GENEVA
Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a landmark report released on Tuesday.
The commission urged Israel and all states to fulfil their legal obligations under international law to "end the genocide and punish those responsible for it."
After two years of investigations into events since Oct. 7, 2023, the commission concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces committed "four of the five" genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide -- killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
Explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities and the pattern of conduct of Israeli security forces indicate that the genocidal acts were committed "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group," the report said.
"The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza," said Navi Pillay, the chair of the fact-finding mission. "It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention."
According to Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission, responsibility for the atrocity crimes lies with "Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza."
The commission also found that Israel has failed to prevent and punish genocide, through failure to investigate genocidal acts and to prosecute alleged perpetrators. It said Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have incited genocide, while other political and military leaders' statements should also be examined.
Pillay stressed that Israel has "flagrantly disregarded the orders for provisional measures from the International Court of Justice and warnings from member states, UN offices, human rights organizations and civil society groups" and that the authorities "had no intention to change their course of actions."
The report is based on previous investigations as well as factual and legal findings on Israeli military operations in Gaza -- from Oct. 7, 2023 until July 31, 2025 -- which the mission said included killing and seriously harming unprecedented numbers of Palestinians, imposing a total siege that led to starvation, systematically destroying healthcare and education systems, directly targeting children, committing widespread sexual and gender-based violence, and attacking cultural and religious sites.
The commission urged Israel to lift its siege, end its policy of starvation, and allow full humanitarian access, including for UNRWA and UN human rights office staff. It urged Israel to "immediately end the activities" of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as hundreds have been killed while desperately trying to reach the aid in Israeli-controlled zones.
It also called on UN member states to halt arms transfers to Israel, ensure corporations under their jurisdiction are not aiding or assisting genocide, and pursue accountability through investigations and legal proceedings.
"The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity," Pillay said. "Every day of inaction costs lives and erodes the credibility of the international community. All states are under a legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza."
Genocide a 'moral outrage'
Later, addressing a press briefing in Geneva, Pillay stressed that the Genocide Convention was born out of "humanity's darkest chapters."
"Today, we witness in real time how the promise of never again is broken and tested in the eyes of the world.
"The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency, member states must act now," she urged. "There is no need to wait for the International Court of Justice to declare it a genocide."
Asked about the one genocidal act that the commission could not confirm in Gaza, Chris Sidoti, the commissioner, said it was the transfer of children from one group to another group. "We have no evidence that category five has arisen in the case of Gaza or the West," he added.
Israel's remarks 'repetitive and unoriginal'
Sidoti also responded to the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s dismissal of the report as "fake" and its accusations that the commissioners were "serving as Hamas proxies." He criticized the ministry’s remarks as repetitive and unoriginal, suggesting they read like they were "generated by ChatGPT."
He added that Israel consistently avoids engaging with the evidence presented in the reports and instead issues standard denials that, in his words, "no one takes seriously."
The Israeli army has continued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, killing nearly 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, and experts have declared a famine there.
