Gaza shelters, forced displacement in West Bank
GENEVA—UN experts* today expressed grave concern over Israeli military attacks affecting sites sheltering displaced Palestinians in the western Gaza City, alongside renewed patterns of forced displacement in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
“This cycle of displacement, terror, and targeted attacks serves an ultimate purpose: to make life unbearable for Palestinians and permanently force them from their land,” the experts said.
“Targeting areas known to shelter displaced civilians is a grave breach of international humanitarian law and is a grim reminder of the urgent need for international action and accountability,” they said.
On 11 March 2026, an Israeli strike near the Qatari Committee building in western Gaza City ignited a fire that spread to nearby tents sheltering internally displaced persons (IDPs). A broader pattern of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip was observed that same night, including multiple airstrikes and artillery shelling.
On 8 March, the shelling of IDP tents in As Sawarha killed two women and one girl and injured 10 others. Between 7 and 8 March, an airstrike on a house in Khan Younis killed a man and his daughter.
“Subjected to multiple displacement orders and widespread destruction affecting 92 per cent of housing, the vast majority of Gaza’s population has already been displaced multiple times which amounts to forcible transfer,” the experts said.
“Civilians in tents and makeshift shelters continue to face severe risks, including attacks, freezing, flooding and building collapse, lack of basic services for their survival and severe humanitarian hardship, with women and children bearing a disproportionate share of deprivation.”
The experts also expressed serious concern over a sharp escalation in forced displacement across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where over 36,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced amid expanding illegal settlement activity and intensifying violence in 2025, according to a new report by the UN Human Rights Office. “This displacement, driven by IDF and State-backed settler terrorism, is ethnically cleansing the West Bank through daily attacks resulting in killing, injury, and harassment of women and children, and the widespread destruction of Palestinian homes, farmland and livelihoods,” they said.
The experts warned of ongoing evictions, demolitions and the imminent risk of further displacement affecting Palestinian families in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.
“The scale and pattern of these actions, occurring alongside mass displacement of Palestinians from their homes and land in Gaza shows once again the ongoing broader policy of ethnic cleansing across the occupied Palestinian territory,” they said. “It is unacceptable that such practices, which constitute crimes against humanity under international law and engage the individual criminal responsibility of those involved, continue unabated.”
The International Court of Justice 2024 Advisory Opinion and the General Assembly’s 2024 Resolution urged Israel to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory by September 2025.
“We reiterate our call on States to bring Israel’s unlawful occupation to an end and ensure the immediate protection of civilians sheltering in displacement sites across the Gaza Strip, including by scaling up of vital humanitarian assistance,” the experts said.
They urged Israel to end all forcible transfer and to safeguard Palestinian communities at risk of forced displacement in the West Bank, facilitate the safe and voluntary return of displaced Palestinians, and guarantee full, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access, including by lifting unlawful restrictions on UNRWA and NGOs that have been prevented from operating in Gaza.
“States must comply with their legal obligations,” the experts said. “They must bring Israel’s unlawful occupation to an end, refrain from recognising it and withhold assistance to it, and take effective measures to ensure investigations and accountability for grave violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The experts:
Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967
Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences
Claudia Flores (Chair), Ivana Krstić (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
Pedro Arrojo Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context
Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organisation, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.
Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal
Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/
UN Human Rights, country page – Israel
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Photo: Displaced Palestinian families shelter in tents amid widespread destruction across the Gaza Strip, January 2026. Source: UNRWA.
