A United Nations commission of inquiry declared on Tuesday that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, marking a significant step in the ongoing conflict’s international legal scrutiny.
The commission’s latest report alleges that Israeli authorities and Israeli forces have committed 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.
The report points to statements from Israeli officials, alongside the conduct of Israeli forces, to suggest a pattern of genocidal intent, reports the BBC.
Israel’s foreign ministry has rejected these allegations, labeling them “distorted and false.” A spokesperson further criticised the three members of the commission, accusing them of being “Hamas proxies” and relying on what they called “Hamas falsehoods.”
The spokesperson further claimed, “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 Israeli military’s operations in Gaza are a response to a massive Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 64,905 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since that time.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has also been devastating. Over 90% of homes have been damaged or destroyed, vital infrastructure such as water and sanitation systems has collapsed, and a famine has been declared in Gaza City by UN-backed experts. Thousands of displaced people continue to suffer from the escalating violence.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, formed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, investigates all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.
Chaired by Navi Pillay, a South African human rights expert and former president of the international tribunal on Rwanda’s genocide, the three-member panel’s report focuses on the destruction in Gaza and its consequences for the Palestinian people.
For an act to be classified as genocide under the Genocide Convention, it must be carried out with specific intent to destroy the group in whole or part. The commission states that statements made by Israeli leaders, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, strongly suggest this intent.
The report further asserts that “genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference” drawn from Israel’s pattern of conduct, including mass killings, widespread attacks on cultural and religious sites, and the implementation of a blockade leading to the starvation of Gaza’s population.
Israel’s government maintains that its military actions are targeted only at Hamas and aim to dismantle the group’s military capabilities, insisting that its forces adhere to international law and take steps to minimize harm to civilians.
However, as Navi Pillay noted in an interview with the BBC, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rhetoric has raised questions about Israel’s intentions.
“As early as October 7, 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,'” Pillay said.
“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.”
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 also declared that Israel, as a state, bears responsibility for failing to prevent and punish genocide and warned that all nations have an obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. If they do not, it says, they could be complicit.
Several human rights organisations, including both international and Israeli groups, have leveled similar accusations of genocide against Israel, with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing a case filed by South Africa.
Israel has dismissed the case as “wholly unfounded” and based on “biased and false claims.”
