UN Report Alleges Genocide in Gaza, Names Netanyahu and Israeli Officials

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials had encouraged these crimes.

According to Reuters, this UN report is one among the many human rights voices that have come to the same conclusion by citing examples of the scope of the deaths, assistance bottlenecks, forced displacement, and the destruction of a reproductive centre to support its determination of genocide.

In response to the most recent event, Israel demanded "the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry" and vehemently denounced the "distorted and false report."  The Israeli Ambassador, however, dismissed the results as "libellous."

"Genocide is occurring in Gaza," said Navi Pillay, head of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and a former International Criminal Court judge.

"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."

Reuters reported that the commission has not received any cooperation from Israel.  The committee is accused of having a political agenda against Israel by Israel's diplomatic delegation in Geneva.

Although the commission is independent and does not formally speak for the UN, its 72-page legal analysis is the most compelling U.N. finding to date.  Despite growing pressure, the U.N. has refused to use the term "genocide."

At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel is defending itself against a genocide charge.  Citing its right to self-defence in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught that killed 1,200 people and left 251 hostages, according to Israeli numbers, it denies such charges.

The Gaza Health Ministry reports that over 64,000 people have died in the ensuing conflict in Gaza, while a global hunger monitor claims that starvation is affecting some of the population.

Under the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention, which was ratified following Nazi Germany's mass slaughter of Jews, crimes "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such" are considered genocide.  At least one of the five actions must have taken place for it to be considered genocide.

According to the U.N. inquiry, Israel had perpetrated four of these crimes: killing, causing severe physical or mental suffering, purposefully creating living conditions that were meant to result in the complete or partial annihilation of the Palestinian people, and enforcing laws meant to stop births.

It cited as evidence interviews with victims, witnesses, doctors, verified open-source documents and satellite imagery analysis compiled since the war began.

Netanyahu's and other leaders' words, the commission also found, are "direct evidence of genocidal intent."  He compared the Gaza campaign to what the commission refers to as a "holy war of total annihilation" in the Hebrew Bible in a letter he wrote to Israeli forces in November 2023.

Reportedly, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are also mentioned in the study.

South Africa's Pillay, who headed a U.N. tribunal for Rwanda where more than 1 million people were killed in 1994, said the situations were comparable. "When I look at the facts in the Rwandan genocide, it's very, very similar to this. You dehumanise your victims. They're animals, and so therefore, without conscience, you can kill them," she said.

While the International Court of Justice referred to other Israeli statements regarding Gaza and Palestinians in its 2024 emergency measures order, it did not name Netanyahu.

"I hope, as a result of our report, that the minds of states will also be opened," said Pillay, who retires in November.