Gaza Genocide Findings

Gaza Genocide Findings: Since October 2023, the bodies whose job it is to investigate genocide have reached the same conclusion about Israel's war in Gaza: a UN Commission of Inquiry, the UN Special Rapporteur, the world's largest association of genocide scholars, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, two leading Israeli human rights groups, and more than 20 major aid agencies; South Africa brought the charge to the International Court of Justice, where at least 11 states have joined, while Israel and the United States reject the finding and the court has not yet issued a final ruling.

UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory: In September 2025 this independent UN body, chaired by former UN human rights chief and Rwanda tribunal judge Navi Pillay, formally concluded Israel committed genocide, finding four of the five genocidal acts defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention.

International Association of Genocide Scholars: On September 1, 2025, 86% of voting members of the world's largest body of genocide experts, including Holocaust historians, passed a resolution stating Israel's actions in Gaza 'meet the legal definition of genocide.'

International Court of Justice: In January 2024 the UN's top court found it 'plausible' that Palestinians in Gaza had rights needing protection under the Genocide Convention and ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts, issuing further binding orders in March and May 2024; a May 2026 scheduling order set written pleadings running into 2029, so a final verdict is still years away.

South Africa: On December 29, 2023, the nation that lived through apartheid filed an 84 page genocide case against Israel at The Hague, the first time a state formally brought that charge over Gaza before a world court.

Francesca Albanese: The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory published 'Anatomy of a Genocide' in March 2024, finding reasonable grounds that Israel had committed three of the five genocidal acts, more than a year before the UN Commission of Inquiry reached its own finding.

Pedro Sánchez: On September 8, 2025, Spain's prime minister announced nine government measures 'to stop the genocide in Gaza,' including a legally binding arms embargo on Israel, putting the word genocide into official EU member state policy.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva: Brazil's president has repeatedly called the war a genocide since 2024, and in July 2025 Brazil formally joined South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice.

Gustavo Petro: Colombia's president called it genocide in November 2023, and in April 2024 Colombia became one of the first countries to formally intervene in the ICJ case, later followed by Mexico, Spain, Turkey, Chile, Libya, the Maldives, Bolivia, Ireland, Cuba, and Brazil.

Ireland: In January 2025 Ireland filed its intervention in the ICJ genocide case, asking the court to adopt a broader reading of genocidal intent that does not require it to be the only explanation for a state's conduct.

Omer Bartov: The Israeli born Brown University historian, one of the world's leading Holocaust scholars and a former IDF officer, wrote in The New York Times in July 2025, 'I'm a genocide scholar. I know it when I see it,' after initially resisting the label.

Raz Segal: Just six days after October 7, the Israeli historian and genocide studies professor published 'A Textbook Case of Genocide,' one of the earliest scholarly warnings, pointing to official Israeli statements about the campaign's aims.

B'Tselem: In July 2025 Israel's best known human rights group published a report titled simply 'Our Genocide,' concluding the state had shifted from controlling Palestinians in Gaza to destroying them.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel: Released alongside B'Tselem's report in July 2025, the Israeli doctors' group documented the systematic dismantling of Gaza's hospitals, water, and power, with its director calling the conclusion painful as 'the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.'

Amnesty International: Its December 2024 report 'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman' made Amnesty the first major global human rights organization to formally conclude Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch: A December 2024 investigation found Israel's deliberate deprivation of water in Gaza amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination and 'an act of genocide.'

Medecins Sans Frontieres: The Nobel Peace Prize winning medical charity, whose staff work inside Gaza's hospitals, has used the word genocide repeatedly since 2025, citing the deliberate destruction of the territory's health system.

Oxfam International: In September 2025 Oxfam and 21 other aid agencies, including Save the Children, CARE, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, jointly endorsed the UN finding of genocide and urged states to use 'every available political, economic, and legal tool' to stop it.

Genocide Watch: The watchdog that has tracked atrocities since 1999 issued a Genocide Emergency Alert for Gaza in October 2023, rating it at stage 9, extermination, on its ten stage model of how genocides unfold.

Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention: Named after Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish lawyer who invented the word genocide in 1944, the institute issued a Red Flag Alert on Gaza in October 2023.

Center for Constitutional Rights: In November 2023 the US legal group sued President Biden for failing to prevent genocide, and a federal judge dismissed the case on jurisdiction while writing it was 'plausible' that Israel's conduct amounted to genocide.

Quinnipiac University Poll: In August 2025, 50% of registered US voters said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, versus 35% who said it was not, even as the US government rejected the term.

Washington Post Poll of American Jews: An October 2025 survey found 61% of US Jews believed Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza and 39% said it was committing genocide.

Jewish Voice for Peace: Within weeks of the war starting, the US Jewish organization led sit ins at the US Capitol and Grand Central Terminal under the banner 'Not in our name,' among the first groups to call the campaign a genocide.

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation: The 57 member bloc, the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN, has formally used the word genocide in joint summits with the Arab League, calling for an end to arms sales to Israel.