UN Commission accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza

Explosion after an airstrike in Gaza City, September 5, 2025. Photo: AP

On September 16, 2025, an independent commission established by the UN Human Rights Council released a report stating that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, Associated Press reports.

According to the report by the three-member expert panel, Israel’s military actions have caused the deaths of more than 64,000 people, while the destruction and attacks on civilians bear the character of deliberate extermination. The experts emphasized that the scale of events is comparable to other 20th-century tragedies officially recognized as genocide.

The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Israel, has been operating since 2021 and has repeatedly documented human rights violations. The report urges the international community to stop the genocide and hold those responsible accountable.

Although neither the commission nor the 47-member UN Human Rights Council has the authority to directly punish states, their findings may be used by prosecutors of the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.

Israel has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel,” and its Foreign Ministry issued an angry response Tuesday that it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report.”

The commission was chaired by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who earlier served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which issued dozens of convictions related to the 1994 genocide. In the summer of 2025, she and two other commission members resigned, citing personal circumstances and the need to renew the group’s composition.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the IDF had called for the evacuation of a Jerusalem Church temple in Gaza.

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