A United Nations inquiry has found that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide, a landmark moment after nearly two years of war.
Navi Pillay, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, made the announcement of the UN inquiry to Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
“We’ve identified the president [Isaac Herzog], the Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and the former minister of defence [Yoav Gallant] based on their statements and the orders that they’ve given,” Pillay said in an interview.
“Because these three individuals were agents of the state, under the law, the state is held responsible. So we say it’s [the] state of Israel that has committed genocide,” she added.
According to the report, the Commission found that along with the statements made by the Israeli officials, there was “circumstantial evidence” that led to their findings of genocidal intent.
“The Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the report found.
However, Israel’s ambassador to Geneva slammed the report’s findings and referred to it as “scandalous”, “fake”, and a “libellous rant”.
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