Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings southwards on a road in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the central Gaza Strip following renewed Israeli evacuation orders for Gaza City on September 14, 2025. Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 38 people had been killed since dawn on september 14 in Israeli strikes around the territory, while the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order for residents of Gaza City ahead of new strikes. Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1758007010574cropped-Screenshot 2025-09-16 151614.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings southwards on a road in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the central Gaza Strip following renewed Israeli evacuation orders for Gaza City on September 14, 2025. Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP</span></span></span></div><p>GENEVA, Switzerland<strong> (UPDATE)</strong> — United Nations investigators said Tuesday they had determined that Israel has since October 2023 committed &quot;genocide&quot; in Gaza, with the &quot;intent to destroy the Palestinians&quot; in the territory.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/6/6/what-is-genocide-and-is-it-happening-in-gaza-1121">What is genocide and is it happening in Gaza?</a></div><p>The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the world body and has faced harsh Israeli criticism, found that &quot;genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur&quot;, commission chief Navi Pillay told AFP.</p><p>&quot;We came to the conclusion that genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur, and the responsibility lies with the State of Israel,&quot; Navi Pillay, head of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, told AFP.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/5/16/more-hollywood-stars-join-protest-over-israel-s-genocide-in-gaza-2035">More Hollywood stars join protest over Israel&#x27;s &#x27;genocide&#x27; in Gaza</a></div><p>The commission, tasked with investigating the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, published its latest report nearly two years after the war erupted in Gaza following Hamas&#x27;s deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel.</p><p>Nearly 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/6/6/france-opens-complicity-in-genocide-probe-over-blocked-gaza-aid-1841">France opens &#x27;complicity in genocide&#x27; probe over blocked Gaza aid</a></div><p>The vast majority of Gazans have been displaced at least once, with more mass-displacement underway as Israel ramps up efforts to seize control of Gaza City, where the UN has declared a full-blown famine.</p><p>The COI concluded that Israeli authorities and forces had since October 2023 committed &quot;four of the five genocidal acts&quot; listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention.</p><p>These are &quot;killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group&quot;.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>‘INTENT TO DESTROY&#x27;<br/></strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The investigators said explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities along with the pattern of Israeli force conduct &quot;indicated that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy ... Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/9/16/un-expert-says-gaza-deadliest-conflict-ever-for-journalists-1112">UN expert says Gaza deadliest conflict ever for journalists</a></div><p>The report concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant has &quot;incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement&quot;.</p><p>&quot;The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons,&quot; stated Pillay, 83, a former South African judge who once headed the international tribunal for Rwanda and also served as UN human rights chief.</p><p>The commission is not a legal body, but its reports can wield diplomatic pressure and serve to gather evidence for later use by courts.</p><p>Pillay told AFP the commission was cooperating with the International Criminal Court prosecutor.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;ve shared thousands of pieces of information with them,&quot; she said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;COMPLICITY&#x27;<br/></strong></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza,&quot; insisted Pillay, presenting her final report.</p><p>&quot;The absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,&quot; she warned.</p><p>Israel has since the start of the war faced accusations of committing genocide in Gaza from many NGOs and independent UN experts, and even before international courts.</p><p>Israeli authorities vehemently reject those accusations.</p><p>The UN itself has not labelled the situation in Gaza a genocide, although the body&#x27;s aid chief urged world leaders in May to &quot;act decisively to prevent genocide&quot;, while its rights chief last week denounced Israeli &quot;genocidal rhetoric&quot;.</p><p>In January last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent acts of &quot;genocide&quot; in Gaza.</p><p>Four months later, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity.</p><p>Angered by that move, US President Donald Trump&#x27;s administration last month imposed sanctions on two ICC judges and two prosecutors, including barring them from entering the United States and freezing their assets in the country.</p><div><strong>— Agnès Pedrero, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z1nuI1cgMYM?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PSBGJj4l3s4?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div>

<p>United Nations investigators said Tuesday they had determined that Israel has since October 2023 committed "genocide" in Gaza, with the "intent to destroy the Palestinians" in the territory.</p>

United Nations investigators said Tuesday they had determined that Israel has since October 2023 committed "genocide" in Gaza, with the "intent to destroy the Palestinians" in the territory.

UN investigators say Israel committing genocide in Gaza

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UN investigators say Israel committing genocide in Gaza

Agence France-Presse

Published September 16, 2025 03:10 PM PHT

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Updated September 16, 2025 03:17 PM PHT

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