In a 72-page report published today, the commission – chaired by Navi Pillay, a former UN high commissioner of human rights and former judge of the International Criminal Court – calls on Israel and all states to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it.

Having investigated the events on and since 7 October 2023 for the last two years, the commission has concluded that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention.

These are 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.

Explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities and the pattern of conduct of the Israeli security forces indicate that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group, it says.

Launching the report today, Ms Pillay said: “The commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza.

“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.

“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.

“The commission also finds that Israel has failed to prevent and punish the commission of genocide, through failure to investigate genocidal acts and to prosecute alleged perpetrators.”

In establishing genocidal intent, the commission applied the “only reasonable inference” standard set forth by the International Court of Justice in the case of Bosnia v Serbia.

The commission analysed statements made by Israeli authorities and concluded that those statements are direct evidence of genocidal intent.

The commission also analysed the pattern of conduct of Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces in Gaza, including imposing starvation and inhumane conditions of life for Palestinians in Gaza, and found that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be concluded from the nature of their operations.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and president Isaac Herzog are accused by the commission of having incited the commission of genocide – with Israeli authorities failing to take action against them to punish this incitement.

“The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Ms Pillay said.

“When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity. Every day of inaction costs lives and erodes the credibility of the international community.

“All states are under a legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza.”