Do Israel's military actions in Gaza since October 7th, 2023 constitute a genocide?

This is one of the most contested legal and political questions of the current moment, with significant disagreement among governments, international bodies, legal scholars, and human rights organizations. Rather than offering my own verdict on a matter under active international adjudication, let me lay out where the major institutional and legal assessments currently stand.This is a deeply contested question that sits at the center of major ongoing legal proceedings, and reasonable, well-informed people and institutions disagree. Here's where things currently stand:

The case that it constitutes genocide

UN Commission of Inquiry (September 2025): The most significant institutional finding to date came from the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. On Sept. 16, 2025, the Commission published a report finding that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, concluding that Israel has committed four of the five underlying acts of genocide listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention (killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births), and that it has done so with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians as a group.

The Commission's chair, Navi Pillay, stated: "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," adding that "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 report also concluded that Israel has failed to prevent and punish the commission of genocide, through failure to investigate genocidal acts and to prosecute alleged perpetrators.

ICJ provisional measures (January 2024): Separately, South Africa brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. In its first interim ruling, the world's top court ruled that South Africa's claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is plausible, noting the "catastrophic humanitarian situation" in the Gaza Strip and finding "urgency" and "real imminent risk" that irreparable damage will be done to Palestinians before the case concludes. Importantly, this was a finding of plausibility for provisional measures, not a merits ruling.

Other voices: Groups like the International Association of Genocide Scholars and numerous human rights organizations have also used the term to describe Israel's conduct.

Why this is not a settled legal matter

The ICJ case itself is still unresolved. South Africa's separate genocide case against Israel remains before the ICJ, which has not issued a final ruling on whether Israel committed genocide. The commission Pillay chaired is an investigative body, not a court, and its finding is not a judgment by the International Court of Justice. The merits phase is still ongoing — the ICJ has granted Israel extensions to submit its counter-arguments, with Israel's deadline pushed to 12 March 2026 — and the ICJ's written phase runs until 2029, meaning a definitive legal judgment is likely years away.

The initial 2024 ICJ ruling was narrower than often portrayed. The Court did not rule on the merits of the genocide claim; it denied South Africa's goal of having the court order Israel to halt its operation against Hamas, and the Court's orders do not reflect any assessment of the merits of South Africa's claims or Israel's counterargument — it repeatedly stressed that it had not determined any violations of the Genocide Convention had occurred. Notably, two of the Court's judges issued separate opinions asserting that South Africa had not met even this low threshold, as it had shown no evidence that Israel's actions in Gaza reflect genocidal intent.

Israel categorically rejects the characterization. South Africa filed the case alleging Israel's military campaign in Gaza violates the UN Genocide Convention and amounts to genocide; Israel rejects the allegation, arguing that its military operations were launched in response to the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023 and are an exercise of its right to self-defence. Israel and allies like the U.S. have called the case itself meritless, with critics pointing to Israel's stated military objective of dismantling Hamas after the October 7 attack as evidence the intent is counterterrorism, not group destruction.

The bottom line

As of now, no binding international court has issued a final ruling that Israel's actions constitute genocide. The UN Commission of Inquiry's September 2025 finding is the strongest institutional determination to date and carries real political and diplomatic weight, but it is an investigative body's conclusion, not a judicial verdict. The ICJ case — the only body with authority to issue a legally binding determination — remains in its evidentiary phase, with a final ruling likely years away. Whether Israel's conduct meets the legal definition of genocide (which requires proving specific intent "to destroy, in whole or in part" a group, as distinct from waging a war with high civilian casualties) remains a genuinely disputed legal and factual question, even as the humanitarian toll in Gaza is well-documented and the subject of broad international concern independent of the genocide designation.