The Independent International Commission of Inquiry of the United Nations Human Rights Council has formally accused Israel of committing acts amounting to genocide in the Gaza Strip. According to the recently released report, at least four of the five crimes listed in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide have been fulfilled, marking one of the most serious allegations ever made by an international body against the State of Israel.
The three-member commission stated that these crimes include killing, causing serious physical or psychological harm, deliberately creating conditions of life intended to destroy the Palestinian population in whole or in part, and adopting measures aimed at preventing births within the group. The report denounces the killing of civilians, the obstruction of humanitarian aid, the systematic destruction of healthcare and educational institutions, and attacks on religious sites.
These accusations refer to events that began after October 7, 2023, when the Islamist group Hamas and other extremist factions launched a terrorist attack on Israel, triggering the current Israeli military offensive. Israel has repeatedly stated that its operations are directed solely against Hamas and not against the Palestinian civilian population, accusing the group of using civilians as “human shields” and asserting that the war could end immediately if Hamas released the 48 hostages it still holds and surrendered its weapons. However, the commission asserts that there is indirect and circumstantial evidence indicating that Israel’s political and military authorities have acted with the “specific intent” (dolus specialis) required to commit genocide.
According to the report, the observed pattern of behavior in political decisions, official statements, and military operations suggests that the objective is not merely to defeat Hamas but to inflict irreversible harm on the Palestinian population of Gaza. Israel, like the United States under former President Donald Trump, does not recognize the authority of the UN Human Rights Council and has repeatedly accused the body of systemic bias against it.
The Council is composed of 47 member states elected by the UN General Assembly for three-year terms, and it has long been the stage of numerous controversies and mutual accusations. The president of the commission, Navi Pillay, 83, is a renowned jurist who previously served as a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Pillay, who has chaired the commission since its creation in 2021, has announced her resignation for health reasons, which will take effect in November, closing a chapter marked by investigations into serious violations of international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.
