Reasonable grounds to establish Israeli genocide in Gaza: UN Commission
A United Nations commission of inquiry said there are reasonable grounds to conclude that Israel is committing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza
A United Nations commission of inquiry said there are reasonable grounds to conclude that Israel is committing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
In the report published against the backdrop of intensifying Israeli military operations in Gaza City, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, said the occupation forces have committed four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law since its war with Hamas from October 2023.
The United Nations commission of inquiry in its report cited statements by Israeli leaders and the pattern of conduct by Israeli forces, as evidence of genocidal intent.
“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission, said.
“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”, she added.
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At a press conference in Geneva, the Commission of Inquiry's members Navi Pillay and Chris Sidoti - who are not UN staff but instead appointed by the Human Rights Council’s 47 Member States, explained that their investigations into the war in Gaza beginning with Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023 had led to the conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces “committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.
These acts are:
- Killing
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm
- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians.
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births
Navi Pillay maintained that responsibility for the atrocity crimes “lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons”, amid “explicit statements” denigrating Palestinians by Israeli civilian and military authorities.
The Commission also analysed conduct of Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces in Gaza, “including imposing starvation and inhumane conditions of life for Palestinians in Gaza…genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be concluded from the nature of their operations”, the panel said.
Genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that could be drawn based on the following pattern of conduct:
- The commission also said that Israeli security forces intentionally killed and seriously harmed an unprecedented number of Palestinians in Gaza.
- Israeli forces carried out systematic attacks on religious, cultural and education sites with the intent to destroy elements of Palestinian identity and erase their culture.
- Israel implemented a concerted policy to decimate Gaza’s healthcare system to destroy Palestinians’ capacity to heal, recover and live.
- Israel intentionally imposed a siege on Gaza and starved its population.
- Israeli forces perpetrated sexual and gender-based violence as part of a pattern of collective punishment to fracture, humiliate and subjugate the Palestinian population in its entirety.
- Israeli forces targeted children as part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of Palestinians.
“The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay.
“When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” she added.
“All states are under a legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza", she said.
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