A United Nations commission has concluded that Israel’s nearly two-year military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide, a landmark finding in international law that places responsibility squarely on the state itself. The inquiry, led by former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, pointed to both direct orders and public statements by Israeli leaders as evidence of intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinian population of Gaza.

The commission’s report highlights that genocide is not only measured in the scale of destruction but also in the systematic intent to eliminate a people. With tens of thousands killed, more than 160,000 wounded, and thousands still missing beneath the rubble, the Strip has been reduced to ruins. Entire families have been erased, while famine and forced displacement compound the suffering of more than two million people.

This finding, though historic, comes against the backdrop of continuing bombardment and international silence. It underscores that the devastation in Gaza is not the by-product of war but the outcome of deliberate policy, one that has turned hospitals into morgues, neighbourhoods into rubble, and survival itself into an act of defiance.