A panel of independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council concluded that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, issuing a report on 16 September calling on the international community to stop such actions and take action to punish those responsible.
The commission, whose work has been criticised by Israeli authorities, also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials of incitement to commit genocide.
“The commission believes that Israel is responsible for committing genocide in Gaza. There is clearly an intention to destroy Palestinians in Gaza through actions that fulfil the criteria set out in the Genocide Convention,” said Navi Pillay, the commission’s chairwoman.
The UN report mentions the scale of civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip, blocking aid, forced displacement.
The team was set up by the UN Human Rights Council but does not speak for the United Nations.
Israel, which has refused to cooperate with the commission and accused it and the Human Rights Council of anti-Israel bias, said it “categorically” rejects the “false ‘report'” that “relies entirely on the lies of Hamas (a Palestinian group recognised as a terrorist group in the EU and the US).” Israel’s Foreign Ministry called it” distorted and false “and called for “the immediate dissolution of the commission.”
Human rights organisations have repeatedly accused Israel of indiscriminate use of force during its operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which began after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. At that time, more than 1,200 people were killed in Israel more than 250 were taken hostage and taken to Gaza. Israel has stated that its goal is the total destruction of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague last year issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, they are suspected of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.