A United Nations report has concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory delivered its findings on Tuesday at the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The 72-page report is the most comprehensive legal analysis to date of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since the conflict began following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks.
Commission Chairperson Navi Pillay, a former UN Human Rights Chief and International Criminal Court judge who previously served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, declared unequivocally: “The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza”. She emphasized that “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.”
The Commission determined that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:
- Killing members of the group – The report documented at least 60,199 Palestinian deaths from October 7, 2023, to July 31, 2025, including 18,430 children and 9,735 women
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm – Including widespread injuries, amputations, and psychological trauma affecting hundreds of thousands
- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction – Through systematic destruction of infrastructure, blocking humanitarian aid, and creating conditions of starvation
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births – Including the targeted destruction of Gaza’s largest fertility clinic, Al-Basma, which housed 4,000 embryos and reproductive materials.
The Commission found genocidal intent through both direct and circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence included explicit statements by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who the Commission concluded have “incited the commission of genocide”.
The report cited Netanyahu’s November 2023 letter to Israeli soldiers comparing the Gaza operation to what the Commission described as a “holy war of total annihilation” referenced in Hebrew biblical texts. Circumstantial evidence included the systematic pattern of Israel’s military operations, the scale of destruction, and the targeting of civilian infrastructure essential to Palestinian survival.
Life expectancy in Gaza plummeted from 75.5 years before October 2023 to just 40.5 years during the first 12 months of conflict. The report noted that this figure doesn’t account for indirect deaths from inability to access healthcare or malnutrition.
According to Israeli intelligence officials cited in the report, of the approximately 53,000 Palestinians killed by May 2025, only 8,900 were identified as militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, meaning 83 percent of those killed were civilians.
Israel immediately rejected the Commission’s findings. The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a scathing response, stating it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report” and calling for “the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry.”
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, also condemned the inquiry’s findings. A State Department spokesperson called the report “the height of hypocrisy,” stating that “Israel engaged in self-defense and has consistently taken measures to minimize civilian casualties. That does not equate to genocide.”
While the Commission lacks enforcement powers, its findings carry significant legal and diplomatic weight. The report’s conclusions could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, which has already issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, or at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa’s genocide case against Israel remains pending.
