Explainer-How did a UN inquiry find genocide has been committed in Gaza?

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THE HAGUE (Reuters) -A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded this week that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the findings as biased and based on unverified evidence.

Below is an explanation of how genocide is defined legally, how it is tried by the courts, and how the U.N. inquiry reached its findings. 

WHAT IS GENOCIDE?

Genocide has a strict legal definition and has rarely been proven in court since it was cemented in humanitarian law after the Holocaust. The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”.  

Five criminal acts can constitute genocide: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, creating conditions calculated to destroy them, preventing births, or forcibly transferring children to other groups.

At international courts, just three cases have been deemed to be genocide: the Cambodian Khmer Rouge’s slaughter of minority Cham and Vietnamese during the 1970s that left 1.7 million people dead; the 1994 mass killing of Tutsis in Rwanda with 800,000 victims; and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Bosnia.

WHAT DID THE U.N. INQUIRY IN GAZA FIND?

After 23 months of interviews with victims, witnesses and doctors and analysis of open source documents and satellite imagery, the panel concluded “the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”. The state of Israel is responsible for “the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” it found.

The commission says Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed four of the five genocidal acts: “namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”

The U.N. report comes after the leading genocide scholars’ association and human rights groups reached  the same conclusion.

WHAT DOES THE INQUIRY CITE AS EVIDENCE? 

It cites widespread killings, the blocking of aid, forced displacement and the destruction of health care facilities including a fertility clinic as evidence.

The commission also cited statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials as “direct evidence of genocidal intent.” Among them were the leader’s letter to Israeli soldiers in November 2023 comparing the Gaza operation to what the commission describes as a “holy war of total annihilation” in the Hebrew Bible. It also cited comments by the former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, in October 2023 announcing a complete siege of Gaza and stating that Israel was fighting “human animals” as well as President Isaac Herzog who said on October 14, 2023 that “an entire nation” is responsible.

Herzog condemned the report’s findings saying his words were misinterpreted. Netanyahu and Gallant did not respond to requests for comment.

HOW TO PROVE GENOCIDE? 

To convict a state and individuals of genocide, a court must find that at least one out of five underlying criminal acts took place and that the victims were part of a distinct national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Genocide is harder to show than other violations of international humanitarian law, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, because it requires evidence of specific intent. 

To establish intent the U.N. commission said it analysed the statements made by Israeli authorities and the pattern of conduct of Israeli leaders and the Israeli security forces in Gaza “and found that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be concluded from the nature of their operations”.

WHAT CASES ARE INTERNATIONAL COURTS HEARING?

In 2023 South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice, the highest court for disputes between states, accusing Israel of genocide. The case will take years to reach a verdict and in the meantime it has ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide as it wages war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

The ICJ has  jurisdiction over the Genocide Convention, the first human rights treaty adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948, stating the international community’s commitment to prevent the atrocities of World War Two from ever happening again. 

The International Criminal Court, which can prosecute individuals on genocide charges,  is also looking at alleged crimes committed in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and has issued arrest warrants in November last year for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict, but prosecutors did not seek a warrant on genocide charges at the time. 

WHAT DOES ISRAEL SAY?

Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Daniel Meron, called the report “scandalous” and “fake”. Israel accuses the commission of having a political agenda against Israel and declined to cooperate with it.

Israel has repeatedly said it is committed to international law and tries to minimize harm to the civilian population of Gaza.

The Israeli government specifically rejected  genocide accusations at the ICJ citing its right to self-defence following the deadly October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva, editing by Anthony Deutsch, Alexandra Hudson)