By SYDNEY ARNOLD ’26
Updated 11:50 a.m. EDT, 26 Sept. 2025
On Sept. 16, 2025, the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) accused Israel of carrying out four of the five genocidal acts outlined in international law against the Palestinians in Gaza.
“Israel’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as ‘distorted and false,’” reported the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Israel’s political and military leaders continuously stated that Israel’s military operations are “in self-defence, to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and to secure the release of Israeli hostages.” The leaders also “insisted that Israeli forces operate in accordance with international law and take all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.”
However, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, shared in the BBC’s piece that “Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to inflict… ‘mighty vengeance’ on ‘all of the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble’” and told Palestinians to “leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”
Despite continuous denial from Israel, the Commission stated that “genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference.”
The United Nations categorizes the crime of genocide into two main components: physical and mental. Among the physical acts for which Israel has been accused, the four charges include the killing of group members, interfering with births, deliberately creating conditions that contribute to the destruction of the group, and inflicting serious bodily and mental harm. For the mental aspect, there must be an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”
The qualifications for this decision are outlined in the UN’s General Assembly Transcript. The Commission stated that the significant casualties fall outside the accepted parameters of just warfare. They emphasized that “mass casualties, mass destruction, mass displacement, and mass starvation continue to be inflicted in Gaza daily by Israeli occupying forces.” It was also reported that “the casualty toll is nearing 52,000 Palestinians killed and over 117,000 injured,” with the majority being civilians, specifically women and children. Additionally, the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed that “in 36 recent Israeli strikes, all those who lost their lives were women and children.” These acts, according to the COI, constitute as the deliberate killing of group members.
Inflicting mental harm on a group includes acts like “bulldozing entire cemeteries, desecrating graves, and even tormenting the dead.” The COI asserts that these actions once again reveal Israel’s “genocidal attempts” by inflicting both mental and physical harm.
Additionally, the COI cited evidence that Israeli forces were deliberately preventing births and targeting critical infrastructure. “As it persists with its attacks on humanitarians, Israel also continues its systematic attacks on the health system in Gaza, intent on depriving Palestinians of life-saving care, further contributing to their demise and thus further exposing its genocidal intent,” the COI said. On May 27, 2025, the BBC wrote, “through the December 2023 attack on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic, reportedly destroying around 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm samples, and unfertilised eggs.”
The third observed genocidal act is creating conditions that contribute to the destruction of the group. These acts may include: forced evacuation of homeland, killing by all means of lethal weaponry, or by starvation and disease.
Israeli Minister of War Israel Katz declared that “no humanitarian aid is set to enter Gaza.” He said the blocking of humanitarian aid and vital resources serves as a “pressure tool” (Reuters). The COI assembly reported that “food and water are intentionally being withheld with total disregard for civilian welfare, including that of 1 million children.”
The Commission concluded its assembly by stating, “Stopping this genocide and ending this illegal occupation and historic injustice are existential matters for preserving human life and our common humanity… for establishing peace and security for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, the Middle East and globally.” ★
