A United Nations commission of inquiry has concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
The new report has found that Israeli authorities and Israeli forces have committed four of the five acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
These acts are defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and must be committed by a perpetrator with the specific intent to destroy a group in whole or in part for the legal definition of genocide to be reached.
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The latest report from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israel had committed the following acts:
- 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 from the three-member expert panel cited statements by sraeli leaders, and the pattern of conduct by Israeli forces, as evidence of genocidal intent.
The commission states “genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference” that could be concluded from the pattern of conduct of Israeli authorities and security forces in Gaza.
Israel’s foreign ministry dismissed the report as “distorted and false”, with a spokesperson accusing the three experts on the commission of serving as “Hamas proxies.”
The commission is chaired by Navi Pillay, a South African former UN human rights chief who was president of the international tribunal on Rwanda’s genocide.
Speaking to the BBC, Pillay said: “As early as 7 October 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.’
“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. And he told Palestinians to ‘leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere’.”
She 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 report’s findings comes after the world’s leading association of genocide scholars declared earlier this month that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.
Both of these findings are at odds with the British government though, which concluded Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza, according to a letter from then-foreign secretary David Lammy.