Top UN legal investigators conclude Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza

Most authoritative report by the UN on genocide paves way for ICJ ruling, authors say

By Sondos Asem

Published date: 16 September 2025 

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/un-concludes-israel-guilty-genocide-gaza

The UN’s top investigative body on Palestine and Israel ruled on Tuesday that Israel is guilty of the crime of genocide in Gaza, in the most authoritative pronouncement to date. 

The 72-page report by the UN commission of inquiry on Palestine and Israel finds Israel has committed four of the five acts prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and that Israeli leaders had the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group. 

The finding echoes reports by Palestinian, Israeli and international rights groups that have reached the same conclusion over the past year.

But this is the first comprehensive legal probe by a UN body, serving as an indicator of a judgment by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is currently hearing a case by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. The ICJ case is expected to take several years to be concluded. 

“For the finding on Israel's responsibility for its conduct in Gaza, the commission used the legal standard set forth by the International Court of Justice. This is therefore the most authoritative finding emanating from the United Nations to date,” Navi Pillay, the commission's chair, told Middle East Eye.

“Reports generated by the United Nations, including by a commission of inquiry, bear particular probative value and can be relied upon by all domestic and international courts.”

Pillay, a prominent jurist who previously served as the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, said all states had an unequivocal legal obligation to prevent the genocide in Gaza. She also urged the UK government to review its stance on the Gaza genocide, including its refusal to label it as such.

“The obligation to prevent genocide arises when states learn of the existence of a serious risk of genocide and thus states, including the UK, must act without the need to wait for a judicial determination to prevent genocide,” she said.

Another member of the commission, Chris Sidoti, told MEE that states must act now to prevent genocide. “There is no excuse now for not acting,” he said.

“The UN report will remain the most authoritative statement until the International Court of Justice completes and rules on the genocide case brought against Israel.”

The report is due to be presented to the UN General Assembly in October.

It calls on UN member states to take several measures, including halting arms transfers to Israel and imposing sanctions against Israel and individuals or corporations that are involved in or facilitating genocide or incitement to commit the crime.

The report concluded that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October 2023, covering the period from that date until 31 July 2025.

It said that Israel has committed four acts of genocide:

·        Killing members of the group: Palestinians were killed in large numbers through direct attacks on civilians, protected persons, and vital civilian infrastructure, as well as by the deliberate creation of conditions that led to death.
 

·        Causing serious bodily or mental harm: Palestinians suffered torture, rape, sexual assault, forced displacement, and severe mistreatment in detention, alongside widespread attacks on civilians and the environment.
 

·        Inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group: Israel deliberately imposed inhumane living conditions in Gaza, including destruction of essential infrastructure, denial of medical care, forced displacement, blocking of food, water, fuel, and electricity, reproductive violence, and starvation as a method of warfare. Children were found to be particularly targeted.

•    Preventing births within the group: The attack on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic destroyed thousands of embryos, sperm samples, and eggs. Experts told the commission this would prevent thousands of Palestinian children from ever being

Genocidal intent

In addition to the genocidal acts, the investigation concluded that the Israeli authorities and security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip

Genocidal intent is often the hardest to prove in any genocide case. But the authors of the report have found “fully conclusive evidence” of such intent. 

They cited statements made by Israeli authorities, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant - who served as defence minister for much of the war - as direct evidence of genocidal intent.

It also found that the three leaders have committed the crime of incitement to genocide, a substantive crime under Article III of the convention, regardless of whether genocide was committed. 

Additionally, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, the commission found that genocidal intent was the “only reasonable inference” that could be drawn based on the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities. That is the same standard of proof that will be used by the ICJ in its current proceedings against Israel. 

The commission said it identified six patterns of conduct by Israeli forces in Gaza that support an inference of genocidal intent:

·        Mass killings: Israeli forces have killed and seriously harmed an unprecedented number of Palestinians since 7 October 2023, mostly civilians, using heavy munitions in densely populated areas. By 15 July 2025, 83 percent of those killed were civilians, the report found. Nearly half were women and children.
 

·        Cultural destruction: The systematic leveling of homes, schools, mosques, churches, and cultural sites was cited as evidence of an effort to erase Palestinian identity.
 

·        Deliberate suffering: Despite three provisional orders from the ICJ and repeated international warnings, Israel continued policies knowing Palestinians were trapped and unable to flee, the commission said.
 

·        Collapse of healthcare: Israeli forces targeted Gaza’s healthcare system, attacking hospitals, killing and abusing medical personnel, and blocking vital supplies and patient evacuations.
 

·        Sexual violence: Investigators documented sexualised torture, rape, and other forms of gender-based violence, describing them as tools of collective punishment.
 

·          Targeting children: Children were shot by snipers and drones, including during evacuations and at shelters, with some killed while carrying white flags.

“Israeli political and military leaders are agents of the State of Israel; therefore, their acts are attributable to the State of Israel,” the report read. 

“The State of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Who are the UN investigators?

The three-member commission of inquiry was established in May 2021 by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (HRC) with a permanent mandate to investigate international humanitarian and human rights law violations in occupied Palestine and Israel from April 2021. 

The commission is mandated to report annually to the HRC and the UN General Assembly. Its members are independent experts, unpaid by the UN, on an open-ended mandate. 

The commission’s reports are highly authoritative and are widely cited by international legal bodies, including the ICJ and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Over the past four years, it has produced some of the most groundbreaking reports on international law breaches in Israel and Palestine.

Since 7 October 2023, the commission has issued three reports and three papers on international law breaches by different parties.

Previous reports have concluded that Israeli forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including, among others, extermination, torture, rape, sexual violence and starvation as a method of warfare. They also concluded that two acts of genocide had been committed in Gaza. 

Its three members are eminent human rights and legal experts.

Pillay served as UN high commissioner for human rights from 2008 to 2014. She previously served as a judge in the ICJ and presided over the UN’s ad hoc tribunal for Rwanda.

Miloon Kothari served as the first UN special rapporteur on adequate housing between 2000 and 2008, while Sidoti is the former Australian human rights commissioner and previously served as a member of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar from 2017 to 2019.