UN Commission Finds Israel Committed Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza, Charges Hamas with War Crimes Too

The UN Human Rights Council's independent Commission of Inquiry released its report on June 12, 2024, following the most intensive phase of its investigation into the Gaza war. The three-member panel concluded that Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of international humanitarian law.

Specifically, the commission found crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys, forcible transfer, and torture and inhuman treatment, according to the report. It described "a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza."

The commission chair, Navi Pillay, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former International Criminal Court judge, called on Israel to immediately halt military operations and on Hamas to cease rocket attacks and release all hostages. "It is imperative that all those who have committed crimes be held accountable," Pillay said.

The commission did not limit its condemnation to Israel. It found that members of Hamas's military wing, other Palestinian armed groups, and Palestinian civilians committed war crimes during the October 7 attack.

That attack killed 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Hamas and affiliated militants seized 251 hostages. As of the report's publication, 116 remained in Gaza, though the Israeli military stated 41 of those were dead. The report noted explicitly that the taking of hostages constitutes a war crime.

On the Gaza side, the Hamas-run health ministry reported more than 37,000 deaths in the territory since Israel launched its military offensive. The majority were civilians, according to that ministry's figures.

Israel rejected the commission's conclusions entirely. Israeli officials accused the UN body of "systematic anti-Israeli discrimination" and did not accept the legitimacy of its findings.

The Commission of Inquiry was originally established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 — before October 7, before the current war — specifically to investigate alleged violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Critics of the council have long argued it holds Israel to a different standard than other nations, pointing to the body's historical voting patterns and membership composition. Israel and the United States have both questioned the council's structural impartiality for years. Those concerns do not make the specific factual findings in this report false, but they are a legitimate reason to scrutinize the methodology and sourcing behind each conclusion.

The commission itself is independent from the council, and Pillay's legal background in international criminal law is substantial. Still, no international court has issued charges or convictions based on these findings, and the report's conclusions carry political weight rather than legal force.

This is an investigative report by a UN-appointed panel. It is not an indictment, not a conviction, and not a binding legal judgment. The findings are serious allegations made by credentialed investigators, but they remain allegations until adjudicated by a competent court.

The International Criminal Court is a separate body. ICC proceedings against Israeli and Hamas figures are a distinct legal track, and nothing in this commission's report automatically translates into criminal prosecution.

The commission has no enforcement mechanism. Its recommendations — that Israel stop military operations and that Hamas release hostages — carry no legal teeth. As of July 7, 2026, the unresolved question is whether any international legal body with actual enforcement authority will take up these specific findings and whether the evidence the commission gathered will be admitted into any formal proceedings. That process, if it moves at all, will take years.