A report by UN investigators has openly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza with the aim of destroying the Palestinian people, singling out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials for incitement to genocide.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not act on behalf of the United Nations, concluded despite heavy pressure from Israel that “genocide is ocurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur”, according to statements by the commission’s chairwoman, South African Navi Pillay, reported in numerous international media including The Guardian, who added: “The responsibility lies with the State of Israel“.
The COI report argues that, since October 2023, Israeli authorities and forces have perpetrated “four of the five genocidal acts” listed in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. These include “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”.
The investigators assert that both the explicit statements of Israeli civilian and military authorities and the pattern of conduct of its armed forces show that “genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy … Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group”.
Israel rejects genocide accusations, demands closure of investigation
The report also concludes that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant “incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement”. Pillay, 83, a former South African judge who presided over the international tribunal for Rwanda and served as UN high commissioner for human rights, said, “The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons“.
Israel reacted immediately by “categorically” rejecting the findings, while the Israeli foreign ministry called them “distorted and false” and demanded “the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry”. Although the commission is not judicial in nature, its documents can exert diplomatic pressure and serve as an evidence in future proceedings to prove the existence of genocide in Gaza and prosecute those responsible. The three authors of the report resigned from their posts shortly after signing it.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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