On Tuesday (Sept. 16), a panel commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the war in Gaza has concluded that the Israeli government is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinians. The three-member independent panel announced their findings in Geneva in a thoroughly documented report, calling on the international community to end the genocide and punish those responsible, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and South African high court judge, in a statement. “The trauma and their suffering has been ruthlessly manipulated by Netanyahu and his cronies for the last two years — and it’s time that it stopped,” said another panel member, Chris Sidoti.
The panel was set up in 2021 to fully investigate the root of the conflicts in Gaza and the West Bank. The 78-page report has also included information gathered concerning the conflict in Gaza dating back to Oct. 7, 2023 after an assault by Hamas on Israel, which killed 1,200. Of note in the report are the recent airstrikes on Gaza City by Israeli forces.
The panel referred to the “Genocide Convention,” which was created after the end of World War II and the Holocaust in 1948. The criteria agreed upon by that international body detailed five conditions to be met to qualify a genocide taking place; Israel was found to have created four of the five conditions in Gaza in the report, including “extensive and deliberate” targeting of Palestinian children. Sidoti cited the testimony of medical workers in the region, who detailed their treatment of children with direct gunshot wounds to the head and body.
“In stark contrast to the lies in the report, Hamas is the party that attempted genocide in Israel,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorestein, said in a statement, calling the report “fake.” Israel has repeatedly denied claims of committing genocide, stating that its only target is Hamas. Pillay said that while the panel has no authority to take action, its findings can be used by the International Criminal Court or the U.N.’s International Court of Justice. Currently, there is a genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.
