Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a two-year United Nations investigation has found.
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had “flagrantly disregarded” international law and “orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now”.
This marks the first time a UN body has reached such a conclusion, and is “the strongest and most authoritative UN finding to date”, its authors have said.
Keir Starmer is expected to discuss the report with Donald Trump, as part of the US President’s state visit to the UK this week, with No 10 saying it was expected to be a “subject of discussion”.
The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed the publication as an “antisemitic ... distorted and false report”, adding that Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, which sparked this conflict, was itself “attempted genocide”.
In its 72-page report, the UN Commission found that since October 2023 Israel has committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The commission also concluded that Israeli president Isaac Herzog, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have incited the commission of genocide.
It warned that UN member states could face legal consequences if they fail to act.
“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,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission and a South African jurist who served as the UN high commissioner for human rights until 2014.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons, who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” Pillay added.
“The commission finds that the Israeli authorities had no intention to change their course of action. On the contrary, Israeli authorities have persisted and continued with their genocidal campaign in Gaza for almost two years.”
She urged Israel to end the genocide in Gaza and comply fully with the orders for provisional measures of the International Court of Justice and for UN members state to also act.
”The ongoing genocide is a moral outright and legal emergency member states must act now,” she said at a press conference after the release of the investigation. “There is no need to wait for the ICJ to declare it a genocide, all states are obligated to use whatever means are in its power to prevent the commission of genocide”
The Commission said its findings are based on some 16,000 pieces of evidential material pointing to systematic and unprecedented killings, the destruction of homes and cultural sites, deliberate starvation, denial and destruction of the healthcare system, sexual and gender-based violence, and the direct targeting of children.
It comes on the heels of a report published by the largest professional organisation of scholars studying genocide, which also concluded that Israel is committing genocide. Several international, Palestinian and Israeli organisations, including Amnesty International, have published similar findings.
In response to Tuesday’s report, the Israeli foreign ministry called for the commission to be abolished, accused the authors of anti-semitism and claimed the report relied on Hamas falsehoods, “laundered and repeated by others”.
Chris Sidoti, an Australian human lawyer who is also in the Commission sharply dismissed the criticisms at a press conference on Tuesday saying “the Israeli responses are becoming so boring” that it is almost as if “they are producing the responses by Chat GPT”.
In August, Mr Netanyahu rejected the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. At a meeting with Israeli reporters, he was reported as saying: “If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon.”
Genocide was codified in a 1948 convention drawn up after the horrors of the Holocaust. It defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
It outlines five genocidal acts as: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The UN Commission’s report concludes that since October 2023, Israel has committed four of the five.
They cite the massive bombardment of Gaza that has killed over 64,000 people according to Palestinian health authorities, the forced displacement of most of the two million-strong population, the destruction of the healthcare system, as well as the blocking of essential aid, food, water, and electricity that has led to famine.
The commission also refers to the “use of starvation as a weapon”, along with torture, rape and sexual assault of Palestinian detainees, and environmental destruction.
The report is the first time a UN body addresses the issue of intention to prevent births which is part of the Genocide Convention, citing the December 2023 bombing of the Al Basma IVF Centre, Gaza’s largest fertility clinic. The attack reportedly destroyed 4,000 embryos, as well as 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs.
Many western countries, including the UK – an arms supplier to Israel – have said that only a court can rule on whether genocide has been committed. A case against Israel is currently before the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice.
David Lammy, now deputy prime minister, set this out the UK government’s position in a 1 September letter to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, where he stated that the government “has carefully considered the risk of genocide, including when permitting exports to the F-35 [fighter jet] global programme”.
He acknowledged that the high civilian casualties, particularly among women and children, and the extensive destruction in Gaza are “utterly appalling”, and said Israel must do much more to prevent and alleviate the suffering caused by the conflict. However, he stopped short of declaring genocide.
“As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
“The government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent,” he wrote, adding that the UK is waiting for the findings from the ICJ.
The Commission’s chair Pillay said at the Tuesday press conference waiting for the ICJ to rule - which could take as long as a decade - was too late.
“The Genocide Convention imposes an obligation on states to prevent and prevent genocide. How will they do that if we all sit and wait for some court - if ever - to determine genocide has occurred?” she added.
The Independent also contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to ask whether the new UN Commission report might change the UK’s position, but has yet to receive a response.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: "The horrors in Gaza must stop. And when the one man with the power to make it stop – Donald Trump – arrives in the UK today, Keir Starmer must do all he can to make the President act."
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the Independent: “In the light of this report what more evidence does the government need to introduce comprehensive sanctions on Israel, end all arms sales and expel the Israeli ambassador the mouthpiece of the regime committing these war crimes.”
The UN body urges Israel to end the commission of genocide and implement a complete permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as allowing unfettered access of aid to Gaza.
It urged foreign states to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza, and to cease the transfer of arms to Israel.
