A new 72-page report released Tuesday finds reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five acts of genocide defined under international law have been committed since the start of the 2023 war with Hamas.
"Furthermore, the Commission found that the Israeli authorities have (i) destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births; and (ii) deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians as a group, both of which are underlying acts of genocide in the Rome Statute and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (“Genocide Convention”)," the report read.
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, incited genocide in the Gaza Strip, Navi Pillay, chair of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said.
Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and it is continuing with that genocide, which has been "the most ruthless, prolong and widespread attack against the Palestinian people since 1948," Pillay told a briefing.
"The state of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, for the commission of genocide, and for the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. On incitement to genocide, the Commission concludes that many Israeli political and military leaders, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ... had incited the commission of genocide," the chairperson said.
All countries must use all tools to stop Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip and occupied territories, Pillay added.
On October 7, 2023, Israel was subjected to an rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. After that, Hamas militants infiltrated border areas, opening fire on military and civilians, and took more than 200 hostages. According to the authorities, about 1,200 people were killed on the Israeli side.
In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords, which included strikes on civilian targets, and announced a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip: supplies of water, electricity, fuel, food and medicine were stopped. The fighting, which was interrupted by short-term ceasefires, claimed the lives of more than 65,000 Palestinians and about 1,500 Israelis, spread to Lebanon and Yemen, and provoked an exchange of missile strikes between Israel and Iran.