The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry has released a report, declaring that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide against Palestinians.
The UN panel, in the report, also held the Israeli government directly responsible for allegedly orchestrating and inciting genocide acts of genocide.
The panel said the report described as the “strongest and most authoritative UN determination to date,” found that Israeli authorities allegedly committed four out of five genocidal acts outlined in the 1948 Genocide Convention, including mass killings, inflicting serious harm, imposing life-destroying conditions, and preventing births within the Palestinian population.
The report also intensified global calls for accountability amid a conflict that has claimed over 64,000 Palestinian lives since October 2023.
The commission, chaired by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and comprising experts Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari, said it based its conclusions on evidence gathered since the war’s onset following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages.
Speaking during a press briefing, Pillay said investigators looked into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, analyzed victim interviews, witness testimonies, medical reports, open-source documents, and satellite imagery to substantiate claims of the alleged systematic destruction.
Pillay said: “We’ve identified the president, the prime minister, and the former minister of defence based on their statements and the orders that they’ve given.
“Because these three individuals were agents of the state, under the law, the state is held responsible. So we say it’s the state of Israel that has committed genocide.
“The Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
The 72-page document also alleged that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed the following:
“Killing members of the group through attacks on protected objects; targeting civilians and other protected persons; and the deliberate infliction of conditions causing deaths.
“Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group through direct attacks on civilians and protected objects; 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 destruction of structures and land essential to Palestinians; destruction and denial of access to medical services; forced displacement; blocking essential aid, water, electricity, and fuel from reaching Palestinians; reproductive violence; and specific conditions impacting children.
“Imposing measures intended to prevent births through the December 2023 attack on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic, destroying around 4,000 embryos, 1,000 sperm samples, and unfertilised eggs.”
However, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed the inquiry findings as “fake” in a post on X, and alleged that the report’s authors were “serving as Hamas proxies”.
“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others,” the ministry said. “Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry,” it added.
Israel’s permanent representative to the UN, Daniel Meron, also condemned the inquiry’s findings and referred to it as “scandalous”, “fake”, and a “libellous rant”.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that this is not the first time that Israel has been formally accused of committing genocide in Gaza.
In 2023, South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice against Israel, which claimed that its conduct in Gaza was tantamount to genocide. That case is ongoing.
In April this year, Amnesty International found that Israel was committing a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza with the “specific intent” of wiping out Palestinians.
The report found that Israeli soldiers “intentionally killed” civilians in Gaza through the use of “wide impact munitions”.
“The Commission therefore concluded that the Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination in the Gaza Strip by killing Palestinian civilians. While the number of victims is not relevant for an act to constitute an act of genocide, the Commission notes that the number of victims may be taken into consideration to establish genocidal intent,” it added.
Israel’s war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, following the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel, which killed 1,139 people and more than 200 were taken captive, of whom 48 remain in Gaza.
