Israel’s Atrocities in Gaza Satisfy the Legal Definition of Genocide

Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip confirmed a United Nations report released on 16 September 2025, which, coming close to two years into the mass murder and starvation program, is considered a turning point as the determination requires the international community to act to end the killing, as under international law inaction amounts to complicity.

The legal definition of genocide

The definition of genocide is contained in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948 which provides that:

“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group;
2. Causing serious bodily harm to members of the group;
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Israel’s conduct fulfils the legal definition

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Palestine found in its 72-page report that the required intention to destroy ‘in whole or in part’ is indeed evident in Israel’s actions in Gaza, which is made clear by in the manner in which it has been engaging in not one, but four of the five listed conduct categories – the relevant conduct being carefully set out in the report.

The finding of genocide is consistent with a resolution passed by the world’s leading authority on the law of genocide – the International Association of Genocide Scholars – on 28 July 2025.

But the recent report may be considered of greater significance that the resolution as, being formally issued by the United Nations, requires Israel to put an end to its genocidal conduct and, significantly, all state parties to the Genocide Convention as well as all states under international law are legally required to take action to prevent the genocide, or be legally regarded as complicit in it.

The report finds that the entire state of Israel is responsible for the commission of, failure to prevent and failure to punish the gravest crime of all. Explicit statements from Israeli authorities, including PM Benjamin Netanyahu, reveal clear intent to destroy the Palestinian people, and this genocidal campaign has been orchestrated at the “highest echelons” of Israeli society.

Chair of the inquiry commission Navi Pillay explained in a statement on 16 September 2025 that Israel “has flagrantly disregarded” the provisional measure the International Court of Justice issued it with on 26 January 2024, which included preventing genocide and allowing humanitarian aid to enter the Strip, and further, it was found that “Israeli authorities had no intention to change their course of actions”.

The United Nations confirmation that Israel is indeed attempting to exterminate the Palestinians of Gaza should result in the Australian government acting concisely to sanction Israel in a similar manner to what it has done in regard to Russia’s military assault on Ukraine, as well as to stop the two-way arms trade with Tel Aviv, or it can further continue down its criminal path of complicity.

Obscene body count

“There is now no doubt Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza: the intentional destruction of the Palestinians of Gaza, in part,” NSW Labor MLC Stephen Lawrence told the chamber late night on Tuesday, following its release. “The deaths now number around 680,000, according to a new study. It is time for media and social media users to dispense with the official number of people killed.”

The important UN report reiterates “that the crime of genocide involves universal and immediate obligations. Those obligations exist on all states who have the capacity to influence events,” the Labor MLC continued. “That undoubtedly includes Australia. It undoubtedly includes the group of likeminded countries that Australia often acts in concert with.”

The official death toll, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, is close to 65,000. A July 2024 study in the Lancet found that it was “not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza”. The new study published in local rag Arena outlines that in its estimate as of 25 April 2025, a “staggering total of 680,000 deaths is plausible”.

Australian academics Dr Richard Hil and Dr Gideon Polya in their study Skewering History set out that the Lancet study failed to consider deaths due to imposed deprivation, and in “assuming that deaths from deprivation were four times the violent deaths” and adding this estimate to the Lancet figures, the new study suggests up to 680,000 Palestinians have likely been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

“Of course, Israel calls the genocide charge absurd, and says if they were committing genocide, they would have killed far more and in a more systematic way,” Lawrence underscored. “But Israel, of course, must maintain plausible deniability, and that perhaps explains why the large-scale killing and destruction is being carried out in the way that it is, in the guise of the destruction of Hamas.”

The international offence of genocide

Australia ratified the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide on 8 July 1949. Article 1 of the international treaty stipulates that in ratifying the doctrine nations have agreed to confirm genocide is a crime under international law, when it is happening, whether it be “committed in time of peace or in time of war”, and they must undertake to prevent and to punish it.

Article 2 of the convention explains that genocide occurs when any of five acts are “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. These acts include genocide by killing, genocide by causing serious or bodily mental harm, genocide by imposing destructive life conditions, genocide by preventing births or via the forced removal of children.

“The Genocide Convention doesn’t require killing in a particular way,” Lawrence added, “but it is hard to conceive of a more systematic and industrial way to kill a group in part, than to engage in the complete destruction of a society in the way that has happened in Gaza: the homes, the hospitals, the schools, the reproductive health facilities, the mosques, the community halls – it goes on.”

“As a young law student, I learnt about the crime of genocide and the important obligation of states to prevent it,” the barrister continued. “We learned that states must do all they reasonably can to prevent and punish genocide. Any state who knows has that obligation. Any state who can plausibly make a difference must act.”

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court established the ICC in its seat at The Hague on 1 July 2002, and it incorporated the international criminal offences of genocide, using the same definition as the convention, and it provided the highest criminal court on the planet with jurisdiction to prosecute it, along with other atrocities, like crimes against humanity and war crimes.

On ratifying the Rome Statue in 2002, Australia was then obliged to enact all the atrocity crimes it contains into local federal law. So, today, these crimes are contained in division 268 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), and they have universal jurisdiction, which means local courts are able to prosecute these crimes against any national who commits them anywhere on the planet.

Israel is not a member of the ICC, which is undertaking an investigation of the Situation in the State of Palestine that prompted ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to issue international arrest warrants against Israeli PM Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, charging them with a plethora atrocity crimes. And this means that all ICC member states have a responsibility to arrest these men.

Australian law firm Birchgrove Legal presented ICC prosecutor Khan with a 92 page brief of evidence in March last year. The document presents statements from local PM Albanese and other senior ministers that reveal their complicity in Israel’s genocide. And the firm announced that the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC added the document to the evidence gathered for its Palestine inquiry.

Required to take action

The release of the UN report confirming genocide means that states complicit in shielding, aiding or assisting Israel in its operations in Gaza over the last two years can no longer hide behind claims that the mass slaughter and starvation program in the Strip does not comprise of genocide. The appearance of the finding should and most likely is resulting in ministers rethinking their positions.

The release of the inquiry report coincided with Israel’s launch of its ground invasion into Gaza City, after it subjected the urban centre to the most brutal bombing spree ever, which is hard to conceive two years into its genocidal operation.

Israel bombed six countries in 72 hours last week, including Doha, a US ally. The common understanding is the rogue state cannot be stopped in its commission of genocide at present.

“It is time to impose trade and other sanctions on Israel,” Lawrence continued in the chamber on Tuesday. “It is time to reconsider our diplomatic relationship with Israel. It is time to ban Australians from serving in the IDF. It is time to comply with the Genocide Convention and the highest norms of the international legal system.”

“These are not political demands. They are core legal obligations on a member state of the United Nations,” the NSW Labor member said in concluding. “It is time.”