UN Investigators Accuse Israel of ‘Genocide’ in Gaza, Cite Top Leaders for Incitement

United Nations investigators have accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza with the intent to “destroy the Palestinians,” placing direct responsibility on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials for incitement.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which investigates human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur,” according to commission chair Navi Pillay.

“The responsibility lies with the State of Israel,” Pillay told AFP.

Israel swiftly rejected the findings, with its foreign ministry calling the report “distorted and false” and demanding the immediate abolition of the commission.

Findings of the Report

The report comes nearly two years into the war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,219 people — mostly civilians — according to Israeli figures compiled by AFP.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has since killed nearly 65,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN treats as reliable. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, with the UN declaring a full-blown famine in Gaza City.

The COI concluded that Israeli authorities and forces have committed “four of the five genocidal acts” defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention:

• Killing members of a group
• Inflicting serious bodily or mental harm
• Deliberately imposing conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births

The commission pointed to explicit statements from Israeli leaders and patterns of military conduct as evidence of intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group.

It specifically named President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as having “incited the commission of genocide,” while accusing authorities of failing to punish such incitement.

“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons,” said Pillay, 83, a former UN human rights chief and ex-judge of the Rwanda tribunal.

International Pressure

Although the COI is not a legal body, its findings could support future prosecutions. Pillay confirmed the commission has been sharing thousands of pieces of evidence with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” she warned.

The genocide accusations are not new. NGOs, UN experts, and international courts have repeatedly raised similar concerns. The UN itself has stopped short of using the label, though senior officials have denounced “genocidal rhetoric” and urged urgent action.

In January 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent and punish incitement to genocide. Four months later, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In response, the U.S. imposed sanctions on two ICC judges and two prosecutors, barring them from entering the country and freezing their assets.

Opinion Nigeria News