Israel’s action in the Gaza Strip amount to a genocide, a United Nations commission said in a report released on Tuesday, a finding that an Israeli ministry rejected as “fake.”
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which operates under the U.N Human Rights Council, also wrote in a 72-page report that it found that some “statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent.”
“Additionally, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, the Commission finds that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn based on the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities,” the report said.
Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry South African judge Navi Pillay, right, speaks during a press conference in Geneva on Sept. 16, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
It added, “Thus, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement sought to reject the assertions, saying the authors of the report amounted to “Hamas proxies.”
“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others,” the ministry said in part in a post on social media on Tuesday.
The report was researched and written by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was formed by the Human Right Council in 2021, as an independent investigative body.
The commission’s findings are independent of the proceedings at the International Court of Justice, which would be tasked with making “a final determination in the future on Israel’s responsibility under the Genocide Convention,” the report said.
-ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian, Jordana Miller and Kevin Shalvey