A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
A new report says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.
It cites statements by Israeli leaders, and the pattern of conduct by Israeli forces, as evidence of genocidal intent.
Israel’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as “distorted and false”.
It accused the three experts on the commission of serving as “Hamas proxies” and relying “entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others” that had “already been thoroughly debunked”.
“In stark contrast to the lies in the report, Hamas is the party 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 added.
An Israeli military official dismissed the report as “baseless”, saying: “No other country has operated in these conditions and done so much to prevent harm to civilians on the battlefield.”
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
At least 64,905 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Most of the population has also been repeatedly displaced; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed food security experts have declared a famine in Gaza City.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate all alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The three-member expert panel is chaired by Navi Pillay, a South African former UN human rights chief who was president of the international tribunal on Rwanda’s genocide. The two other members are Chris Sidoti, an Australian human rights lawyer, and Miloon Kothari, an Indian expert on housing and land rights.
The commission has previously concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other grave violations of international law on 7 October 2023, and that Israeli security forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
The commission said its latest report was “the strongest and most authoritative UN finding to date” on the war. However, it does not officially speak for the UN.
The 72-page document alleges that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit four of the five acts of genocide defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention against a national, ethnic, racial or religious group – in this case, Palestinians in Gaza:
- 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, reportedly destroying around 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs
To fulfil the legal definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention, it must also be established that the perpetrator committed any one of those acts with specific intent to destroy the group in whole or in part.
The commission says it analysed statements made by Israeli leaders and alleges that President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have “incited the commission of genocide”.
It also states that “genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference” that could be concluded from the pattern of conduct of Israeli authorities and security forces in Gaza.
The commission says the pattern of conduct includes intentionally killing and seriously harming an unprecedented number of Palestinians using heavy munitions; systematic and widespread attacks on religious, cultural and education sites; and imposing a siege on Gaza and starving its population.
Israeli political and military leaders have consistently said that the military’s operations in Gaza are conducted in self-defence, to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and to secure the release of Israeli hostages.
They have also insisted that Israeli forces operate in accordance with international law and take all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.
But in an interview with the BBC, Pillay said: “As early as 7 October 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to inflict… ‘mighty vengeance’ on ‘all of the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble’.”
“His use of the phrase ‘wicked city’ in the same statement implied that he saw the whole city of Gaza [Gaza City] as responsible and a target for vengeance. And he told Palestinians to ‘leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere’.”
The commission cited Gallant as saying days after 7 October 2023 that Israel was “fighting human animals, and we act accordingly”. Herzog meanwhile stated that “it’s an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the Hamas-led attack.
Pillay added: “It took us two years to gather all the actions and make factual findings, verify whether that had happened… It’s only the facts that will direct you. And you can only bring it under the Genocide Convention if those acts were done with this intention.”
The commission says the acts of Israeli political and military leaders are “attributable to the State of Israel”, and that the state therefore “bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide”.
It also warns all other countries have an immediate obligation under the Genocide Convention to “prevent and punish the crime of genocide”, employing all measures at their disposal. If they do not, it says, they could be complicit.
“We have not gone so far as to name parties as co-conspirators, or being complicit in genocide. But that is the… ongoing work of this commission. They will get there,” Pillay said.
In July, all three members of the commission announced that they were resigning. Pillay, who is 83, cited her “age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments”, while Pidoti said her retirement marked “an appropriate time to reconstitute the commission”.
The Israeli foreign ministry said on Tuesday that they should not be replaced and called for the commission to be abolished.
A number of international and Israeli human rights organisations, independent UN experts, and scholars have also accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is meanwhile hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israeli forces of genocide. Israel has called the case “wholly unfounded” and based on “biased and false claims”.
