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A new detailed investigative report from a UN-established fact-finding mission has issued the strongest conclusions to date regarding events in Gaza.

The commission charges Israel of perpetrating systematic destruction, stating that its military offensive was undertaken “with the aim to destroy, totally or partly, a racial or religious group”.

Investigation Origins

Created four years ago by the UN’s human rights council, the panel is composed of three external authorities and does not officially speak on behalf of the entire United Nations.

Israel’s delegation have rejected the report “outrageous” and “fake”, stating it was authored by “supporters of Hamas”.

The Israeli government has refuted the allegations, citing its entitlement to defend itself following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, primarily non-combatants, and abducted hundreds.

The subsequent war in Gaza has taken the lives of over 64,000 individuals, predominantly non-combatants, and injured a further 160,000.

Investigation Outcomes

To be considered genocide under the 1948 UN genocide convention, at least one of five types of action must have been committed. The panel alleges the Israeli military of committing four of these.

Documentation comprises accounts with affected persons, bystanders, and healthcare workers, authenticated publicly available records, media coverage, NGO analyses, and satellite imagery.

Category One: Killing

The investigators references figures indicating that up until recently, a significant proportion of deaths in the strip were females and minors.

The military utilized area-effect bombs with a high collateral damage potential in urban residential areas… The volume of explosives employed after the October attack is exceptionally high relative to other global conflicts.

Civilians in Gaza were targeted in their homes, at medical facilities, in shelters (including classrooms and religious sites), during departures and in designated safe zones.

The panel also highlighted notable cases such as the killing of five children when their family car was hit near a gas station in the urban center.

Category Two: Serious Bodily or Mental Harm

This encompasses the abuse of prisoners and mass displacement which has caused severe and irreparable bodily and psychological injury.

Third Charge: Creating Uninhabitable Environments

The analysis notes that a significant portion of the strip has been rendered virtually uninhabitable, with massive damage of bakeries, learning centers, cultural sites, and holy sites.

Taking into account the proof in its entirety, investigators has found that officials were aware of the significant chance that their military operations… would lead to the physical destruction of the group… totally or partly.

Fourth Charge: Reproductive Destruction

This segment centers on the significant number of minors killed and the targeting on an IVF center in December 2023, which allegedly destroyed a large quantity of embryos.

Intent

Legal scholars often note that establishing genocidal intent is challenging due to the strict requirement of evidence.

The panel found that comments by high-ranking figures constitute “clear proof of intent to commit genocide”.

Referenced instances include analogies to religious struggles and official statements that indicate an aim to eliminate the target group.

The lead author of the panel, an ex- jurist who once led over a legal body for Rwanda, commented that the evidence upholds the conclusion of extermination aims.