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 findings with Donald Trump, as part of the US president’s state visit to the UK this week, with No 10 saying it would likely 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,” Pillay added.
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.
“All states are obligated to use whatever means are in its power to prevent the commission of genocide, ” she said.
The day the report was released, Israel launched a massive and deeply controversial operation into Gaza City, the most populous city in the besieged strip.
There Palestinians medics told The Independent that dozens had been killed in “relentless overnight bombing” and they were running out of anaesthetic but were having to perform amputations.
Terrified families trapped inside the city said they had been trying to flee for a week, but there was no mode of transport, and the only road south was now completely blocked by cars.
Jenin Rafiq, 23, and a mother of eight, said they were trying to even find a tractor to help them get out.
“We couldn't sleep because of the sounds of Israeli airstrikes and shelling on the city. We struggled and rushed out to buy vegetables and food from stalls near buildings and towers. The roads are blocked we are desperate,” she added.
The Commission’s report, which its authors said is based on 16,000 pieces of evidence, 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, accusing 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 Israeli response on Tuesday as “boring” stock criticism that appeared created “by Chat GPT”.
In August, Netanyahu rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza. At a meeting with Israeli reporters, he was reported as boasting: “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, 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 ICJ.
David Lammy, now deputy prime minister, set 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 and the extensive destruction in Gaza are “utterly appalling”, but stopped short of declaring genocide, adding that the UK is also waiting for the findings from the ICJ.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Our long-standing position is that any formal determination as to whether genocide has occurred should be made following a judgment by a competent national or international court.
“But as we’ve made extremely clear - what is happening in Gaza is appalling and we continue to call on Israel to change course immediately by halting its ground offensive and letting in a surge of humanitarian aid without delay.
“The death and destruction is causing an unbearable humanitarian catastrophe and putting the hostages at risk - as their families have rightly recognised.”
The Commission’s chair Pillay said 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?”
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 said: “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.”
In its recommendations, 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.
