ISRAEL has committed genocide in Palestine, a United Nations (UN) inquiry has found.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, president Isaac Herzog and former defence minister Yoav Gallant were all named in the report as inciting acts of genocide.
The inquiry found that four of the five requirements for an offensive to be considered genocide have been met: 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.
Since October 7 2023, Israeli forces have killed almost 65,000 Palestinians and destroyed most of the territory’s healthcare infrastructure. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHR) found that at least 46% of those killed since then were women and children.
Deaths of women and children have comprised nearly 60% of total fatalities from March 18 to March 25 2025, after Israel broke an agreed ceasefire.
In the report, it was found that the life expectancy of Palestinians has dramatically dropped by 46.3% – from 75.7 years to just 40.5 years.
Citing a spokesperson from the Israeli military, who said “we are focused on what causes maximum damage”, the report confirmed that Israel “has used heavy unguided munitions with a wide margin of error in densely populated residential areas”.
The report reads: “The Commission observed that the Israeli security forces repeatedly subjected urban areas in the Gaza Strip to heavy bombardment with explosive weapons with wide-area effect, rather than precision guided (or “smart”) weapons, leading to the complete destruction of neighbourhoods.
“The number of bombs used by Israel since 7 October 2023 is extraordinary even in comparison to other world conflicts.”
A military expert, also cited in the report, said: “Israel is dropping in less than a week what the United States was dropping in Afghanistan in a year, in a much smaller, much more densely populated area.”
The UN report said that Israeli forces had deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure in Gaza, such as “high-rise buildings” and “residential apartment blocks”.
“These led to the levelling of entire city blocks and residential neighbourhoods under sustained heavy bombardment. On many occasions, Israeli bombardment has destroyed apartment blocks, killing almost all the civilians therein," it continues.
It finds that serious harm "as a result of environmental destruction" has been inflicted upon those living in the Palestinian territories, with a total of 170,812 structures damaged or completely destroyed.
Almost 51 million tonnes of debris is thought to be lining the streets of Gaza, posing serious health risks such as lung cancer and exacerbating existing conditions like asthma and auto-immune diseases.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UENP) estimated that it would take 21 years to clear the debris.
The commission reported that Israeli security forces have expanded their targeting methods in ways that disproportionately harm civilians, including children pulled from rubble with severe injuries.
Between October 2023 and June 2025, the WHO recorded 735 attacks on health services, killing 917 people and injuring 1411, with many survivors left with life-altering disabilities including "loss of limbs, traumatic brain injuries and damaged internal organs", worsened by the collapse of medical infrastructure.
The inquiry also found, after receiving reports from medical professionals who had treated children with "direct gunshot and sniper wounds", that Israel was intentionally targeting children in Gaza.
It reports that the infliction of sexual violence, including rape and threats of rape, against both men and women has been "widespread and systematic, perpetrated in different forms since October 7 2023".
The report reads: "Considering the evidence in totality, the Commission finds that the Israeli security forces have intentionally inflicted serious bodily and mental harm on the Palestinians in Gaza."
Due to the scale of operations, foreseeable civilian harm, use of destructive methods, widespread sexual and gender-based violence, and Israel’s refusal to change tactics despite international warnings, the resulting war crimes and human rights abuses indicate the harm was inflicted intentionally.
The report also found that the destruction of healthcare facilities, including a major fertility clinic in 2023, also constituted genocidal activity.
The Commission’s report concludes that Israel, under the Genocide Convention, committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and failed to prevent or punish such activity.
While limited to Gaza in this period, it raises concerns that the intent to destroy Palestinians extends to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and is rooted in decades of unlawful occupation and repression aimed at displacing Palestinians.
