An independent UN investigation concluded for the first time that Israel committed genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s highest leader incited genocide, known as the “most authoritative UN discovery to date.”
In a 72-page report released on Tuesday, a committee established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) found that Israel has “hard four genocides” at the Enclave since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched a fatal attack on Israel and Israel.
These actions include the murder of Palestinians in Gaza, which are “intentionally given to the group conditions of life calculated to cause physical destruction in whole or in part” on Palestinians, and according to the report, “impose measures aimed at preventing births within the group.”
Nearly 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7th, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Rather than distinguishing civilians from fighter jets, the ministry says that most of the victims are women and children.
The Israeli government has argued that it has firmly denied the genocide accusations in Gaza in accordance with self-defense and international law.
“Israel has defied distorted and false reports and is calling for the immediate abolition of the Committee of Inquiry,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. The investigation described it as a “report that relies entirely on Hamas’ falsehood,” accusing the author of being a mandate of extremist groups. “A horrifying statements about Jews have been condemned all over the world.”
For years, Israel has accused the HRC, which commissioned the report of having anti-Israel bias.
The Trump administration supported Israel and withdrew from UN agencies in 2018 in the first month of Trump’s first and second terms. Israel has consistently argued that it acts in accordance with international law.
However, genocide accusations are growing internationally from within the United States.
Last week, U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “introducing a plan to ethnically clean up Gaza for Palestinians,” and that the US is conspiring.
Earlier this month, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (the world’s largest genocide scholar) said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
In July, Israel’s leading human rights organization became Israel’s first organisation, claiming its country was “violating genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
And in December 2023, South Africa condemned Israel’s genocide in an unprecedented case in the International Court of Justice, stating that the country’s leader “intention to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza.”
The UN Commission report lands when it begins a ground invasion into Gaza city after firing artillery into the city of Gaza in a few weeks despite Israel’s growing international condemnation. Netanyahu admitted the backlash on Monday, saying his country is facing “a kind of isolation” that could last for years.
The report was published by the United Nations International Committee on Independent Index on Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem and Israel.
Commission – The ongoing independent international inquiry committee established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 is led by Navi Pillay, a former UN High Commissioner, a former International Criminal Court judge, a former International Criminal Court judge and a former judge of the International Criminal Court of Rwanda.
Pillay and two other leaders on the committee announced their resignation in July. She said “the weight of age, medical issues and a few other commitments” forced her to step down in November.
The committee cited several examples of Palestinian civilians, journalists, medical professionals and humanitarian workers who were “directly targeted and killed” in Gaza. These killings occurred in places that included homes, hospitals, schools and religious buildings.
The report cited the murder of five-year-old Hindrajab and her family in January 2024 as an example of Israeli security forces attempting to kill civilians despite “they have clear knowledge of the evacuation routes and the presence of Palestinian civilians along safe areas.”
“They shot and killed civilians, some of them (including children) had raised makeshift white flags,” the report said. “Some children, including toddlers, were shot in the head by snipers.”
In addition to civilian shootings, Israeli forces “deliberately killed Palestinian civilians in Gaza using a wide range of ammunition that caused many deaths,” according to the report.
According to the committee, these ammunition were used despite knowledge that it would kill civilians.
“The bombing victims were not selected or targeted as individual civilians. On the contrary, the victims were collectively targeted because of their Palestinian identity,” he said.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using Gaza civilians as human shields and embedding military infrastructure in civilian regions.
Israel imposed a long-standing lockdown on Gaza prior to the attack on October 7th, significantly limiting supply invasions to enclaves. However, after the Hamas attack, Israel launched a “full siege” of the strip “which had a devastating effect on the living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza,” the report said.
“Israel has weaponized withholding life-spanning essentials, particularly by cutting off the supply of water, food, electricity, fuel and other important supplies, including humanitarian aid,” the report said.
The already bleak humanitarian situation has become even more disastrous at the beginning of this year, when Israel imposed an 11-week lockdown on all aid to Gaza in early March. Shortly after the lockdown was lifted in mid-May, the new US and Israeli aid group, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), took over much of the territorial aid distribution. Hundreds of Palestinians were then killed while trying to seek assistance from a site run by a controversial organization.
In August, a non-supporting panel declared hunger in Gaza city and its surrounding areas, saying more than half a million people had been affected.
A UN report on Tuesday said Israel’s decision to grant small amounts of aid to Gaza was “a “facade” to mislead the international community seeking to impose hunger and inhumane living conditions on Palestinians.”
Netanyahu repeatedly denies that starvation is happening in Gaza. In early August, he said, “Israel has no hunger policy. Israel has a policy to prevent hunger.” He said Israel had granted more than 2 million tons of aid to Gaza since the war began.
The GHF said the UN Commission’s report “abolizes falsehood and undermines very humanitarian efforts that claim to reward and protect bad actors.” In a statement, the group said it was the only organisation that could deliver “large scale” food in Gaza, “without interference.”
He also questioned the purpose of Israeli war, stating that “a widespread, intentional targeting of Palestinian children” is evidence that military operations are being implemented not only by physically destroying Hamas but also by eliminating the (Palestinian) groups (Palestinian) groups, but also by (The) eliminating the possibility of having children in the future.
He said that Gaza children are suffering mentally and physically.
“The essence of childhood was destroyed in Gaza,” said one doctor who quoted the report.
He also said that broad hunger means that children are unable to “develop language and meet language milestones,” and could face potential long-term cognitive problems.
Israel also refused to enter Gaza for formula and special infant milk, resulting in “newborns and young infant hunger starvation,” the committee said.
He said this was “particularly strong evidence of its intention to destroy the population.”
Israeli security forces said “rape, sexual torture and other forms of sexual violence have “been committed sexual and gender-based violence” not only as punishment for individuals, but also as part of a pattern of collective punishment to break, humiliate and conquer the Palestinians as a whole.
“This is evident through social media content from Israeli soldiers, where they blatantly demonstrated that they were committing actions to dehumanize the Palestinians,” the committee said.
The report said it heard from many Palestinians who said they were exposed to sexual and gender-based violence during their detention.
The report denounced former Defence Minister Joab for inciting Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and genocide.
“As early as October 7, 2023, Israeli officials issued a statement indicating their intention to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza as a group,” the report said.
“Israel political and military leaders are agents of the Israeli state, and therefore their actions stem from the Israeli state,” he said, adding that “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the intention of a genocide that destroys the striped Palestinians of Gaza.”
In a statement to CNN, Herzog angeredly rejected the report, saying it suffered from a lack of legitimacy that “it is in itself a support for the fight for human rights that was named in their accusations.” Gallant declined to comment at this point. CNN also contacted Netanyahu for comments.
Israel’s closest allies also denounced the findings, and the US State Department calls it “high hypocrisy.”
“Israel has gone to war in self-defense and has consistently taken steps to minimize civilian casualties. It’s not genocide,” a department spokesman told CNN. “This kind of ambiguity by the United Nations is further evidence of moral bankruptcy.”
The Trump administration took action against those considering alleged Israeli war crimes, imposing sanctions on the Justice of multiple International Criminal Courts and the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
Pillay, the chairman of the UN investigation, told CNN on Tuesday that Israel had “predicted” that it would “challenge our findings,” but now it is under personal attacks in the report.
The press release, released alongside the report, was called to the international community “embed any means that they can reasonably utilize to prevent the mandate of Gaza’s genocide.”
“Gaza genocide is unfolding in real time. The state’s legal, moral and political obligations are clear. The world must now act to halt murder, protect the Palestinian people, and support its obligation to prevent and punish genocide crimes.”
