The mound of rubble at the site of the Unknown Soldier Tower, destroyed by overnight Israeli bombardment, is pictured in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City on September 15, 2025. Israel’s military had said on September 9 that it would act with “great force” in Gaza City and told residents to leave as it stepped up a deadly assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest urban centre. (Photo credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)
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On September 16, 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (CoI), a subsidiary body of the Human Rights Council, concluded, on reasonable grounds, that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The CoI was established in 2021 to investigate all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since April 13, 2021. Engaging with the question of genocide in the latest report, the CoI found that four prohibited acts were carried out, namely, killings, causing serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births. As the CoI concluded, these prohibited acts were committed by the Israeli authorities and security forces with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. To make this determination, the CoI is said to have relied on extensive evidence of “systematic and unprecedented killings, destruction of homes and cultural sites, deliberate starvation, denial of healthcare, sexual and gender based violence, and the direct targeting of children.”
Genocide, sometimes referred to as the crime of crimes, defined in Article II of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), is an identity-based crime. It is not enough to show the existence of the prohibited acts as listed in Article II, but they are to be directed against one of the protected groups (such as ethnic, religious, national or racial group) with the specific intent to destroy the groups in whole or in part. Because of the requirement of the specific intent, the crime is difficult to prove. The Genocide Convention requires States to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, and as explained by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its 2007 judgment in the case of Bosnia, the duty to prevent arises at the instant the State learns or should have learned of the serious risk of genocide.
Despite the high bar set by the definition of genocide in Article II of the Genocide Convention, the situation in Gaza has been referred to as genocide by non-governmental organizations and experts over recent months. Among others, in December 2023, South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel before the ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, alleging violations by Israel of its obligations under the Genocide Convention in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. South Africa applied for provisional measures, which have been subsequently granted. In December 2024, Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization, published a report analyzing the situation of Palestinians in Gaza, entitled “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman,” making this finding. In August 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a non-governmental organization that seeks to “further research and teaching about the nature, causes, and consequences of genocide, and advance policy studies on genocide prevention” issued a resolution on Gaza declaring that Declares that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the Genocide Convention. In September 2025, UN experts, including Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, occupied since 1967, issued an urgent appeal for a UN General Assembly emergency meeting on Gaza, citing evidence of genocide and starvation.
The CoI report suggests that statements by Israel’s President, Prime Minister and Defense Minister are direct evidence of genocidal intent. Furthermore, the CoI concluded that genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference from the totality of the evidence, and having considered the pattern of conduct.
The CoI report further reminded that all States have an obligation under international law to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, employing all measures at their disposal. The CoI identified several recommendations, including for Israel to immediately end the commission of genocide and implement a complete permanent ceasefire in Gaza, ensure unhindered access of all United Nations staff, among others. The recommendations to all States include employing all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza, cease the transfer of arms and other equipment or items, including jet fuel, to the State of Israel or third States where there is reason to suspect their use in military operations that have involved or could involve the commission of genocide, among others.
The suggestions of genocide in Gaza have been strongly denied by Israel, including before the ICJ in response to the case brought by South Africa. At this stage, it is also unclear whether and how States will respond to the report of the CoI, if at all. Indeed, despite significant reports and warnings of the serious risk of genocide over recent months, only a few States acted upon, among them Ireland. Others, including the United Kingdom, claim to have conducted their own analysis of the situation and rejected the allegations of genocide, as was clarified in a recent letter from the then Foreign Secretary David Lammy to a Parliamentary committee.