Zeynep ConkarIn a landmark report released on Tuesday, the United Nations has made a historic legal determination that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians.
The investigation, covering the period from October 7, 2023 to July 31, 2025, examined the conduct of Israeli authorities during the ongoing war in Gaza that has killed nearly 65,000 people, most of them women and children.
After nearly two years, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli forces carried out four of the five genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention: mass killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions aimed at destroying the Palestinian population, and measures intended to prevent births.
The report points to explicit statements by Israeli leaders and a consistent pattern of military offensives as evidence of genocidal intent.
By providing detailed evidence of both genocidal acts and intent, the findings offer a stronger basis for legal action against individuals and the state of Israel.
Yet, what all this will actually mean for Palestinians on the ground, and whether it will change their lived reality remains an open question.
“The clear, if belated, conclusion of the UN Independent Commission is a landmark that could become a turning point for mobilising meaningful action on Gaza,” says Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, and Professor of Law and Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“The ICJ case on genocide, as well as the ongoing prosecutions at the ICC, will be bolstered by the conclusions of the Commission,” Rajagopal tells TRT World.
However, whether these formal legal conclusions will actually lead states and other actors to impose meaningful accountability on Israel and other states which have aided and abetted the genocide in Gaza is a question that only time and public pressure can answer, Rajagopal reflects.
Munir Nuseibah, a human rights lawyer and academic based at Al Quds University, also shares the assessment that the Commission’s report will play a crucial role in international courts.
“This is a very important development because it provides additional and updated evidence about ongoing genocidal acts and intent in Palestine. It is likely to influence international judicial initiatives.”
“But I would also emphasise the way the commissioners stressed state responsibility during genocide,” Nuseibah tells TRT World.
“The report made it clear that States cannot wait for a judicial decision; they already have a responsibility to act, to prevent genocide, punish it, and ensure they are not contributing to it.”
According to Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission, the findings make it clear that Israel bears responsibility for orchestrating a campaign intended to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.
The report highlights that the highest levels of Israeli leadership, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, incited these acts.
Intent to destroy Palestinians
The UN report lays bare the scale of Israeli attacks: mass killings, the targeting of children, widespread sexual and gender-based violence, the destruction of healthcare and education systems, assaults on religious and cultural sites, and a total siege that starved an entire population.
The Commission concluded that these acts were not random or collateral but carried out with the intent to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza.
For Palestinians, this recognition marks a historic moment. It is the first time the world body has formally named the decades-long repression of Palestinians, from forced displacement since the Nakba in 1948 to two years of indiscriminate bombing in Gaza, as genocide.
Yet this legal milestone also highlights the limits of international law: a formal determination does not automatically translate into protection or sanctions.
Israel has repeatedly ignored international warnings. Despite provisional measures ordered by the ICJ and repeated calls from UN bodies, governments, and human rights organisations, Israeli authorities continued their attacks.
Under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, this is not only Israel’s responsibility: every country that has ratified the treaty has legal obligations.
Article I requires states to prevent and punish genocide wherever it occurs. Governments are legally bound to act when they know, or should know, there is a serious risk of genocide.
The ICJ reinforced this in its 2007 Bosnia v. Serbia ruling, finding that Serbia breached its duty to prevent genocide in Srebrenica even though it did not directly commit the killings.
The Convention also prohibits complicity in genocide. Article III makes aiding or assisting a punishable offence, including arms transfers, financial support or diplomatic protection that enable genocidal acts.
As Nuseibah notes, Israel has been able to carry out genocide largely because of support from other nations. “The Genocide Convention creates a positive responsibility for every state, first, not to contribute to genocide, meaning they cannot send weapons to Israel or provide financial support during the time of genocide.”
The Commission’s findings go further, calling for international action to back up the legal framework. “They should also trigger the deployment of an international stabilisation force, as called for in the New York Declaration, to protect the remaining population in Gaza,” says Rajagopal.
“The findings can lead to a multi-year campaign to ensure justice for the Palestinians, for all the atrocities committed against them through international and national courts and other measures, similar to the way the Jewish people waged a multi-front struggle for accountability after the Holocaust,” Rajagopal adds.
Will it change anything?
For Palestinians living under siege, the report may offer some recognition of their suffering, but whether it will translate into tangible change remains uncertain.
“Right now, the chances of accountability for genocide in Gaza look bleak due to the hesitation, timidity, and the individual and collective moral and political failure of most states,” Rajagopal says.
“The time to act is now; at least belatedly, propelled by the findings of the Independent Commission,” he adds.
Nuseibah also stresses that significant political action is essential. Yet, given the current political climate, with the US administration contributing to the genocide and countries like Germany, Hungary and the UK continuing to supply weapons and other forms of support, Nuseibah believes this may not have an immediate effect on the lives of Palestinians in Gaza or the occupied West Bank.
