Reuters

On September 16, 2025, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, issued its third report on the situation in Gaza since October 7, 2023.&nbsp;For the first time, the COI has recognized that genocide has been committed, and continues to be committed, against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It demands that Israel immediately implement a &ldquo;complete and permanent&rdquo; ceasefire in Gaza, and that it ensures unhindered access to humanitarian aid, including food, clean water, medical equipment and medicine in all of Gaza.&nbsp;What&rsquo;s in the report?The report is a legal analysis of Israel&rsquo;s conduct in Gaza. It thoroughly examines all the elements of the definition of the crime of genocide established by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide of 1948.&nbsp;The COI based its conclusions on its own investigations and relied on the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals to examine the evidence gathered. The facts included in the report &ndash; a non-exhaustive list &ndash; are those that experts have considered relevant to the analysis of genocide.&nbsp;The report analyses events in the Gaza Strip between October 2023 and July 2025. This means it does not account for events that occurred before the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, or human rights violations in the West Bank during this period.&nbsp;The COI drew its finding of genocide by applying the criteria of &ldquo;reasonable grounds to conclude&rdquo;. This is the standard of proof used by most international commissions of inquiry on human rights. It differs from the criteria of &ldquo;beyond a reasonable doubt&rdquo; used in criminal tribunals &ndash; this is consistent with the complementary role played by international human rights commissions in judicial investigation processes.&nbsp;All this is to say that, according to international standards of proof, the report provides enough verified evidence to determine that Israel&rsquo;s conduct constitutes a crime of genocide.&nbsp;What is the evidence?By analyzing the elements of the definition of genocide, the COI concludes that Israeli forces have committed 4 of the 5 acts that constitute genocide committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as per the 1948 UN Convention. Namely, these are: &nbsp;- Killing members of the group &nbsp;- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group - Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part&nbsp;- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.&nbsp;According to the UN report, all these acts are being done with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, the group of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.&nbsp;The report details specific, recorded acts that fit these definitions. These include attacks on civilians on evacuation routes, around 500 attacks on healthcare facilities, failure to use precision-guided &ldquo;smart&rdquo; weapons in densely populated residential areas, and deliberate attacks targeting medical personnel and aid workers.&nbsp;It describes the mistreatment and torture of more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, as well as rape and other sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian detainees. The report also highlights the systematic and intentional destruction of maternity facilities, an increase of 300% in miscarriages since October 7, 2023, as well as attacks on Gaza&rsquo;s largest fertility clinic, which destroyed around 4,000 embryos.&nbsp;The report also finds evidence of Israel intentionally destroying areas of agricultural land, destroying 110 cultural and religious sites, and damaging 70&nbsp;% of schools.&nbsp;More than 90% of Gaza&rsquo;s residents (about 1.9 million people) have been displaced, while Israel&rsquo;s &ldquo;total siege&rdquo; of Gaza has cut off supplies of water, food, electricity, fuel and other essential supplies, including humanitarian assistance. The report finds that Israel is using starvation as a method of warfare, and that it has weaponized access to basic supplies.&nbsp;Genocidal intentTo be considered genocide, all of these acts need to be committed with the special intention to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Based on the direct and circumstantial evidence available, the COI has drawn the following conclusion:&nbsp;&ldquo;The Israeli authorities intended to kill as many Palestinians as possible through its military operations in Gaza since 7 October 2023 and knew that the means and methods of warfare employed would cause mass deaths of Palestinians, including children.&rdquo;&nbsp;The direct evidence draws from statements made by Israeli authorities, which have repeatedly dehumanized Palestinians and &ldquo;explicitly called for vengeance, destruction and annihilation&rdquo;.Additionally, the report concludes that &ldquo;the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the pattern of conduct of Israeli security forces in Gaza is evidence of genocidal intent.&rdquo;&nbsp;Will it make a difference?The report concludes that Israel has failed to prevent genocide, is still committing genocide, and has failed to punish genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It calls on all States to prevent genocide by ceasing the transfer of weapons to Israel, and to ensure that individuals and corporations do not contribute to it.&nbsp;It also compels States to promote domestic investigations and to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in gathering evidence of the crime and incitement of genocide.&nbsp;Lastly, the COI recommends that the Prosecutor of the ICC expand its investigations of the situation in Palestine, and that it include genocide in addition to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Before the COI report, other UN mechanisms had already determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Nevertheless, this report is groundbreaking in its level of detail. The evidence it offers is so overwhelming that it leaves little room for doubt, or for the argument that Israel is acting in self-defense.&nbsp;The report&rsquo;s long-term impact remains to be seen, though its findings may have spurred the recent push to recognize a Palestinian State in various European countries.

Middle East

For the first time, the COI recognizes that genocide has been committed, and continues to be committed, against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Overwhelming evidence of genocide against Palestinians: Legal expert

GAZA CITY: Gaza&#39;s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 50 people across the Palestinian territory on Friday. The Israeli military is pressing an offensive in Gaza City, from which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee in recent weeks. The civil defense agency -- a rescue force operating in Gaza -- reported at least 50 Palestinians killed across the territory since dawn, 30 of them in Gaza City. Israel&#39;s military said the air force had during the past day &quot;struck over 140 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including terrorists, tunnel shafts (and) military infrastructure&quot;. AFP footage from Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City showed heavy damage to buildings after an air strike. Searching through rubble&nbsp;A barefoot young girl was among those searching through the rubble for belongings. Toppled poles left a web of cables on the ground. Netanyahu said at the United Nations on Friday that the military had &quot;crushed the bulk&quot; of Hamas&#39;s &quot;terror machine&quot; and sought to finish the job &quot;as fast as possible.&quot; He said his speech was being partially broadcast in Gaza on military loudspeakers. A statement from his office said the military had &quot;taken over the telephones of Gaza residents and Hamas members&quot;, and that the address was being broadcast live on the devices. &quot;It&#39;s a lie -- we haven&#39;t received any messages or anything on the phone, and we didn&#39;t hear any loudspeakers,&quot; said Randa Hanoun, 30, a displaced Palestinian living in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. &quot;This is just an attempt to stir fear in our hearts and to make us pay attention to Netanyahu&#39;s speech... But we don&#39;t care about his speeches and we don&#39;t want to hear a single word from him.&quot; Two AFP contributors in southern Gaza and one in Gaza City said they hadn&#39;t heard the speech on the loudspeakers, nor received anything on their phones. &lsquo;10 people in a small tent&rsquo;&nbsp;Israel launched its ground offensive on Gaza City on September 16. The military said on Thursday that 700,000 Palestinians had fled the urban hub since late August. The UN humanitarian office said the displacement of 388,400 people had been recorded since mid-August, most of them from Gaza City. Um Youssef al-Shaer, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian living in the tent city of of Al-Mawasi on the Mediterranean coast, told AFP that the area had become overcrowded as more and more Palestinians sought refuge there. &quot;We are piled on top of each other in a single tent -- me, my husband, our six children and my husband&#39;s elderly parents -- 10 people in a small tent,&quot; she said. Over nearly two years, Israeli war on Gaza have killed at least 65,549 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, figures the UN considers reliable.

Israeli forces killed at least 50 Palestinians Friday amid intensified Gaza City offensives. Over 140 targets were struck. Displacement grows, with overcrowded shelters and rising civilian tolls. Netanyahu claims Hamas weakened. 

Articles tagged with "Palestinian Genocide"

Overwhelming evidence of genocide against Palestinians: Legal expert

Israeli forces kill at least 50 Palestinians: Gaza civil defense