Israel denies UN report finding the country guilty of four of five indicators of genocide in its occupation of the Gaza Strip.
GENEVA—On September 16, 2025, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory declared Israel’s current occupation of the Gaza Strip a genocide. The Commission of Inquiry was established to assess the conflict shortly after Israel launched its first attack in October 2023. As the intensity of the conflict resulted in a large number of reported civilian deaths, concerns rose. Statements by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revealed genocidal intent, and numerous reports stipulated Israel’s crimes against humanity. Though Israel claimed it solely opposed Hamas, the commission found that bombs targeted densely populated areas, hospitals, and clinics. Still, it has taken the Commission of Inquiry almost two years since the initial attack to officially use the word genocide.
According to the 1948 Genocide Convention, any “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” is considered genocide. In its legal report, the panel found Israel guilty of four of the five acts defined under the Convention as genocidal:
(i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
Israel’s foreign ministry denied the validity of the report. Daniel Meron, Israel’s ambassador, said the U.N.’s claims spread a “malicious genocide narrative…serving Hamas and its supporters.” Israel’s government argued that Hamas was the group attempting genocide, citing the October 2023 attack in which 1,200 Jews were killed. Israel claimed the report was based on misinformation spread by Hamas and its proxies. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, over 66,000 Palestinians have died since Israel invaded.
The Commission of Inquiry asked Israel’s government to implement a permanent ceasefire immediately, allow Gaza access to humanitarian agencies and aid, permit the medical evacuations of injured Palestinians, and discipline leaders who incited genocide (including Herzog, Netanyahu, and Gallant). However, legally, the U.N. cannot decide whether something is considered genocide under international law. Therefore, their requests were recommendations and have not yet been taken seriously by the Israeli government and its allies.
The U.N. encouraged all member states to cooperate with an investigation by the International Criminal Court, and emphasized the obligation to use all measures to prevent genocide under the Genocide Convention. These include the stoppage of transportation of weapons, equipment, and jet fuel to Israel, if they may be used to commit genocide, and the assurance that no individual or company under a state’s jurisdiction will incite genocide. The report is scheduled for presentation to the U.N. General Assembly later in October.
