A United Nations commission on Tuesday issued a report accusing Israel of committing genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza.
The 72-page legal analysis published by the UN’s commission of inquiry, which was set up by the UN’s Human Rights Council in 2021, states that there is “evidence of genocidal intent” on Israel’s part in its nearly three-year campaign against Gaza and its residents.
“The Commission concludes that Israeli authorities and security forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” reads part of the analysis.
“Israel categorically rejects the libellous rant published today by this commission of inquiry,” said Daniel Meron, Israel’s ambassador to the UN. He also labeled the report “fake” and “scandalous.”
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The UN’s commission of inquiry stated that Israel has shown an “intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza” and Israel’s actions meet certain criteria set forth in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
“[Israel] committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births,” read the report.
Nearly 70,000 people have perished in Gaza since the outbreak of war two years ago, after Hamas killed more than 1,300 Israelis and took hundreds of hostages during coordinated armed incursions throughout Israel on October 7, 2023.
