The Independent International Commission of Inquiry has issued a report accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Genocide is the most serious allegation in international law, but the material presented by the Commission fails to meet even the basic evidentiary threshold. Instead of relying on verifiable data and context, the document draws from questionable sources and is overseen by officials with a well-established record of hostility toward Israel.
The Commission presents itself as a neutral UN fact-finding mission, yet its record shows a pattern of bias. Its chair, Navi Pillay, a South African jurist who served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, has long faced criticism for her handling of Israel. In 2014, more than 100 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter condemning her office for systematic bias.
Another member of the current panel, Miloon Kothari, made international headlines in 2022 when he claimed that social media was “controlled largely by the Jewish lobby,” an openly antisemitic remark. Instead of condemning the statement, Pillay defended him. These are the individuals now making the most extreme possible charge against the State of Israel.
The Commission’s legal foundation rests on an expansive interpretation of genocide. It alleges that Israel has engaged in killings, caused mental and physical harm, and restricted births. Yet genocide requires proof of intent—the deliberate goal of exterminating a people in whole or in part. Civilian deaths, destruction, and displacement occur in every modern war, but they do not on their own prove extermination.
The Commission claims that Israel is restricting births and cites the bombing of an IVF facility. But this example collapses under scrutiny. In the Western world, IVF treatment can cost more than $20,000, far beyond what an average family in Gaza could afford, especially if the narrative is that the population is starving.
More importantly, Gaza’s fertility rate in 2024 stood at 3.26 births per woman—one of the highest in the world and higher than nearly all neighboring countries. If Israel were truly pursuing a campaign of genocide by restricting births, the demographic data would show the opposite trend.
Civilian casualty figures are another example of weak evidence. The Commission claims that 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by May 2025, with 83 percent classified as civilians. These figures come directly from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, which is notorious for inflating death tolls and has even been caught grouping natural deaths together with war casualties.
To reach its civilian-to-combatant ratio, the report relies on Israeli data showing roughly 8,500 Hamas fighters killed. But what it doesn’t reveal is that these Israeli numbers are from December 2023—when Hamas itself, using inflated tallies, reported about 20,000 total Palestinian deaths. Based on those numbers, the civilian-to-combatant ratio was closer to 1:1. Evidence also shows that as the war progressed, Israel consistently reduced the number of civilians placed in harm’s way.
The Commission devotes considerable attention to alleged Israeli sexual violence, citing 20 cases in detention facilities. Any allegation of abuse should be investigated, but the numbers are not evidence of genocide or systematic policy. By comparison, the United States records more than 36,000 reports of sexual violence in prisons annually, with over 2,000 confirmed.
Israel, unlike Hamas, has prosecuted and convicted soldiers in abuse cases. Meanwhile, Hamas’s sexual violence during the October 7th attacks is indisputable and documented—women were raped, mutilated, and filmed by the attackers themselves. To minimize those atrocities while highlighting 20 unverified allegations against Israel is a clear sign of bias.
The report further claims that Gaza’s life expectancy fell from 75.5 years to 40.5 years in a single year. This is not only inaccurate but mathematically impossible. Life expectancy is a long-term demographic measure. Even in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, the decline was less severe. What the Commission has done is manipulate short-term mortality data to produce an alarming headline.
Damage to schools and universities is another central claim. The report states that 396 of Gaza’s 564 schools were damaged and that more than 87,000 university students were affected. Gaza’s entire higher education population is only about 90,000, so the report implies that nearly every student was affected, even though not all universities sustained damage.
The report does not address Hamas’s documented use of schools and universities for rocket launching sites or tunnel construction. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with more than 5,000 people per square kilometer. Hamas exploits this by embedding military assets in schools, hospitals, and residential blocks. When those structures are targeted, the Commission blames Israel without acknowledging the context.
Starvation is also alleged. The Commission argues that Israel is using famine as a weapon of war. Since October 2023 more than 100,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza, carrying food, medicine, and humanitarian supplies. Between May and August 2025 alone, more than 10,000 trucks delivered food, 5,000 tons of baby formula, and 2,500 tons of medical supplies. The U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed 51 million meals since May, at times feeding half the population each day.
The real obstacle is Hamas, which diverts or seizes as much as 90 percent of aid shipments before they reach civilians, according to UNOPS. Hamas resells food on the black market, and even Mahmoud Abbas has blamed Hamas gangs for stealing aid.
The Commission also accuses Israel of violating ceasefires, highlighting March 18, 2025, when it claims 404 Palestinians were killed. Yet Hamas has broken every ceasefire first, beginning with the October 7th massacre. Attacks continued during humanitarian pauses, with rockets, kidnappings, and cross-border raids.
The inclusion of environmental damage as evidence of genocide further illustrates the weakness of the report. UN agencies estimate 50 million tons of rubble in Gaza, which would take decades to clear. Urban wars inevitably produce such debris, particularly in areas riddled with tunnels and booby traps. By the Commission’s logic, every modern conflict would qualify as genocide.
Across the document the same method repeats. The Commission relies on Hamas’s Health Ministry for casualty data, NGOs with terror links for testimony, and anonymous witnesses for key incidents. It disregards Hamas’s tunnels under hospitals, its widespread use of human shields, and its theft of humanitarian supplies.
When aid fails to reach civilians, it blames Israel rather than the Hamas operatives who hijack shipments. When strikes hit buildings, it ignores whether weapons were being stored there.
Gaza’s fertility rate remains one of the highest in the world. More than 100,000 aid trucks have entered the territory since the war began. Israel uses precision-guided missiles in more than half of its strikes, issues hundreds of thousands of alerts before operations, and facilitates humanitarian corridors daily. None of this resembles genocide.
What the Commission has published is not a legal judgment but a political document. Misusing the term genocide not only spreads falsehoods about Israel but also diminishes the gravity of real genocides in history.
Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt institutions like the United Nations.
Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.