A United Nations Commission of Inquiry says Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
The report stated that there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, have been carried out by the Israeli government since the beginning of the war with Hamas in 2023.
The report concluded that the Israeli government met the criteria for four of the acts:
- Killing members of a group
- Causing serious bodily and mental harm
- Deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
The fifth act, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group, was not found to have been breached.
The report cited statements by Israeli leaders, including government officials, as well as repeated actions by Israeli forces as evidence of genocidal intent.
The Impacts of the Conflict
Israel’s Foreign Ministry categorically rejected the report, arguing that it was based “entirely on Hamas falsehoods,” and that the facts were both “distorted and false.”
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began in response to the large-scale surprise Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which resulted in around 1,200 people being killed and 251 taken hostage — some of whom are still in captivity in Gaza.
The conflict has resulted in 64,694 people killed in Gaza since the fighting began. According to the territory’s Hamas run Health Ministry, whose figures are regarded as reliable by the UN, the toll continues to rise.
The population has been repeatedly displaced. The OCHA states that 86 percent of the Gaza Strip is now within an Israeli militarised zone, and 737,000 people have been displaced since the breakdown of the most recent ceasefire.
The food security situation remains dire. Acute malnutrition among children under five has more than doubled from March to June, largely due to the eleven week long total Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. Around one in ten children screened in UNRWA health facilities across the Gaza Strip are malnourished. This comes as UN backed food security experts have declared a famine in Gaza City.
More than 90 percent of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, with healthcare, water, and hygiene infrastructure also on the brink of collapse. Health facilities have faced extensive damage, obstacles to safe movement, and restrictions on the entry of medical supplies. UNRWA medical services say they are under-resourced: the agency has run out of nearly 60 percent of essential medicines.
Who’s behind the report ?
The report comes from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate all alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the territory.
The panel is chaired by Navi Pillay, the former president of the international tribunal on the Rwandan genocide and former UN human rights chief. The two other members are Miloon Kothari, an Indian expert on land rights and housing, and Chris Sidoti, an Australian human rights lawyer.
Image: Navi Pillay, Former High Commissioner for Human Rights – David McCreery / UN Geneva
The commission has made other significant conclusions since the start of the 2023 conflict, accusing both Hamas and Israeli security forces of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
While the commission is not a formal UN body, it describes the report as “the strongest and most authoritative UN finding to date” since the beginning of the war.
The 72 page document alleges that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed, and continue to commit, four of the five acts of genocide defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention against Palestinians in Gaza. The Commission set out the evidence for this conclusion as follows:
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births: In an attack on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic in 2023, Israeli forces allegedly destroyed 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs.
- Killing members of the group: Through attacks on protected objects; forces targeted civilians and other protected persons, as well as deliberately inflicted conditions causing deaths.
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group: Through direct attacks on civilians and protected objects, as well as the severe mistreatment of detainees, forced displacement, and environmental destruction.
- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group in whole or in part: Through the destruction of infrastructure essential to the survival of Palestinians including access to medical services as well as forced displacement, and the blocking of aid and essential resources.
Pillay spoke to the BBC regarding the evidence, saying the facts were gathered from “statements made by the Israeli authorities indicating genocidal intent.” The commission also examined “the pattern of conduct of Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces” in Gaza to reach its conclusion.
While Israel’s political and military leaders have consistently stated that military operations in Gaza are conducted in self defence since the October 2023 attacks, the report states that there has been no sufficient attempt to provide life saving support to those facing catastrophic conditions in Palestine.
Israeli authorities maintain that their forces operate in accordance with international law and have taken all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.
However, the report challenged this, referencing comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called for “mighty vengeance” on “all of the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble,” Pillay said.
Pillay added that the reference to the “wicked city” implied that the entire city of Gaza was collectively responsible for Hamas and had become a target for “vengeance.” Netanyahu also advised Palestinians to “leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”
Former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog also came under fire. Gallant said days after 7 October 2023 that Israel was “fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.” Herzog, meanwhile, stated that “it is an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the Hamas led attack.
Image: Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets Israel’s Isaac Herzog – Number 10
President Herzog later condemned the report, saying it had misinterpreted his words.
Pillay and the commission spent two years collecting evidence and making factual findings.
The report also warned that all states have an immediate obligation under the Genocide Convention to “prevent and punish the crime of genocide,” using all measures available to them.
It added that failure to do so could make states complicit.
However, the report received strong condemnation from the Israeli government. Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused the three commission members of serving as “Hamas proxies.”
It claimed that the report’s accusations were “fabrications that have already been thoroughly debunked.”
The Foreign Ministry also asserted that it was Hamas that attempted genocide in Israel — “murdering 1,200 people, raping women, burning families alive, and openly declaring its goal of killing every Jew.”
The Ministry has called for the commission to be abolished.
Despite the report’s findings, the UN is not able to make a legal determination on whether Israel’s actions constitute genocide. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said, “It is for the court to decide whether it is genocide or not.”
The International Court of Justice is currently hearing a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. However, it could take years for the court to reach a conclusion.
Although there have been accusations of genocide and international calls for a ceasefire, Israel continues its military campaign, recently stating it estimates that it will take “several months” to take the city of Gaza.
While no court has yet found Israel guilty of genocide, the recent report carries seismic weight. Next week, world leaders and diplomats will meet at the United Nations General Assembly, where the Israel-Palestine conflict is set to take centre stage.
With Western nations such as the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, and Malta all poised to recognise Palestinian statehood, pressure is mounting for these governments to take further action — with the recent report providing yet more evidence that the war must come to an end.
Israel’s recent strikes on Qatar have complicated matters, violating Qatari sovereignty and targeting the Hamas negotiation team, making diplomatic talks more difficult. What is clear is that international support for Israel is waning, and countries are facing increasing pressure to act.
Featured Image via Kobi Gideon – Prime Minister of Israel
