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LAST UPDATE | 16 Sep
UNITED NATIONS INVESTIGATORS have concluded that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, becoming the latest in a growing group of experts, scholars, states and NGOs to accuse Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of committing the crime of crimes.
Almost two years into the siege, bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s army has killed nearly 65,000 people, with roughly 20,000 children among them. Israel’s own army estimates that 83% of those killed have been civilians.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur”, commission chief Navi Pillay told the AFP news agency today.
“The responsibility lies with the State of Israel.”
The commission, tasked with investigating the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, concluded that Israeli authorities and forces had since October 2023 committed “four of the five genocidal acts” listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The vast majority of Gazans have been displaced at least once, with more mass-displacement underway as Israel began renewed ground operations in Gaza City today, where the UN has declared a famine.
Those genocidal acts are “killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”.
Israel has this morning rejected the findings of the commission.
“Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.
The Israeli foreign ministry accused the authors of the report of “serving as Hamas proxies”, saying they were “notorious for their openly antisemitic positions”.
“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others,” it added.
Throughout its war on Gaza, Israel has accused NGOs, journalists and UN agencies of being affiliated with Hamas while providing no substantial evidence to support those claims.
Responding to the inquiry’s finding, Amnesty International said that while Israel continues to intensify its “brutal campaign of annihilation” the report provides further confirmation of what Amnesty and others have already concluded.
Also today, the secretary general of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Christopher Lockyear, released a statement describing the genocide the medical NGO’s workers are witnessing in Gaza.
“The Israeli military has attacked everything and everyone in Gaza,” Lockyear said.
“Governments around the world – through political, military, or material support to Israel, or through silence – are complicit in the genocide.
“They have a moral and legal obligation to respond. This means real political pressure, not empty words, using every available political, diplomatic, and economic measure to stop these atrocities.”
The investigators said explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities along with the pattern of Israeli military conduct “indicated that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy … Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group”.
The report concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant “incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement”.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons,” stated Pillay, 83, a former South African judge who once headed the international tribunal for Rwanda and also served as UN human rights chief.
The commission is not a legal body, but its reports can wield diplomatic pressure and serve to gather evidence for later use by courts.
Pillay told AFP the commission was cooperating with the International Criminal Court prosecutor.
“We’ve shared thousands of pieces of information with them,” she said.
“The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” insisted Pillay, presenting her final report.
“The absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” she warned.
Countries who have supplied Israel with weapons throughout its war against the people of Gaza could face legal consequences for complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, according to international law experts who spoke to The Journal recently.
Israel has since the start of the war on Gaza faced accusations of genocide from many NGOs and independent UN experts, as well as in a case brought against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In January last year, the ICJ ordered Israel to prevent acts of “genocide” in Gaza but those injunctions have been ignored by Netanyahu’s government as he has pressed on with his stated aim of “destroying” Hamas, even against a wave of domestic opposition.
“Israel has flagrantly disregarded the orders for provisional measures from the International Court of Justice and warnings from Member States, UN offices, human rights organisations and civil society groups, and continued the strategy of destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza,” said Pillay.
“The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities had no intention to change their course of actions. On the contrary, Israeli authorities have persisted and continued with their genocidal campaign in Gaza for almost two years now.”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Angered by that move, US President Donald Trump’s administration has sanctioned members of the court, barring them from entering the United States and freezing their assets.
Earlier this month, the US State Department sanctioned Palestinian NGOs for their support of the ICC.
Need more information on what is happening in Israel and Palestine? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to navigating the news online.
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