LPHR strongly welcomes the legally rigorous and compelling analysis published yesterday by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that very significantly finds the State of Israel is responsible for committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.
The 71-page legal analysis is comprehensive, authoritative and persuasive. It is fundamentally required reading and merits very close attentiveness in its totality. Due to the overwhelming imperative of securing legal accountability, LPHR wishes at the outset to amplify the Commission’s recommendation specifically addressed to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
“a) Examine, within its continuing investigation in the Situation in the State of Palestine, the crime of genocide for amendment to existing arrest warrants and addition to future application for arrest warrants;
(b) Examine the involvement of officials mentioned in this report for inclusion as those most responsible for international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
The Commission’s report makes the following four core legal conclusions (paras. 251-255):
There are reasonable grounds to conclude that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit acts of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, namely (i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement.
Statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent. In addition, the pattern of conduct by the Israeli security forces is circumstantial evidence of genocidal intent, and that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the totality of the evidence. Thus, Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The State of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
LPHR also particularly notes the section of the Commission’s analysis dedicated to ‘direct targeting of children’ (paragraphs 214-220). This section illuminates the Commission’s vital legal finding that the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the pattern of conduct of Israeli security forces in Gaza is evidence of genocidal intent; thereby dismissing Israeli authorities stated claims of military necessity – specifically, i) an exercise of self defence in response to the 7 October 2023 attack in Israel; ii) neutralisation of Hamas to ensure long-term security; and iii) securing the safe release of Israeli hostages detained in Gaza – to justify its pattern of conduct (paras. 177-179). LPHR partly excerpts the Commission’s acute section on ‘direct targeting of children’ below:
“214. The Commission reiterates that, from 7 October 2023 to 31 July 2025, out of 60,199 Palestinians who were killed, 18,430 were children, and tens of thousands of other children have been injured, physically and psychologically… In June 2024, UNRWA Commissioner-General reported that, each day on average since 7 October 2023, 10 children have lost one or both legs and that their amputations have mostly been conducted without anaesthesia due to the prevention of medical supplies entering into Gaza.
“215. Importantly, the Commission has found that children have been directly targeted in various ways by the Israeli security forces since 7 October 2023, including during evacuations, at shelters, and more recently at GHF distribution sites. Medical professionals told the Commission that they have treated children with direct gunshot and sniper wounds, often to the head and abdomen, indicating that the Israeli security forces have intentionally targeted children during their military operations in Gaza.” {…}
“218. There is a clear pattern of conduct since 7 October 2023 showing that the Israeli forces directly targeted children in different circumstances with the intention to kill them. In all the cases investigated by the Commission, none of the children killed posed any threat to the Israeli security forces. The targeting of children is relevant to infer the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities, because (i) the extensive and deliberate targeting of Palestinian children shows that the military operations were not conducted solely to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, nor can they legitimately contribute to the other stated goals of defending the state of Israel and securing the release of Israeli hostages; and (ii) the direct and intentional targeting of Palestinian children was intended to physically destroy the group by eliminating not only today’s children but the possibility of them having children in future.
“219. The Commission therefore finds that the widespread and systematic targeting of children is part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza, thus part of the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”
LPHR re-emphasises that the Commission’s 71-page report should be read in its entirety in order to completely comprehend the shattering experience of Palestinians in Gaza and to fully appreciate the forensic approach of the Commission in its technical legal application of the crime of genocide. The Commission’s landmark legal report clearly serves to uphold the full extent of the law on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza being subjected to obvious annihilation by Israeli authorities. LPHR urges that its findings are acted upon by all relevant actors and that the key imperative of securing legal accountability is holistically and unswervingly pursued.
