Israel has shown a clear intent to establish permanent control over Gaza while ensuring a Jewish majority in the West Bank and Israel, the UN independent commission of inquiry said in a new 22-page report.
The commission investigated the processes of land confiscation, population displacement, discrimination in land and housing and construction of Israeli settlements in the area.
The release of the report this week coincided with the recognition of a Palestinian state by France, Britain, Canada, Australia and others and debate on Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly.
The commission said Israel’s conquest of 75 per cent of Gaza’s territory and displacement of Palestinians deliberately deprived them of “resources indispensable for their survival”.
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These actions were, the commission stated, “deliberately inflicted conditions of life on the Palestinians in Gaza calculated to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in Gaza, which is an underlying act of genocide”.
Commission head Navi Pillay said: “Israel must immediately end and reverse its confiscation and use of Palestinian land in Gaza, including for the creation and expansion of the [military] buffer zone and [security] corridors.”
All confiscated land should be returned to its owners, she stated. Such actions have enhanced security for no one but have “deepened the misery [of Gazans] and deprived them of resources indispensable for their survival, including the capacity to produce food”.
In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli policies since October 2023 have included “explicit and implicit support for actions of violent settlers” and demonstrated “clear intent to forcibly transfer Palestinians, expand Jewish Israeli civilian presence and annex the entirety of the West Bank”.
This would prevent Palestinian self-determination and statehood and maintain an “indefinite occupation”.
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The commission found that Israeli military operations in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nor Shams refugee camps have “significantly altered the geographical landscape through the destruction of buildings and infrastructure and the displacement of Palestinian residents”.
The commission said these “actions were not justified militarily and amounted to collective punishment”, which is banned by international law.
Israel maintains that its war is not against the population of Gaza but against the Hamas militant group whose fighters led the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel that precipitated the war.
The Israeli mission in Geneva dismissed the report’s findings.
“Hamas has genocidal intent towards Israel, the report has everything backwards. This Commission does not miss an opportunity to reveal its true character and politically driven agenda,” it said.
Israel, which is continuing its ground operation in Gaza City, has vehemently rejected what it described as “scandalous accusations” made in a previous report by the same commission of inquiry earlier this month that it has committed genocide in Gaza. (Additional reporting by Reuters)
