A team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations' Human Rights Council has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, issuing a report Tuesday that calls on the international community to end the genocide and take steps to punish those responsible for it, the AP reports. The deeply-documented findings by the three-member team are the latest accusations of genocide against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government by rights advocates as Israel carries on with its war against Hamas in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people. Israel rejected what it called a "distorted and false" report.
The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which was created four years ago, has repeatedly documented alleged human rights abuses and violations both in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel led by Hamas, and other Palestinian areas. While neither the commission nor the 47-member-country council that it works for within the UN system can take action against a country, the findings could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court or the UN's International Court of Justice. The team was commissioned by the Human Rights Council, the UN's top human rights body, but it does not speak for the United Nations.
Israel has refused to cooperate with the commission and has accused it and the HRC of anti-Israel bias. Earlier this year, the Trump administration, a key Israeli ally, pulled the United States out of the council. Meanwhile Tuesday, the Israeli military announced that its expanded operation in Gaza City "to destroy Hamas' military infrastructure" has begun and warned residents to move south, the AP reports. Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that "Gaza is burning" as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left Israel for Qatar, where he planned to meet with officials there still incensed over Israel's strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.
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