The UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel was trying to eliminate Palestinian life in Gaza and establish a Jewish majority in the West Bank. Top Israeli officials have called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and annexation of the West Bank.
“Israeli officials have demonstrated a clear and consistent intent to establish permanent military control over Gaza and to change its demographic composition while systematically destroying Palestinian life in Gaza,” The UN report released on Tuesday concludes. “This is evident in the extensive destruction and fragmentation of the territory, the establishment of military structures, the destruction of natural resources and infrastructure essential to the survival of the civilian population, forcible transfer and statements indicating the existence of plans for the deportation of the population.”
Following the Hamas attack in October 2023, Israel launched a brutal onslaught in Gaza and besieged the Strip. Israel has killed at least 65,000, although tens of thousands of Palestinians remain buried under the rubble and their deaths have not been recorded.
The report found the Israeli military operations are “vastly disproportionate to any reasonable military objective and therefore unlawful.”
The Israeli siege of Gaza has created a famine, with hundreds of Palestinians starving to death. The blockade of the Strip has also led to a shortage of medical supplies, leading to Palestinians dying from preventable illnesses and treatable injuries.
According to the UN Commission of Inquiry, the Israeli onslaught in Gaza amounted to a genocide. “Israeli authorities deliberately inflicted conditions of life on the Palestinians in Gaza calculated to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza, which is an underlying act of genocide,” the report explains.
The commission also looked into Israeli policy for the West Bank. “Israeli policies and actions implemented since October 2023 in the West Bank demonstrate clear intent to forcibly transfer Palestinians, expand Israeli civilian presence and annex the entirety of the West Bank, preventing any potential Palestinian self-determination and statehood and maintaining an indefinite occupation,” the report explains.
It adds, “Land and housing policies impacting Palestinians in Israel are part of a broader policy towards the Palestinian population as a whole, aimed at striving towards a Jewish majority in all areas under Israeli control, reducing the possibility of geographical self-determination for the Palestinian people.”
