On the 16th local time, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, released a report determining that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Through nearly two years of investigation, the Commission concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed four of the five acts of genocide defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily 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; and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
The report states that the explicit statements of Israeli authorities and the patterns of conduct of Israeli security forces indicate that these acts of genocide are intended to destroy the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip in whole or in part. The Commission determined that Israel is responsible for the genocide occurring in Gaza, that the highest levels of Israeli authorities have orchestrated a campaign of genocide spanning nearly two years, and have failed to prevent and punish acts of genocide.
In determining the acts of genocide, the Commission examined Israel’s military operations in Gaza, including the killing and serious injury of a large number of Palestinians; the imposition of a comprehensive blockade, including the prevention of humanitarian aid leading to famine; the systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare and education systems; the commission of systematic sexual and gender-based violence; the direct targeting of children; systematic and large-scale attacks on religious and cultural sites; and the disregard for orders from the International Court of Justice.
The Commission determined that Israeli authorities show no intention of changing their course of action. The Commission urges the Government of Israel to immediately fulfill its international legal obligations, including ending the genocide in the Gaza Strip and fully implementing the “provisional measures” ordered by the International Court of Justice.