A UN panel of inquiry has concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, saying that senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, incited the actions. Reuters reported, News.bg reports.
In support of its findings, the panel cited the scale of the killings, the blockade of humanitarian aid, the forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic. “Genocide is being committed in Gaza“, said Navi Pillay, the panel's head and a former judge at the International Criminal Court.
According to the report, Israeli authorities at the highest levels have been organizing a genocidal campaign for nearly two years with the specific intention of destroying the Palestinian group in Gaza. Israel has refused to cooperate, and its mission in Geneva has accused the commission of political bias.
The 72-page legal analysis is the strongest UN finding yet, but the commission is an independent body and does not speak officially on behalf of the organisation. Although the UN has not yet used the term “genocide”, international pressure is growing to do so.
Israel is already the subject of a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The country denies the charges, citing its right to self-defence following the “Hamas” attack on 7 October 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. The subsequent war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of more than 64,000 people.
According to the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, the crime is defined as acts committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. The commission found that Israel committed four of the five acts: murder, causing serious physical or mental harm, creating conditions of destruction and imposing birth control measures.
The evidence used included interviews with witnesses and victims, medical records, open-source documents and analysis of satellite imagery collected since the start of the war.