UN Report Accuses Israel of Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza

Tue Sep 23 2025 10:44:04 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

A new UN report categorically claims that Israel's military operations in Gaza amount to genocide, with significant accusations of war crimes amidst escalating global condemnation.

A UN report has indicated that Israel's military actions in Gaza may constitute genocide, citing breaches of the Genocide Convention and the targeting of civilians. Despite Israel's denial and dismissal of the findings, the report is contributing to growing international criticism, including calls for recognition of Palestinian statehood. The report highlights dire humanitarian conditions, forced displacements, and accusations against specific Israeli officials for inciting genocide, amidst ongoing military operations that have devastated much of Gaza.

The report is intended to be detailed and damning, presenting evidence it says shows that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It says that Israel has breached the Genocide Convention that was passed in 1948 by the newly established United Nations. The word genocide, and the convention that defined it as a crime, were directly inspired by the genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany.

Israel denies all allegations that its conduct in Gaza has broken the treaties and conventions that make up the laws of war and international humanitarian law. It justifies its actions as self-defence, in protection of its citizens and to force the release of the hostages taken by Hamas and Islamic Jihad on 7 October 2023, around 20 of whom are believed still to be alive.

The Israelis have dismissed the report as antisemitic lies inspired by Hamas. It was compiled by a commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council. Israel and the US are boycotting the Council, which both countries say is biased against them.

But the findings of the report will feed into the growing international condemnation of Israel's conduct, which is also coming from Israel's traditional western allies as well as the Gulf Arab monarchies that normalised relations with Israel in the Abraham Accords.

Next week at the UN General Assembly in New York, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada and others are due to join the majority of UN members by recognising the sovereignty of an independent Palestinian state.

The report details actions against Palestinians inside Gaza and in jails inside Israel. Among a long list of accusations is Israeli targeting of civilians that it has a legal obligation to protect, and the imposition of inhumane conditions causing the death of Palestinians, including the deprivation of food, water and medicines. That is a reference to the blockade that has produced a famine as well as widespread starvation, according to the IPC, the international body that assesses food emergencies.

The Israeli military operations have led to the displacement of at least 90% of the population between October 2023 and June 2025 according to the UN, including from Jabalia in northern Gaza. The report also highlights forced displacements currently occurring in Gaza City after the IDF ordered all civilians there to move south, affecting around one million people.

The report also specifies that Israel has imposed measures intended to prevent births, referencing an attack on Gaza's largest fertility clinic that reportedly destroyed around 4000 embryos and 1000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs.

Additionally, it names Israeli officials inciting genocide, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made alarming comparisons to biblical narratives validating violence. The report’s accusations and the ongoing war pose escalating challenges for international diplomacy and humanitarian advocates.