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UNHRC Commission of Inquiry on Gaza genocide

UN report affirming Israel's genocide in Gaza From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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On 16 September 2025, the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report that has been characterized as the strongest and most authoritative UN determination to date on the Gaza war, concluding that Israel is failing to prevent and is actively committing genocide against Palestinians.[2][3] The Commission found Israel guilty of four out of five acts specified in Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention against Palestinians (murder, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group, and imposing measures to prevent births) and found statements by senior Israeli officials alongside other evidence sufficient to establish genocidal intent. The report called for genocide charges to be added to the ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.[1]

Quick facts Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Presented ...

The report's official title is Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The report, spanning 72 pages long, resulted from a two-year investigation, examining evidence between 7 October 2023 and 31 July 2025 limited to the Gaza Strip.[4][1] The report was released in the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.[1]

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Legal grounds

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Actus reus

Article 2 of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as:

... any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

— Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2[5]

The Commission concluded Israel engaged in acts (a), (b), (c), and (d). This established actus reus of genocide, meaning that given proof of mens rea (genocidal intent), legal grounds for genocide are established.[1]

Mens rea

To establish mens rea (genocidal intent), the Commission most prominently focused on proof of direct and public incitement to commit genocide by examining statements by senior Israeli officials.[3][6] Statements cited include:

  • Former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claiming Israel was fighting "human animals" and must "act accordingly," later saying "Gaza won't return to what it was before... We will eliminate everything."[1]
  • President Isaac Herzog stating "it's an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware and not involved."[1]
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoking (against Palestinians) Amalek, a set of biblical passages where "God tells the Israelites, 'Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and women, child and infant...'"[1]

The Commission claimed that even if the statements made were the only pieces of evidence considered in the genocide case, these statements are alone sufficient to establish that Israel is liable under the convention because direct and public incitement to commit genocide is punishable under Article 3(c) of the Genocide Convention, even in the absence of other actions (such as genocide or complicity in genocide).[1]

Additional cited evidence establishing genocidal intent included other statements by lower Israeli politicians, Amnesty International's report of a photograph of a slogan on an Israeli military watchtower with the words "Destroy Gaza," and the failure of Israeli officials to investigate or punish IDF soldiers who celebrated demolishing Palestinian civilian properties in Gaza.[1] The Commission further determined from the pattern of conduct of Israeli forces that genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference from the totality of evidence.[3][6]

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Timeline of cited evidence

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The Commission categorized evidence into one of the four relevant acts under Article 2 of the Genocide Convention in order to establish actus reus:

Killings[1]
Serious bodily or mental harm[1]
Conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction of the group[1]
Preventing births[1]
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Recommendations

The Commission made a number of suggestions to ameliorate the genocide:

Recommendations to the Government of Israel[1]
  • End the commission of genocide and cooperate with the ICJ provisional measures against Israel
  • Implement a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and end all military operations that involve genocidal acts
  • Restore humanitarian aid access
  • Ensure medical evacuations of Gazans to other countries
  • Allow the UNHRC access to Israel to continue investigations
  • Investigate and punish commission of and incitement to genocide
Recommendations to UN Member States[1]
  • Employ all means available to prevent genocide
  • Cease transfer of arms and other equipment or items which might be used militarily
  • Prosecute individuals and corporations who aid genocide
  • Cooperate with ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders
Recommendations to the International Criminal Court[1]
  • That the ICC amend its arrest warrants for Israeli leaders to include the crime of genocide
  • That the ICC examine adding Israeli officials mentioned in the report not already in the arrest warrant to the warrant

Reactions by countries

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See also: List of state positions on the Gaza genocide

Brazil

Brazil neither supports nor opposes the Commission's conclusion in any official capacity. In a press release, Brazil referenced the report, saying "human rights violations in Gaza... must be investigated," but did not explicitly affirm support for the Commission's genocide allegation. However, Brazil voiced support for some of the report's recommendations such as a permanent ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid access.[7]

Israel

Israel opposes the Commission's conclusion. In a UN press release, Israel called the report a "libelous rant," calling for the report's "termination," and making various ad hominem attacks throughout the article against the Commission.[8] In one instance, Israel attacked members of the Commission for resigning after releasing the report,[8] even though the team claimed their resignations had "absolutely nothing to do with any external event or pressure."[9][10] Israel declined to cooperate with recommendations made to the Israeli government in the report.[11]

Israel's press release included a number of claims that have been implied to be unsubstantiated[8][11] or misleading,[10][11] including:

  • Claiming the report is a "non-UN document", which is misleading, as the report was commissioned and recognized by an official body of the UN[10]
  • Claiming without evidence the report was an attempt to "demonize the State of Israel" and that the Commission is partisan against Israel[8]
  • Claiming without evidence the report "grossly diverges from the scope of its mandate"[8]
  • Claiming without evidence the report "relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods"[8]
  • Claiming the Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) "refuted every false allegation of genocide".[8] There is a consensus among scholars that Israel is committing genocide.[12] None of the authors of the BESA report are genocide experts. Genocide researcher Iva Vukusic says the report does not negate the "overwhelming" evidence of genocide. Alex de Waal argues the report "contains many inaccurate claims" about the Gaza Strip famine.[13]
  • Claiming without evidence groups accusing Israel of genocide are "plagued by systemic and serious methodological flaws"[8]
  • Claiming without evidence the report relies on "cherry-picked data... misleading statistics... weak data... and manipulated and unverified sources"[8]
  • Claiming a quote in the report said Israel is "focused on what causes maximum damage" instead of the longer quote "maximum damage to Hamas military capabilities," implying the first quote was truncated by the Commission in order to lie by omission; this is misleading because the first quote cited in the report was complete and referenced a public statement which did not have the "Hamas military capabilities" clarification,[14] which was only added in a later follow-up statement after significant backlash[15]
  • Claiming Israel is committed to international law and "minimizing harm to the civilian population," which is misleading because there is consensus among experts[12] that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a violation of international law causing significant harm to the civilian population

Norway

Norway neither supports nor opposes the Commission's conclusion in any official capacity. On 16 September 2025, Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide released a statement stating "we take the findings of the report very seriously," pledging to investigate its findings and recommendations and "follow up on them in our further policy development."[16]

Palestine

Palestine supports the Commission's conclusion. The Palestine Ministry of Foreign Affairs released an official statement calling on the international community to act to prevent genocide "without delay" and on states to take "practical and decisive measures to stop the ongoing genocide, provide international protection for the Palestinian people, end all forms of military and political support to Israel... and impose sanctions on it." The ministry suggested "international silence" on the issue "places the international community in a position of complicity."[17]

South Africa

South Africa supports the Commission's conclusion. South Africa urged all states to comply with its recommendations. President Cyril Ramaphosa referenced the report's finding of genocide in the general debate of the eightieth session of the United Nations General Assembly.[18][19]

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom neither supports nor opposes the Commission's conclusion in any official capacity. The Parliament of the United Kingdom debated the report shortly after its release to discuss implications on UK international policy related to the Gaza war and Gaza humanitarian crisis.[20]

Supporters argued it is not the role of governments to determine whether a genocide is happening, but of a competent court such as the Commission. Supporters also argued that regardless of whether a genocide is happening, saying "to argue about precise definitions of genocide somehow misses the central point" and argued the humanitarian crisis is at the fault of Israel and needs immediate policy attention. Baroness Chapman of Darlington said of the report, "you cannot read it without being horrified."[20]

Opponents downplayed the strength of the document's claims, including Lord Pannick, who claimed the Commission found there were "reasonable grounds for alleging genocide in Gaza, not that there is genocide in Gaza." This was a mischaracterization of an actual quote that said "the Commission has concluded on reasonable grounds [there is genocidal intent]," which did not imply they did not actually find there is a genocide.[a] Other opponents, such as Lord Austin of Dudley, who accepted money from pro-Israel lobbies,[21] changed the topic to discuss media attention, alleging pro-Palestinian bias in media and claiming media attention to the "humanitarian position in Gaza... drives antisemitism in Britain."[20]

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Footnotes

  1. [a]
    Full quote: The Commission has concluded on reasonable grounds that Israeli political and military leaders possess the specific intent to commit genocide.[1]

References

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