Taking into account the mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza, the resulting serious bodily and mental harm, and the lack of accountability, the Commission finds that there is a consistent pattern that clearly shows the intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group.

• Context: Another international investigation concludes Israel is deliberately committing genocide— but once again, they are denying it.

• Human rights: Right to self-determination; freedom from genocide; freedom from foreign military occupation, racial segregation, and apartheid; economic, social, and cultural rights; civil and political rights

• Rights-holders: Palestinian people

• Duty-bearers: Israel, United States, and other states supporting Israel’s genocidal war through military and diplomatic aid

The United Nations’ Commission on Inquiry (COI) concludes in a report that Israel is deliberately killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023, committing genocide which is prohibited under the Genocide Convention.

In a report published on September 16, the Commission stated that the Israel is accountable for their direct commitment to genocide, their failure to prevent genocide and punish those who perpetrated it. It also noted that while the analysis is limited to Gaza since October 7, it raises serious concerns that the specific intent to destroy the Palestinians extended to the rest of Palestinian territory including West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded more than 58,000 verified deaths since October 7, 2023. Nearly 60 percent of the total fatalities were women, children, and elderly: 87 percent of those killed in Gaza were civilians. The military operations of Israel have also resulted in over teo million people being displaced in Gaza, which is 90 percent of their population.

“The events in Gaza since 7 October 2023 have not occurred in isolation, as the Commission has noted. They were preceded by decades of unlawful occupation and repression under an ideology requiring the removal of the Palestinian population from their lands and its replacement,” the Commission said.

In fact, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that Israel’s occupation of Gaza strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation, and use of resources.

Since the 1948 Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), millions of Palestinians have repeatedly suffered from mass displacement, dispossession, and killings by Israel. Despite countless UN resolutions, no proper restitution, refugee return, and compensation commenced; all while Israel continues its illegal occupation.

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The Commission concludes on reasonable grounds that the Israeli authorities and its security forces have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, namely through four categories: 1) killing members of the group; 2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 3) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and, 4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

“Taking into account the mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza, the resulting serious bodily and mental harm, and the lack of accountability, the Commission finds that there is a consistent pattern that clearly shows the intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group,” the Commission said.

The Commission also added that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister yoav Gallant have incited the commission of genocide and that Israel have failed to take action against them to punish the incitement. Their statements are also identified as direct evidence of genocidal intent. 

The implication of Israel to genocide, violating the Genocide Convention and International Humanitarian Law, is nothing new. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) also declared on July 28 that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide, which violate the abovementioned conventions. 

Much earlier than that, investigations from international human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, both released in December 2024, revealed Israel has imposed starvation, humanitarian blockade, and destruction of water, sanitation, hygiene, hospital, and other healthcare infrastructures.

Israel has been repeatedly called to end their genocide and also their unlawful occupation in all conclusive documents by the human rights institutions. However, instead of addressing it, they continue to deny and manipulate the narrative. Their foreign ministry dubbed the report of Commission on Inquiry as fake, tagging the authors as “Hamas proxies”: “Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry.”

The Commission on Inquiry included the responsibility of the third parties in their report by emphasizing the responsibilities of UN member-states to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide in the Gaza strip, and cease the transfer of arms and other equipment which could be used for genocidal actions.

“The duty to prevent and punish genocide applies not only to the responsible State but to all States Parties to the Genocide Convention and indeed to all States under customary international law,” the Commission added. (RVO)