Four ways Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, according to UN inquiry

In a 72-page report released on Tuesday, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, said Israeli authorities and security forces had committed genocidal acts and that the country’s top leaders had “incited the commission of genocide.” 

While the findings are the strongest yet by an international body, the panel does not speak for the U.N. itself. The commissioners are independent investigators appointed by the Human Rights Council, not U.N. staff. The U.N. has yet to describe the war as genocide.

Here are the four acts the commission said constituted genocide:

1. Killing Palestinians

The report said Israeli forces had intentionally killed unprecedented numbers of Palestinians using wide-impact munitions, despite knowing they would cause mass civilian deaths. Proving there was “willful killing,” it cited examples of civilians, journalists, healthcare workers and humanitarian staff being directly targeted in homes, hospitals, schools and even designated safe zones. In one case, the commission said Israeli security forces killed 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her relatives along an evacuation route despite having “clear knowledge” of their presence.

“The Commission therefore finds that the Israeli authorities intended to kill as many Palestinians as possible through its military operations in Gaza since 7 October 2023 and knew that the means and methods of warfare employed would cause mass deaths of Palestinians, including children,” the report concluded.

2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm

Investigators found that Israeli operations had caused severe physical and psychological harm to Palestinians — 146,269 of them to be exact. The commission cited direct attacks on civilians, mistreatment of detainees, forced displacement, environmental destruction and sexual and gender-based violence.It said repeated cycles of displacement had inflicted “irreparable” harm that robbed Palestinians of the ability to live a normal life.

“The Commission finds that the Israeli security forces have intentionally created an atmosphere of panic and terror and instilled extreme fear in the Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October 2023,” a part of the report read.

3. Deliberately inflicting conditions of life meant to destroy the group

The commission accused Israel of using starvation as a “method of warfare” and imposing inhumane living conditions on Gaza’s population by blocking food, water, electricity and fuel. It documented the destruction of essential infrastructure, including homes, schools, medical facilities and farmland, and said these measures had brought Gaza’s health, water, education and sanitation systems to collapse. According to U.N. aid agencies, famine has been confirmed in Gaza City, where nearly one million residents remain under bombardment and face “compromised access to means of survival.”

“The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities have deliberately created conditions of life that are resulting in the destruction of generations of Palestinians and are leading to the destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza as a group,” it said.

4. Preventing births

The report cited the December 2023 attack on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic, which reportedly destroyed some 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm samples and eggs, as an act of genocide intended to prevent births among Palestinians. Reproductive violence and attacks on pregnant women were also documented as part of what the panel called a broader effort to hamper the population’s ability to reproduce.

“According to the expert physician, the attack on the IVF clinic will ‘have repercussions for generations to come. Children who were meant to be born from these 5,000 reproductive specimens will never exist. Families will be forever changed and bloodlines may end because of a loss of these reproductive tissues,’” it said. 

Israel has categorically denied the accusations, calling the report “distorted and false.” Its foreign ministry accused three experts on the panel to be “Hamas proxies” and relied on claims that had been “thoroughly debunked.” 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly defended the military campaign, saying it is carried out in accordance with international law and that Israel takes steps to limit harm to civilians. He has acknowledged that Israel faces “a kind of isolation” that could last for years.

The commission said that Israeli political and military leaders’ words — including Mr. Netanyahu’s pledge to inflict “mighty vengeance” on Gaza and his description of Gaza City as a “wicked city” — were part of the evidence pointing to genocidal intent.

The panel also warned that other nations have an obligation under the 1948 Genocide Convention to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. Failure to act, Pillay said, “amounts to complicity.”