UN inquiry labels Gaza a genocide ahead of Israeli ground offensive in Gaza City.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel stated in a report released Tuesday that there is sufficient evidence to classify the events in Gaza as ‘genocide.’ The report comes as the UN also warns of worsening famine and food insecurity in Gaza City, which is now facing a long-anticipated Israeli ground offensive.
United Nations
Sphinx News
According to local health authorities, 50 more Palestinians were killed today by Israeli airstrikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip. In the midst of these developments, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry stated that the conflict in Gaza meets “four of the five genocidal acts” defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The deaths in Gaza City come ahead of a ‘long-expected ground assault’, which Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich controversially described as a potential “real estate bonanza.”
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that Israeli drones dropped several grenades on one floor of the Rantissi Children’s Hospital on Wednesday. While no casualties were recorded in the incident, the ministry noted that “there were 80 patients in the facility, including 12 children in intensive care.” Following the attack, 40 families removed their children from the hospital.
The Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General warned that “the situation is worsening by the hour,” citing reports from OCHA. The Spokesperson added that Israeli authorities had ordered Palestinians to flee south via the Salah ad-Din road—a “temporary passageway” running through the center of the Gaza Strip—where “roads are congested and children are traumatized.”
Ahead of the intensified Israeli ground offensive, Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry, declared: “The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza, and it is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.” The report covers the actions of the Israeli government from October 7, 2023, through July 31, 2025.
According to Pillay, the events satisfy the following elements of genocide: “killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”
In response to the Commission’s findings, Secretary-General António Guterres said at a press briefing on Tuesday: “It is not within the attributions of the Secretary-General to make the legal definition of genocide. That responsibility lies with relevant judicial bodies such as the International Court of Justice.” Nonetheless, he described the situation in Gaza as “horrendous, now seeing the systematic destruction of neighborhoods, and in particular, Gaza City.”
