United Nations
In November 2023, a group of UN special rapporteurs wrote, "We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide."
[693][274] UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation
Pedro Arrojo said that based on the
Rome Statute, which counts "deprivation of access to food or medicine, among others" as a form of extermination, "even if there is no clear intention, the data show that the war is heading towards genocide".
[694] A group of UN human rights experts said there was "evidence of increasing genocidal incitement" against Palestinians.
[695][696]
In response to a January 2024
Times of Israel report that the Israeli government was in talks with the
Congolese government to take Palestinian refugees from Gaza, the UN special rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal said, "Forcible transfer of Gazan population is an act of genocide."
[697][698]
In May 2024,
UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Reem Alsalem said that Palestinian women "are experiencing a full-blown genocide. They are being exterminated. There are few places in the world where we've seen something like this."
[699][700] The UNHCR Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, said that Israel's destruction of Gaza "constitutes an act of genocide as well because the purpose of that destruction, exceeding 70 to 80 per cent across Gaza, is to make the place uninhabitable".
[701]
In October 2024, the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report that accused the Israeli military of "the crime against humanity of extermination" for
killing health workers and
targeting health facilities.
[702][703]
On 8 November 2024, the
United Nations human rights office condemned many violations of international law that "could amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly even 'genocide'", calling on third states to prevent "atrocity crimes".
[704][705] On 14 November 2024 the
UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices concluded that they are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.
[706][707][708][40]
In February 2025, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
Michael Fakhri said that Israel is committing a genocide and is working to "slow down its genocide through a starvation campaign", concluding that the United States and Germany were complicit in the ensuing famine.
[709]
In May 2025, twenty
UN independent experts and four working groups issued a statement accusing Israel of genocide and criticising the debate over the genocide terminology:
While States debate terminology—is it or is it not genocide?—Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza, through attacks by land, air and sea, displacing and massacring the surviving population with impunity... States must act swiftly to end the unfolding genocide, dismantle apartheid, and secure a future in which Palestinians and Israelis coexist in freedom and dignity.
[710]
Also in May 2025, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Tom Fletcher urged world leaders to act decisively to prevent genocide in Gaza.
[711][712] On 4 June, Itamar Eichner reported that the United States vetoed a UN
Security Council resolution against Israel.
[713]