“The surviving girl, Layan Hamada, called the Red Cross reporting that a tank was nearby. She was killed shortly afterward, while still on the phone.” She was 15 years old, the cousin of the 6-year-old girl featured in The Voice of Hind Rajab, the film about the tragedy that shocked the world from the spotlight at the Venice Film Festival. This is also among the hundreds of stories cited in the report of the United Nations Independent International Commission on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem and Israel, which confirms one of the most serious accusations ever made against the Jewish state: the military operations launched in Gaza since 7 October 2023 constitute the crime of genocide.
If in previous reports, the Commission established on May 27, 2021 by the Human Rights Council had established that the Israel Defense Forces had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Strip, it has now gone further."From October 7, 2023, to July 31, 2025, 60,199 Palestinians were killed, including 18,430 children and 9,735 women," reads the document entitled Legal Analysis of Israel's Conduct in Gaza under the Genocide Convention, signed by Chair Navi Pillay and Commissioners Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti. According to the Commission, these deaths cannot be considered merely collateral consequences of the conflict:"The Israeli authorities intended to kill as many Palestinians as possible through the military operations and war strategies employed." The report highlights that “the victims were not selected as individuals, but were targeted collectively as Palestinians ”.
The Commission's scrutiny is not only focused on the killings but also on the siege imposed on the Strip. It cites"the blockade of medicine, medical equipment, food, and water" and the impediment to the entry of humanitarian aid, measures taken"with the full knowledge that they would lead to the deaths of Palestinian civilians." Hence, the conclusion that"the deaths were the result of the deliberate infliction of living conditions calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza." This situation has caused the population physical and psychological harm, an unprecedented level of collective suffering. In May 2024,"77,908 Palestinians were injured," and by July 2025, the number had risen to"146,269 people."
Particular emphasis is placed in the report on the suffering inflicted on minors and women."The IDF have intentionally targeted children," the commissioners write. The consequence of this is that amputations among the youngest have reached alarming proportions:"Gaza is today the largest community of minor amputees in modern history." The situation created is also having serious consequences on the reproductive health of Gazans."Hospitals providing obstetric services have been hit," according to the WHO,"by June 2025, over 60,000 pregnant women had no access to adequate medical care," and in some cases, pregnant women"have undergone caesarean sections in unsterile conditions, without anesthesia, with fatal consequences for mothers and newborns." The report then recalls "cases of sexual violence and rape threats aimed at intimidating women, generating fear of carrying pregnancies" and the destruction of the Al-Basma IVF center, where thousands of embryos and genetic samples were lost:"The destruction of essential medical facilities and materials for reproduction is part of measures intended to prevent births within the Palestinian group." Hence "the destruction, in part, of the reproductive capacity
of Palestinians as a group."The key legal element of the analysis is the so-called dolus specialis, that is, the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such, a psychological requirement considered a fundamental and distinctive element of the crime of genocide according to the definition of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In this regard, the Commission recalls several public statements by Israeli leaders, including that of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who on 9 October 2023 called the Palestinians in Gaza “human animals. The report states that “genocidal intent is demonstrated by official statements and by a systematic pattern of conduct”. According to the Commissioners, the combination of dehumanizing rhetoric and established military practice satisfies the requirements of the Convention. Based on this reasoning, the report leaves no room for ambiguity: “The actus reus (the action committed, ed.) and the mens rea (the thought behind that action, ed.) of genocide under the Convention are satisfied. Israel must be held responsible as a State .”
The team based its findings on the Convention's five criteria for assessing whether genocide has occurred: killing members of a group; causing serious physical or mental harm to its members; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about its"physical destruction"; and forcibly transferring its children to another group. Under the Convention, genocide can be determined even if only one of the five criteria is met, and the commission stated that in this case, four were met. Only the criterion of forcible transfer is missing.
Tel Aviv's response was harsh. Israel"categorically rejects this distorted and false report," the Israeli Foreign Ministry responded."Three individuals acting as Hamas representatives, known for their openly anti-Semitic views—and whose horrific statements about Jews have been condemned worldwide—have today published another false 'report' on Gaza."
