A United Nations Commission of Inquiry has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials incited the alleged atrocities, drawing a furious rejection from Jerusalem. The report, released Tuesday as Israel launched a ground assault on Gaza City, represents the most forceful U.N.-linked condemnation of Israel's nearly two-year campaign in the enclave.
Commission chair Navi Pillay, a former judge at the International Criminal Court and the tribunal for Rwanda, said at a Geneva press briefing that "the ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency." She added: "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."
The 72-page report concluded that Israel had committed four of the five acts listed under the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention - including killing, causing serious harm, deliberately inflicting life conditions meant to destroy a group, and preventing births. It cited interviews with witnesses, satellite imagery and open-source documentation as evidence.
The commission specifically named Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing statements such as Netanyahu's November 2023 letter to soldiers likening the Gaza operation to a "holy war of total annihilation." Pillay said these remarks constituted "direct evidence of genocidal intent."
Israel rejected the findings as politically motivated. "Israel categorically rejects the libellous rant published today by this commission of inquiry," Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Daniel Meron said, calling the report "scandalous" and "fake." Herzog said the commission was "whitewashing Hamas's atrocities" from the October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being taken into Gaza.
Israel has refused to cooperate with the commission, accusing it of harboring anti-Israel bias. The Foreign Ministry called the panel members "Hamas proxies" whose report amounted to an antisemitic "blood libel."
Despite the commission's independence from the U.N. Secretariat, its findings add pressure on Secretary-General António Guterres and U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk to adopt the genocide terminology. Pillay said she hoped they would "be guided by the facts."
The report urged countries to halt arms sales to Israel and take steps to prevent complicity in what it described as a genocidal campaign. Chris Sidoti, one of the three commissioners, said Israelis had been "betrayed" by their leaders' "abject refusal" to pursue hostage deals and were instead subjected to a "genocidal war" that has jeopardized Israel's security.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague is separately hearing a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. Israel argues its campaign is lawful self-defense aimed at dismantling Hamas. Gaza health authorities say more than 64,000 people have been killed in the war, with international monitors warning that famine conditions are spreading in parts of the territory.
