A recent comprehensive investigative report from a specially convened investigative body has presented the most conclusive conclusions to date regarding military operations in the coastal enclave.
The investigative team accuses Israel of committing genocide, stating that its military offensive was waged “with the aim to eradicate, completely or partially, an ethnic or religious group”.
Commission Background
Established in 2021 by the UN’s human rights council, the commission is made up of three external authorities and does not speak on behalf of the broader UN system.
Israel’s delegation have rejected the report “baseless” and “fabricated”, asserting it was written by “supporters of Hamas”.
The Israeli government has denied the accusations of genocide, citing its entitlement to defend itself following the assault on 7 October 2023, which resulted in the deaths of over a thousand individuals, primarily non-combatants, and abducted hundreds.
The subsequent war in the Gaza Strip has taken the lives of over 64,000 individuals, overwhelmingly ordinary residents, and wounded a further 160,000.
Investigation Outcomes
To constitute genocide under the international genocide convention, one or more of five types of action must have taken place. The commission alleges Israeli forces of committing four of these.
Supporting material comprises interviews with survivors, observers, and healthcare workers, confirmed open-source documents, journalistic accounts, civil society assessments, and satellite imagery.
Category One: Killing
The commission notes data indicating that up until mid-July 2025, a significant proportion of deaths in the strip were non-combatant vulnerable groups.
Israeli forces have used heavy unguided munitions with a significant inaccuracy in densely populated areas… The volume of munitions deployed after the October attack is extraordinary even in comparison to other global conflicts.
Palestinians in Gaza were attacked in their dwellings, at medical facilities, in safe spaces (including classrooms and religious sites), during relocations and in announced humanitarian areas.
The commission also emphasized notable cases such as the death of five children when their vehicle was targeted near a petrol station in the urban center.
Additional Finding: Harm Infliction
This involves the mistreatment of prisoners and forced movement which resulted in severe and irreparable health and trauma.
Third Charge: Creating Uninhabitable Environments
The report observes that large parts of the region has been left virtually uninhabitable, with widespread destruction of essential services, learning centers, historical landmarks, and holy sites.
Evaluating the proof in totality, the panel has concluded that officials had knowledge of the high probability that their actions… would lead to the physical destruction of the population… in whole or in part.
Fourth Charge: Reproductive Destruction
This segment centers on the significant number of young victims and the attack on a reproductive health facility in December 2023, which reportedly ruined thousands of reproductive materials.
Intent
Legal scholars frequently emphasize that establishing genocidal intent is difficult due to the high standard of substantiation.
The inquiry found that comments by Israeli leaders represent “direct evidence of intent to commit genocide”.
Mentioned cases include comparisons to historical wars and policy announcements that indicate an purpose to eliminate the local community.
The head of the commission, a former judge who previously presided over an international court for a prior genocide case, commented that the data confirms the finding of extermination aims.
