‘You dehumanise your victims’: UN report says Israel committed genocide in Gaza

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited these acts – accusations that Israel called scandalous.

The report cited examples of the scale of the killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding, adding its voice to rights groups and others that have reached the same conclusion.

“Genocide is occurring in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, head of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and a former International Criminal Court judge.

“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.”

Israel, which accuses the commission of having a political agenda against Israel and diverging from its mandate, declined to cooperate with it.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, called the report “scandalous” and “fake”, saying it was written by “Hamas proxies”.