A United Nations commission of inquiry spent two years working on a 72-page report: its conclusion is that Israel acted with the intent of destroying Palestinians in Gaza. Here's who makes up the commission, and why they've come to this conclusion.

An independent United Nations investigation has concluded that genocide has been ongoing in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

Israel has moved with the intent to destroy the Palestinians present in the territory, denounces a 72-page report published today by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territories.

Who leads the Commission?

Leading it is Navi Pillay, a former judge who previously presided over the international tribunal for Rwanda, helping to establish rape as a crime of genocide.

We have concluded that a genocide is taking place in Gaza and that the responsibility lies with the State of Israel, summarized this 84-year-old jurist of Indian origin who grew up in apartheid South Africa and has dedicated her life to the fight against injustice.

As an advocate for political prisoners, Pillay worked closely with Nelson Mandela, who, once elected president, appointed her to the Supreme Court in 1995. She thus became the first non-white female judge on South Africa's High Court. Pillay also served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the only one to serve two terms, from 2008 to 2014.

Ours is a two-year project, it's not something we invented now - he clarified, mentioning the method used in the investigation - we examined images, spoke with experts, doctors, witnesses, children. But since we are not allowed to enter Israel, they came to us.

What is the accusation based on, and what is the evidence?

The charge of genocide, he explains, arises from reasonable grounds: the analysis refers exclusively to the determination of genocide according to the Genocide Convention, the 1948 UN treaty adopted following the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, which defines genocide as crimes committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such.

The commission concluded that the Israeli authorities and armed forces, since October 2023, have committed four of the five genocidal acts listed in this treaty : 

- killing members of the group ; 

- causing serious physical or mental harm to members of the group; 

- deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 

- imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

To support its conclusion, the investigation cites examples of the scale of killings, aid blockades, forced displacement, and the destruction of a fertility clinic.

The victims of the bombings were not identified or targeted as individual civilians. Instead, the victims were targeted collectively because of their Palestinian identity, the report states.

The report cites the plummeting life expectancy: The Commission notes with alarm a report finding that, as of May 2025, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza as dead or likely dead. Considering that, by this point, 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks, this means that 83% of the casualties in Gaza were civilians. Examples are given of attacks on civilians along evacuation routes and in safe zones : the Commission found that Palestinians, including women and children, were directly targeted and killed, even in the absence of hostilities nearby and when they were alone.

What are the responsibilities of the Israeli leadership?

The report calls into question the responsibility of the State of Israel both for its failure to prevent the genocide, for its failure to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, and for its failure to prosecute the genocide.

Investigators said that explicit statements by Israeli civil and military authorities, along with the pattern of Israeli force conduct, indicated that the genocidal acts were committed with the intent to destroy the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.

The report concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities failed to take action against them to punish this incitement.

How did Israel react?

Israel categorically rejected the report, calling it false and calling for the immediate dissolution of the commission of inquiry.

Three individuals acting as representatives of Hamas, known for their openly anti-Semitic positions, have today published another false"report" on Gaza. The Israeli Foreign Ministry is attacking Pillay on X, referring not only to Pillay but also to the other two members of the Commission: Indian Miloon Kothari and Australian Chris Sidoti. Long targeted by Israel, the team announced in mid-July that after four years of work, they will resign between the end of October and the beginning of November, citing personal reasons and the need for change: these are the first group resignations of this Commission.

The report is based entirely on recycled and repeated Hamas falsehoods. These fabrications have already been widely debunked, the ministry claims. The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the panel of experts and denied their repeated requests to visit the region.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Daniel Meron, called the report scandalous: It was written by Hamas agents, he said.

What is the connection between the Commission and the International Criminal Court?

The Commission, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, is an investigative body that has no judicial power, but its reports can exert diplomatic pressure and serve to gather evidence for later use by the courts.

Pillay said the Commission is cooperating with the International Criminal Court prosecutor, who issued an international arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant in recent months."We have shared thousands of pieces of information with them," she said.