Israel committing genocide in Gaza, UN-commissioned report says

John Bowker, Bloomberg News on Sep 16, 2025

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A United Nations-commissioned report concluded Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and called for the international community to fulfill its legal obligations to end it and “punish those responsible.”

The findings were released Tuesday as a long-threatened ground offensive on Gaza City starts. The operation into the de facto capital of the Palestinian territory is the latest escalation of the country’s near two-year war against the Iran-backed militant group Hamas.

“It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” said Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission in charge of the legal analysis, referring to the U.N. directive adopted in 1948.

Israel’s foreign ministry slammed the report, rejecting it as “distorted and false” and saying the findings are based on “Hamas falsehoods.”

While the analysis doesn’t bind the U.N. to its conclusions, it’s possible prosecutors will use it in a case against Israel brought on by South Africa. The country brought a case to the International Court of Justice in December 2023 — two months after the war began — accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

The Hague-based ICJ issued an interim ruling the following month that Israel must provide humanitarian assistance to civilian victims of its assault.

The commission of independent experts — established in 2021 by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council — concluded Israel was responsible for four of the five acts legally defined by the Genocide Convention, which was set up following the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany.

Those include killing and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy Palestinians, as well as imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, according to the 72-page report.

Israel’s campaign — triggered by the deadly Hamas raid on the country in October 2023 — has largely destroyed Gaza and displaced the majority of its 2 million inhabitants, some of them several times over. A U.N.-backed body declared a famine in parts of the strip last month, citing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity.”

Israeli officials say they have allowed thousands of tons of aid into Gaza — which groups such as the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs say are insufficient to meet minimal food needs — and issue warnings to civilians when military action is headed in their direction. Those seeking to commit genocide, Israel argues, wouldn’t do such things.

More than 64,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and many other countries, killed 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack.

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—With assistance from Dan Williams and Ethan Bronner.