intensify after the period covered by the report.

First, an enabling policy and legislative environment continues to facilitate settlement expansion. In February 2026, the Israeli cabinet adopted decisions that will further extend Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, allow more Israeli land seizures, and allow settlers to purchase land from Palestinians in an environment where such transactions cannot be considered voluntary.

Second, Palestinians live with even more violence, restrictions and discrimination than they did just four months ago at the end of the reporting period.

Since the beginning of 2026, Israeli settlers have killed seven Palestinians across the West Bank — a significantly increased rate compared to the eight Palestinians killed by settlers in all of 2025.

Since the start of the conflict in the region on 28 February, the situation has become worse. Israeli security forces have continued to kill Palestinians with impunity, including a killing of a 17-year-old this morning, and an incident last Sunday when they opened fire on a car in Tubas and killed two parents with their two sons aged five and six.

In the same timeframe, Israeli security forces have also launched daily raids across the West Bank, seized dozens of Palestinian homes for several hours or several days to use as interrogation centres, and detained at least 200 Palestinians including for social media posts labelled as “incitement” or “glorification of the enemy”.

Israeli authorities have tightened the already heavy, discriminatory closures and movement restrictions across the West Bank, tearing communities apart and impeding Palestinians’ access to healthcare, livelihoods, education, and basic services.

Yet, Israeli settlers are roaming free with complete impunity, often armed, forcing Palestinian family after Palestinian family off their lands. As a result, at least nine Palestinian communities have been fully or partially displaced since 28 February, mostly in the northern Jordan Valley.

Over the weekend, we received harrowing accounts from the residents of one of the last standing communities there, Khirbet Humsa. According to our monitoring, dozens of settlers attacked the community and assaulted Palestinian men and women in front of their children, stole livestock, and apparently sexually assaulted a young man in a horrifying way.

This violence is clearing Palestinians from the area while a new separation barrier is being constructed that will close this part of the northern Jordan Valley to Palestinians entirely.

Third, settlement expansion is also accelerating.

Last December, Israeli authorities approved 19 new settlements. This includes settlements in the northern West Bank where, last year, Israeli security forces had expelled at least 32,000 Palestinians who remain displaced to this day.

In January 2026, Israeli authorities issued tenders for the construction of thousands of settlement units in the so-called E1 area. This expansion will likely sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and disrupt territorial continuity in the West Bank between north and south.

Before I close, I want to stress that Palestinians in Gaza are also still living under conditions of precarity and dehumanization, even five months after the ceasefire.

671 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military operations since this ceasefire, both in the vicinity of Israeli forces’ deployment lines, and far away in homes, tents, and on the streets. Thousands remain missing, buried under rubble or forcibly disappeared. The entry and flow of humanitarian aid is not reliable as quantities change, many essential goods are still blocked, and crossings are not dependably open.

The events of the past two and a half years in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have not only caused one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our lifetimes but also presented a severe human rights crisis, with the risk of further reverberations across the region and the world. This is a time to strengthen respect for human rights and humanitarian law. Ending the disturbing trends of violations, occupation and impunity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a good place to start.

Remarks to the press- as delivered

Before speaking to you today about our latest report on the occupied West Bank, I would like to start with the tragic developments overnight in Gaza, where we are hearing reports of hundreds being killed, many of them civilians, in a wave of Israeli strikes.

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 326 Palestinians were killed, including many women and children. The Israeli military had already killed at least 106 Palestinians since the ceasefire started in January up to last night, mostly in and around “no-go” zones along the edges of Gaza.

The Israeli military reportedly hit residential buildings, schools and IDP camps - a trend that has been documented extensively by our Office since October 2023. We are again seeing the scenes of mutilated bodies of children, and bodies wrapped in shrouds. The Israeli military also issued a displacement order from several parts of Gaza- indicating a return to a pattern which led to the forced displacement of 90 per cent of the Palestinian population in Gaza, often several times. It is unacceptable, even unimaginable, to once again find ourselves talking about this instead of supporting a path towards meaningful recovery and sustainable peace.

The situation is compounded by the blockade on Gaza. For over two weeks now, Israel has closed all crossings and prevented the entry of humanitarian aid, fuel, and all other supplies. We are also concerned about reported plans to cut off the little that remains of the water supply. With no fuel, no electricity, and no aid, how can bakeries, water desalination plants, and other critical infrastructure operate? How long before all food runs out and we’re again facing hunger and starvation?

We once again remind Israel of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law’s fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack. Any targeting of civilians not directly participating in hostilities is a war crime and must stop, immediately; the blockade of Gaza amounts to collective punishment and must stop, immediately; and the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a crime under international law.

Simply, this violence, and the killing must stop immediately. The hostages must be released. Those arbitrarily detained must also be freed.

Now to the report we are putting before you today, which points to another deeply concerning trajectory taking place in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Israel is taking serious and accelerated steps to annex more and more parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory in violation of international law.

In the West Bank, settlements are expanding at an alarming rate. This is coinciding with a series of legislative and policy steps that are increasingly allowing for land appropriation from Palestinians and further facilitating the extension of Israeli sovereignty and laws over the West Bank.

The rampant forcible displacement of Palestinians from their homes and lands in the West Bank further exacerbates the situation. We are witnessing a violent and ever-expanding Israeli operation that started last January in the northern parts of the West Bank, particularly Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas. This operation has so far killed 59 Palestinians, displaced tens of thousands, and emptied entire refugee camps.

Displacement is further fueled by continuously increasing home demolitions and evictions, settler violence that can no longer be separated from state violence, and daily appropriation of Palestinian land on alleged “security grounds” only to be later allocated to serve settlers.

We have a clear legal pathway to follow here, confirmed last year by the International Court of Justice. The occupation of the Palestinian territory must end as rapidly as possible, all Israeli settlers must be evacuated, and all settlement of this territory must cease immediately. The international community has a strong mandate to take meaningful action to prevent annexation and ensure Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Member States must act now.