Geneva, 16 September 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, an independent commission of inquiry of the UN Human Rights Council said on Tuesday.

Four of the five genocidal acts listed in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide have been carried out, the three-member commission has determined.

The panel cited the following acts: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately creating living conditions intended to destroy the Palestinian population in whole or in part, and measures aimed at preventing births.

The 72-page report stated that indirect or circumstantial evidence related to conduct by Israeli political and military authorities showed a "specific intent to commit genocide."

Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, said "Israel categorically rejects the libellous rant" of the report. He said the report made no mention of Hamas's terrorist acts and accused the commission members of anti-Semitic bias.

Like the United States under President Donald Trump, Israel does not recognize the UN Human Rights Council as an authority and accuses it and its commissions of being fundamentally biased against Israel. The Human Rights Council is made up of 47 countries, each elected by the UN General Assembly for a three-year term.

The commission's findings relate to events since the attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and other extremists on October 7, 2023.

The experts said civilians are being killed by Israel, humanitarian aid is being blocked, health and education facilities are being systematically destroyed, and religious sites attacked.

Israel repeatedly stresses that its campaign in Gaza targets Hamas, not the civilian population. It says Hamas uses civilians as "human shields." According to Israel, the war could end immediately if Hamas were to release the 48 remaining hostages and lay down its weapons.

The commission, set up in 2021 to examine possible violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian Territories and in Israel, is chaired by Navi Pillay.

An 83-year-old former judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay has submitted her resignation for health reasons, effective in November.

Photo: EPA