Israel committed genocide in Gaza, says United Nations
Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a commission of inquiry set up by the United Nations said on Tuesday.A new report by the panel said that there were reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since the start of the conflict between the Israeli forces and Palestinian militant group Hamas in October 2023.
The acts were killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.
The report cites statements made by Israeli civilian and military leaders and the pattern of conduct by the Israeli forces as evidence that the acts “were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group”.
Navi Pillay, the chairperson of the panel, said it is clear that there is an intent on Israel’s part “to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention”.
The UN panel concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who was the country’s defence minister between 2022 and 2024, “incited the commission of genocide” and that Israeli authorities failed to act against them to punish the incitement.
The commission recommended that member nations of the UN must stop the export of weapons and other equipment to Israel that may be used to commit genocidal acts. UN members must also ensure that persons and companies in their territories “are not involved in aiding and assisting the commission of genocide”, the report said.
It added that UN members must act against individuals or firms “that are involved in the genocide directly or indirectly”.
Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the report, describing it “distorted and false”. It demanded that the commission be immediately abolished.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on besieged Gaza since then, leaving more than 62,600 persons dead.
In August, the UN formally declared a famine in northern Gaza, warning that it could spread from the Gaza Governorate to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis in the coming weeks.
Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks since July 6. Earlier efforts to reinstate a brief ceasefire that took effect in January had stalled due to disagreements between the two sides.
The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the report published by the inquiry commission relies entirely on Hamas’ “falsehoods, laundered and repeated” by others.
Tel Aviv said that the report had been released by “three individuals serving as Hamas proxies, notorious for their openly antisemitic positions – and whose horrific statements about Jews have been condemned worldwide…”.
The three-member commission comprises Pillay, a South African former UN human rights chief, as its chairperson. Pillay was the president of the international tribunal on the Rwandan genocide.
The other two members are Miloon Kothari from India, a former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, and Chris Sidoti, a former Australian human rights commissioner.
The Israeli foreign ministry said that in contrast to UN 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”.
It added: “Miraculously, all three authors of this fabricated report have recently resigned. They should not be replaced.”
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