The UN human rights office said Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, amount to systemic discrimination against Palestinians.
The report said the situation has drastically deteriorated over the past three years, citing widespread restrictions on daily life.
UN High Commissioner Volker Türk warned that the measures represent severe racial discrimination resembling an apartheid system.
This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before.
Volker Türk said.
Israeli authorities rejected the findings, calling the accusations absurd and politically motivated.
Israel’s mission in Geneva said the report ignored fundamental security threats faced by the country since the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Israel has built around 160 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967, housing about 700,000 Jewish settlers.
Around 3.3 million Palestinians live in the same territory under a separate legal system, according to the report.
The UN said Israeli settlers and Palestinians are governed by different laws, resulting in unequal access to land, resources and justice.
The report concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe the system of segregation was intended to be permanent.
It said the policies violate Israel’s obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.