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Eventually, it will be the International Court of Justice that decides whether the mass killings perpetrated by Israel in the Gaza Strip amount to genocide, but this decision will probably take years to establish. In the meantime, an increasing number of international organizations, as well as Israeli ones, are warning that Israel is committing genocide — and this should not be taken lightly by Israelis.

The most recent heavyweight report that suggests a genocide is indeed taking place in Gaza was published in September by the UN independent International Commission of Inquiry. In a highly detailed account, it stated there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023.

From the very first days of the war in Gaza, it was my view that, since Israel had embarked not only on a war against Hamas but one of revenge against the Gazan people, it was more important to concentrate on reaching a permanent ceasefire as quickly as possible. Then, in the immediate aftermath, the exact legal definition of what took place could be addressed. This is not only because it was important in itself but also because an early ceasefire could have saved many lives, as well as all the other forms of suffering inflicted by this war.

It was also obvious, although completely unjustified, that, in the light of the nature of the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, Israel’s response — especially because of the ultra-right composition of its government — would be disproportionate and deliberately so. This was because of the prevailing narrative in Israeli society that all the people of Gaza, in one way or another, were complicit in the Hamas attack and there were no innocent people there.

There is a strong sense this has become, even if at first it was unintended, a genocidal war and hence was bound to be investigated

Yossi Mekelberg

Two years later and the horrendous images from Gaza tell the story of more than 65,000 people killed and 160,000 injured, while a highly respected global monitoring group, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, in August declared a famine in parts of Gaza that was directly linked to the Israeli government preventing for months any humanitarian aid from entering this small, already badly battered territory. Moreover, there is a strong sense that this has become, even if at first it was unintended, a genocidal war and hence was bound to be thoroughly investigated.

Israelis are especially sensitive to the accusation of genocide. As many of those who worked to establish the state were victims of a most horrific genocide, the Holocaust, the sense of victimhood is understandably deeply engrained, along with a self-image that victims of such a genocide are always justified in carrying out what they see as acts of self-defense, especially as in the case of Oct. 7. In accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, there is no intention to diminish the immeasurable suffering caused during those darkest days in Jewish history, or to even compare it to what is taking place in Gaza.

Genocide was first recognized as a crime under international law in 1946 by the UN General Assembly and was codified as an independent crime in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, known as the Genocide Convention. The question for those who investigate what the Israeli security forces are perpetrating in Gaza is whether it meets the convention’s definition of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Out of the five acts that in committing them amount to genocide, the UN commission found that Israel had most probably committed four: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.

The verdict on whether mass killing amounts to a genocide stands and falls on whether all these horrific acts are done with intent. After all, it could hardly be disputed — considering the scale of the killings and the horrific injuries, the creation of starvation conditions and the prevention of medical help, including the intensive bombing of hospitals (regardless of the claim Hamas is using them as a human shield, which is a war crime by itself) — that at least some of the acts mentioned in the definition of genocide are met.

Beyond the massive death toll, the war has created catastrophic living conditions that inflict mental as much as bodily harm

Yossi Mekelberg

Moreover, beyond the massive death toll, the war has created catastrophic living conditions that inflict mental as much as bodily harm, while destroying the Strip’s social fabric, depriving children and young people of an education and displacing huge numbers of people time after time. This is in addition to carrying out mass arrests and detentions without trial, along with evidence of torture in the camps where they are held.

However, it is the rhetoric that suggested there were no innocents in Gaza that led the inquiry to conclude that “Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this.”

The commission also suggested that, despite not fully assessing statements by other Israeli political and military leaders, including Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister for Finance Bezalel Smotrich, their inciting statements should be investigated for expressing genocidal intent. Smotrich, for instance, was reported to have said, “I think we’ll be able to declare victory within a few months, Gaza will be completely destroyed,” suggesting also that civilians will be concentrated in a particular part of Gaza and, from there, “they will depart in large numbers to third countries.”

These leaders are all senior Israeli politicians and, with the exception of Herzog, they are all from the executive arm of government. When one correlates what is taking place on the ground with the statements made by Israeli leaders, it is impossible not to conclude that there are solid grounds for at least investigating them for genocide.

In response to the accusation that they are “Hamas proxies, notorious for their openly antisemitic position,” made by the Israeli Foreign Ministry immediately after the commission’s conclusions were made public, its members should point the finger at all those in government who brought Israel to this low point. It is a point that has resulted in a war conducted by fanatics and the least suitable, and which has led so many to reach the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg