- A UN Commission of Inquiry concludes Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
- The report accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu and top Israeli officials of inciting extermination.
- Evidence includes mass killings, starvation, displacement, and destruction of medical facilities.
- Rights groups call on the ICC and global community to prosecute Israeli leaders.
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry has concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, directly accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials of inciting acts aimed at exterminating the Palestinian population. The damning 72-page report, released Tuesday in Geneva, represents the most forceful legal finding yet against Israel and adds weight to mounting global calls for accountability.
Navi Pillay, head of the Commission and a former International Criminal Court judge, described the devastation in Gaza as “a moral outrage and a legal emergency,” stressing that Israel’s actions over nearly two years amounted to a systematic campaign of destruction. “The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” she said.
The report catalogues a harrowing list of atrocities: the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, deliberate starvation through aid blockages, mass displacement, the targeting of hospitals and schools, and even the destruction of Gaza’s sole fertility clinic—acts that the Commission ruled fall under four of the five categories of genocide as defined by the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention.
Israel’s Denial and Anger
Israel reacted angrily, dismissing the findings as “scandalous” and “fake.” President Isaac Herzog, named in the report, said it twisted his words and painted Israel as the aggressor while ignoring Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault that killed 1,200 Israelis and resulted in 251 hostages.
READ MORE: UN inquiry finds top Israeli officials incited genocide in Gaza
“This morally bankrupt Commission obsesses over blaming the Jewish state, whitewashing Hamas’s atrocities, and turning victims into the accused,” Herzog declared.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Daniel Meron, branded the commission members “Hamas proxies,” accusing them of pursuing a political agenda. Israel has refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Yet Pillay challenged Israel’s dismissal: “I wish they would tell us where we went wrong on these facts, or just cooperate with us.”
Death, Starvation, and Forced Exodus
Since the war began in October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry says more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, with tens of thousands more wounded. Entire neighborhoods in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah have been reduced to rubble. Local and international monitors warn that large parts of the population face famine due to Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid.
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The Commission cited testimony from survivors, doctors, and aid workers, supported by satellite imagery and verified open-source evidence. Particularly chilling was its analysis of official rhetoric: Netanyahu’s November 2023 letter to Israeli soldiers likening the Gaza campaign to a “holy war of total annihilation,” and former defense minister Yoav Gallant’s comments dehumanizing Palestinians as “animals.”
Echoes of Rwanda
Pillay, who oversaw the U.N. tribunal on Rwanda, drew stark parallels between Gaza and the 1994 genocide. “You dehumanise your victims—call them animals—and therefore, without conscience, you can kill them,” she said. “We have seen this before, and the world swore ‘never again.’ Yet here we are, watching it unfold in Gaza.”
The report adds to growing legal scrutiny of Israel’s conduct. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is already hearing a genocide case brought by South Africa.
Escalation on the Ground
The release of the report coincided with Israel’s long-threatened ground assault on Gaza City. Defence Minister Israel Katz declared, “Gaza is burning,” as tanks and infantry pushed deeper into urban areas. Residents described the most intense bombardment in two years, with bodies trapped under rubble and thousands of civilians fleeing on foot, donkey carts, and overcrowded vehicles.
“They are destroying residential towers, mosques, schools, and roads,” said Abu Tamer, a 70-year-old resident fleeing south. “They are wiping out our memories.”
Palestinian health authorities reported at least 75 killed on Tuesday alone, many of them children. Three more Palestinians died of starvation in the past 24 hours, raising Gaza’s hunger death toll to at least 428.
International Alarm and Calls for Justice
U.S. President Donald Trump stood firmly by Israel, warning Hamas of “hell to pay.” But European leaders threatened sanctions, with the EU expected to suspend certain trade provisions.
Secretary-General António Guterres described the war as “morally, politically, and legally intolerable,” while human rights groups urged immediate international action.
“Never again was meant to be a promise, not a slogan,” Pillay reminded world leaders. “Silence and inaction make the international community complicit.”
Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, urged the U.N. Security Council to refer Israel’s actions to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.
For Palestinians, however, justice remains distant as bombs continue to fall. Families dig through rubble, searching for loved ones. “It is like escaping from death towards death,” said Um Mohammad, who refused to flee her neighborhood, convinced there is no safe place left.
As the war rages on, the U.N.’s genocide finding marks a historic turning point. Whether the international community will act remains uncertain. For Gaza, the cost of inaction is already being paid in blood.