Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza says a damning new report by the United Nations commission of inquiry.
The report says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out by Israeli forces since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.
The report cites as evidence interviews with victims, eye witnesses, doctors, verified open-source documents, and satellite imagery analysis compiled since the war began.
The commission also concluded that statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials were “direct evidence of genocidal intent”.
It referenced a letter he wrote to Israeli soldiers in November 2023 comparing the Gaza operation to what the commission described as a “holy war of total annihilation” in the Hebrew Bible.
The report also named the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
In the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
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The five examples listed are: 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, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
“Genocide is occurring in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, the 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.”
Israel’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as “distorted and false.”
A spokesperson accused the three experts on the commission of serving as “Hamas proxies” and relying “entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others” that had “already been thoroughly debunked.”
The Israeli military launched a bloody campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
At least 64,905 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to Gaza’s health ministry. However, some experts believe the toll is far higher.
Most of the population has also been repeatedly displaced; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed food security experts have declared a famine in Gaza City due to the Israeli-imposed blockade.
Growing anger over Israel’s genocide
Israel’s already rock-bottom reputation has taken another massive blow as the world’s leading association of genocide scholars recently declared that Tel Aviv is indeed committing a genocide in Gaza.
In early September, a resolution passed by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) stated that Israel’s conduct meets the legal definition as laid out in the UN convention on genocide.
It also recognises that: “Since the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which itself constitutes international crimes, the government of Israel has engaged in systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure (hospitals, homes, commercial buildings, etc.)”
Elsewhere, a new UK poll revealed that 45% of the British public believe Israel treats Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews.
The YouGov survey, commissioned by the pro-Israel Campaign Against Antisemitism, reports that this figure is a huge increase from last year’s 33%.
Sixty per cent of young people believe this to be true, as well as 48% of Londoners.
The survey results come amid the backdrop of Israel’s genocide in Gaza where at least 64,900 people have been killed, 90% of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed, and where Israel is currently implementing a starvation policy.
Despite growing pressure and overwhelming evidence, the British government has refused to acknowledge Israel is committing a genocide.
Britain’s position was clarified recently by David Lammy, the former foreign secretary, in response to questions from the chair of the International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP, who demanded answers on how Britain’s policy of continuing to supply F-35 fighter jet parts that have indirectly been sent to Israel complied with its international duty to prevent genocide.
In a letter, dated September 1, Lammy wrote that “the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.’” Adding that: “The government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent.”
