An independent inquiry commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

According to the report released on Tuesday, four of the five genocidal acts found in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention have been carried out in Gaza.

The report called on the international community to end the genocide and take steps to punish those responsible for it.

The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel was created four years ago and is headed by former UN rights chief Navi Pillay.

Clear 'intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza' — inquiry head

The commission has documented reported human rights abuses and violations in Gaza  since the Hamas-led terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.

"The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza," Pillay said. "It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention."

Pillay said "responsibility for the atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons" over the nearly two-year war.

The commission concluded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had incited the commission of genocide.

To back up the finding, the report cites the scale of the killings in Gaza, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic.

A leading association of genocide scholars and several rights groups have also reached the same conclusion. 

Israel's ongoing war in Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, statistics that the United Nations considers reliable. International researchers estimate that the true toll is much higher.

Israel 'categorically rejects' commission's report

Israel's Foreign Ministry slammed the report, calling it "distorted and false" and accused the commission members of being "notorious for their openly antisemitic positions."

"Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry," a Foreign Ministry statement said. 

The ministry claimed that the team members behind the report, including a former International Criminal Court judge, were "Hamas proxies." 

The UN Commission of Inquiry is not a legal body. However, its reports can create diplomatic pressure and provide evidence for later use by courts.

Pillay told the AFP news agency that the commission was cooperating with the International Criminal Court prosecutor.

"We've shared thousands of pieces of information with them," she said.

Edited by: Sean Sinico