UN Investigators Accuse Israel of Genocide in Gaza; Israel Rejects Report.
United Nations investigators on Tuesday accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza, alleging that top leaders — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — incited and enabled atrocities aimed at “destroying the Palestinians.”
The findings came in a report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), led by former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay. The commission concluded that Israeli authorities and forces have since October 2023 carried out four of the five genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention: killing members of a group, inflicting serious harm, imposing life conditions to cause destruction, and preventing births.
Pillay told AFP the evidence shows “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur,” stressing that responsibility lies with “Israeli authorities at the highest echelons.” The report cited explicit statements by political and military leaders, saying they demonstrated intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group.
Israel strongly rejected the findings. The foreign ministry said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry.”
According to Gaza’s health ministry — figures the UN considers reliable — nearly 65,000 people have been killed since the war began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack in Israel. Most Gazans have been displaced at least once, and the UN has declared a full famine in Gaza City amid Israel’s offensive.
The commission also accused Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, of inciting genocide and failing to curb such rhetoric. While the COI is not a judicial body, its findings could be used as evidence by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Pillay confirmed the commission has already shared “thousands of pieces of information” with the ICC prosecutor.
The report warned that global inaction amounts to “complicity,” urging world leaders to intervene.
Israel has long rejected accusations of genocide, even as the International Court of Justice last year ordered it to prevent genocidal acts and the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on war crimes charges.
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