The report is intended to be detailed and damning, presenting evidence it says shows that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It says that Israel has breached the Genocide Convention that was passed in 1948 by the newly established United Nations. The word genocide, and the convention that defined it as a crime, were directly inspired by the genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany.
Israel denies all allegations that its conduct in Gaza has broken the treaties and conventions that make up the laws of war and international humanitarian law. It justifies its actions as self-defence, in protection of its citizens and to force the release of the hostages taken by Hamas and Islamic Jihad on 7 October 2023, around 20 of whom are believed still to be alive.
The Israelis have dismissed the report as antisemitic lies inspired by Hamas. It was compiled by a commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council. Israel and the US are boycotting the Council, which both countries say is biased against them.
But the findings of the report will feed into the growing international condemnation of Israel's conduct, which is also coming from Israel's traditional western allies as well as the Gulf Arab monarchies that normalised relations with Israel in the Abraham Accords.
Next week at the UN General Assembly in New York, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada and others are due to join the majority of UN members by recognising the sovereignty of an independent Palestinian state.
This move will be more than symbolic. It will change the debate about the future of the conflict that began more than a century ago when Zionist Jews from Europe came to settle in Palestine. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has condemned recognition as antisemitic, and a reward for Hamas terrorism.
Genocide is defined in the 1948 convention as the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group – in this case, Palestinians in Gaza.
Legally, it is hard to prove the crime of genocide. The people who framed the Genocide Convention, and interpretations made by the ICJ in more recent cases deliberately set a high legal bar. At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South Africa has brought a case that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians. It will take several years for the case to be adjudicated.
But with the war in Gaza continuing and perhaps escalating further with the current Israeli offensive, the UN report is going to deepen international divisions about the war.
