Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, a United Nations probe by independent rights investigators said Tuesday.
The report from the investigators for the Human Rights Council found that it has "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israeli authorities and government have committed four of the five punishable acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention amid its nearly two-year war against Hamas.
The crimes the probe found that Israel committed against the Palestinians are: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to bring about their destruction in whole or in part and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
"The commission concludes that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement," the commission wrote in its 72-page report, adding that statements made by Israeli authorities "are direct evidence of genocidal intent."
"The commission concludes that the State of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
