The findings are unequivocal. The United Nations Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry stated, in a report published on Tuesday, September 16, that Israel has committed "genocide" against Palestinians amid the war it is waging in the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas's October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. The conflict has killed more than 64,000 people, a large proportion of whom were civilians, according to authorities in the enclave controlled by the Islamist movement.

In the highly detailed document, the UN investigators concluded that the conflict has been the context for acts of genocide, as defined by a convention adopted in 1948 by the UN member states, in the aftermath of World War II and the crimes of the Holocaust that Nazi Germany perpetrated against Jewish populations. In other words, "acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." Israeli officials, whose relations with UN bodies have become extremely tense, have repeatedly rejected this accusation over recent months. They have also criticized the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, who was sanctioned by the United States this summer after she, too, reported that Israel was committing genocide in the enclave. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it "categorically rejects this distorted and false report," in a statement on Tuesday morning.

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