UN commission confirms Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

An independent United Nations inquiry has concluded for the first time that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s top leaders have incited genocide, in what it described as the “most authoritative UN finding to date.” In a 72-page report released on Tuesday, the commission, which was set up by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), found that Israel has “committed four genocidal acts” in the enclave since October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out deadly attacks on Israel and Israel launched its military campaign.

These acts include the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, causing Palestinians “serious bodily and mental harm,” “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,” according to the report.

Approximately 65,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in Gaza since October 7, as reported by the Palestinian health ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it has indicated that the majority of the casualties are women and children.

The Israeli government asserts that its military actions in Gaza are a form of self-defense and comply with international law, categorically rejecting allegations of genocide.

“Israel categorically rejects the distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of the Commission of Inquiry,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday. It described the inquiry as a “report that relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods” and accused the authors of being proxies for the militant group “whose horrific statements about Jews have been condemned worldwide.”

For many years, Israel has accused the Human Rights Council (HRC), which commissioned the report, of harboring an anti-Israel bias.

The Trump administration supported Israel by withdrawing from the UN body in 2018 during Trump’s first term and again in the first month of his second term. Israel has consistently maintained that its actions are in line with international law. However, allegations of genocide are increasing on a global scale, including from within the United States.

The report was published by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which encompasses East Jerusalem and Israel.

This commission, an ongoing independent international inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, is chaired by Navi Pillay, who has served as a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former judge of the International Criminal Court, and a former judge and president of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The commission provided multiple instances of Palestinian civilians, journalists, healthcare workers, and humanitarian personnel being “directly targeted and killed” in Gaza. These fatalities occurred in various locations, including homes, hospitals, schools, and places of worship, both within designated safe zones and outside of them, as stated in the report.

The report highlighted the January 2024 killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family as an instance where Israeli security forces proceeded to kill civilians despite having “clear knowledge of the presence of Palestinian civilians along the evacuation routes and within the safe areas.”

“They shot at and killed civilians, some of whom (including children) were holding makeshift white flags,” the report said. “Some children, including toddlers, were shot in the head by snipers.”