On Tuesday, UN investigators accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza, aiming to “destroy the Palestinians” there, while holding Israel’s prime minister and other officials responsible for incitement.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which operates independently and has faced significant criticism from Israel, stated that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and continues,” according to commission chief Navi Pillay speaking to AFP.
“The State of Israel bears the responsibility.”
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Israel “categorically rejects” the report.
“Israel fully rejects this misleading and false report, calling for the immediate dissolution of this Commission of Inquiry,” the foreign ministry stated.
The UN commission, which investigates the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, released its latest findings nearly two years after the Gaza war following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack inside Israel.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, nearly 65,000 people have died since the war began.
The vast majority of Gazans have been displaced at least once, with more ongoing displacement as Israel intensifies efforts to take control of Gaza City, where the UN has declared a severe famine.
The COI found that Israeli authorities and forces have committed “four of the five genocidal acts” outlined in the 1948 Genocide Convention since October 2023.
These acts include “killing group members, causing serious bodily or mental harm to group members, deliberately creating living conditions intended to physically destroy the group in whole or part, and imposing measures to prevent births within the group.”
‘Intent to destroy’
Investigators noted that explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities, along with Israeli force patterns, “indicate that the genocidal acts were committed with the intent to destroy… Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.”
The report accused Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister Yoav Gallant of “inciting genocide and failing to act to punish this incitement.”
“The responsibility for these atrocities lies with Israeli authorities at the highest levels,” said Pillay, 83, a former South African judge and former UN human rights chief.
The commission, while not a legal body, can exert diplomatic pressure and gather evidence for potential future court use.
Pillay told AFP the commission is working with the International Criminal Court prosecutor.
“We’ve shared thousands of pieces of information with them,” she noted.
‘Complicity’
“The international community cannot remain silent about the genocidal campaign Israel has launched against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Pillay asserted in her final report.
“Failure to act to stop it amounts to complicity,” she warned.
Since the war began, Israel has faced genocide accusations in Gaza from numerous NGOs, independent UN experts, and even international courts.
Israeli authorities strongly deny these accusations.
The UN itself has not labeled the Gaza situation as genocide, though its aid chief urged world leaders in May to “act decisively to prevent genocide,” and its rights chief recently condemned Israeli “genocidal rhetoric.”
In January last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent “genocide” in Gaza.
Four months later, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In response, US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on two ICC judges and two prosecutors, including travel bans to the United States and asset freezes.
