UN commission finds Israel committed genocide in Gaza; Israeli government rejects report
Independent inquiry says there are reasonable grounds that Israeli actions since October 2023 meet four genocidal acts; report accuses senior Israeli leaders of incitement
A United Nations commission of inquiry has concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, finding evidence that four of the five acts enumerated in the 1948 Genocide Convention have been carried out since the start of the war with Hamas in October 2023. The report, published by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, says statements by Israeli leaders and a pattern of conduct by Israeli forces show genocidal intent.
The commission says the acts it found include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the group’s destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births. The panel also alleges widespread forced displacement, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the obstruction of essential aid, and reproductive harm linked to an attack on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic that reportedly destroyed thousands of embryos and sperm samples.
The three-member commission, chaired by former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, says it analysed statements by Israeli political and military leaders and concluded those statements, taken with operational conduct, supported an inference of genocidal intent. The report singles out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for rhetoric the commission says amounted to incitement to genocide.
The panel reported a pattern of attacks it described as intentionally lethal to protected persons and objects, including religious, cultural and educational sites, and said the siege of Gaza had produced conditions amounting to inhumane deprivation of food, water and medicine. The commission also documented large-scale population displacement, noting orders by the Israeli military for civilians in Gaza City to move south, which affected roughly one million people, and cited assessments from UN-backed food security experts who declared famine conditions in parts of Gaza.
Israel’s government rejected the findings, calling the report "distorted and false" and accusing the three experts of serving as "Hamas proxies" who relied on what it called "Hamas falsehoods." The foreign ministry said Israel’s actions were directed at dismantling Hamas and defending Israeli citizens after the unprecedented 7 October 2023 attack in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israeli officials contend their forces act in accordance with international law and take measures to mitigate civilian harm.
The conflict has produced heavy casualties and destruction. The Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas, has reported tens of thousands killed since October 2023. The commission highlighted the scale of civilian harm and the collapse of health, water and sanitation systems, as well as the damage to housing and essential services.
Legally proving genocide is difficult and requires demonstration of a specific intent to destroy a protected group in whole or in part. The commission says it took two years to verify and assemble factual findings and that the only reasonable inference from the combined evidence was genocidal intent. It concluded that the acts of political and military leaders could be attributed to the State of Israel and said the state therefore bears responsibility for failing to prevent, for committing, and for failing to punish genocide.
The report also warned that other states have immediate obligations under the Genocide Convention to prevent and punish genocide, adding that failure to act could amount to complicity. The commission said further work remains, including potential findings about third-party involvement.
The findings arrive against a divided international backdrop. Israel and the United States boycott the UN Human Rights Council and have accused it of bias. Several Western governments and Gulf states have expressed growing criticism of Israel’s conduct, and some nations are preparing diplomatic moves at the UN General Assembly that could alter debates about Palestinian statehood. Prime Minister Netanyahu denounced those proposals as rewarding terrorism and said Palestinians would not be granted independence on land he described as integral to Israel’s security.
Legal proceedings are already underway elsewhere. South Africa has brought a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide; that process is expected to take years. The UN commission’s report is likely to deepen international divisions and may influence political and legal steps in multiple fora.
The commission’s publication does not itself trigger prosecutions. It calls on states and international institutions to consider measures to prevent and punish the crime of genocide and to act on the factual record it presents. Israel maintains that its military campaign is targeted at Hamas and necessary for national defence, while the commission and multiple human rights organisations say the evidence merits urgent international attention and action.