In a stark final appearance before the media, the departing leadership of the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel presented some of the most severe findings yet against the Israeli government over its actions in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Speaking remotely from South Africa, Commission Chair Navi Pillay outlined the body’s conclusion that Israel has committed four genocidal acts with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza and that its top leadership has incited genocide.
“We found that the State of Israel is responsible for the commission of four genocidal acts in Gaza with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” Pillay said. “We also found that the Israeli president, prime minister, and former defense minister have incited the commission of genocide.”
The findings, presented earlier to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, remain the cornerstone of the commission’s ongoing investigative work, she said. Pillay warned that Israeli policy now reflects explicit demographic aims, arguing officials have “demonstrated a clear and consistent intent to establish permanent military control over Gaza and to change its demographic composition.” Legislative initiatives in Israel, she added, indicate that objectives of ethnic cleansing and settlement expansion “remain firmly in place.”
Pillay used the briefing to announce it would be her last before stepping down, citing age and health. She dismissed speculation surrounding the departure: “There’s nothing sinister about it. I’m 84.” Fellow commissioners Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari are also stepping aside, though Sidoti expressed willingness to continue if reappointed, and pledged that the commission’s work would continue “with unwavering dedication.”
Sidoti, departing from his long-held practice of avoiding personal disputes, condemned unprecedented attacks on UN personnel—particularly Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese—after Israel’s ambassador called her a “witch” on the UN floor. “These attacks are not just an attack upon an individual,” he said, “but upon the United Nations system itself.”
Asked whether Hamas’s crimes on October 7 justified the ensuing military campaign, Pillay and Sidoti were unequivocal. “There is an absolute prohibition against genocide,” Pillay said. “You cannot plead self-defense.” Sidoti invoked a familiar moral shorthand: “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Pillay was also asked whether international law has failed Palestinians. She answered carefully: Palestinians, she said, understand their rights under international law, but have watched the world “do nothing” to enforce them. The ICJ ruling that genocide in Gaza is “plausible” created legal obligations for states to act, she noted, adding that those duties remain unmet.
The commission’s findings arrive amid mounting criticism of Western complicity. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces heavy scrutiny. In October 2023, then–Labour leader Starmer defended Israel’s “right” to cut off water and electricity to Gaza—a statement later walked back amid public outrage and resignations. His decision to host Israeli President Isaac Herzog at 10 Downing Street only intensified criticism, with rights advocates accusing him of granting diplomatic cover during mass civilian death. Legal commentators now openly debate whether such positions risk future exposure under international criminal law. Downing Street rejects those claims.
Sidoti also warned that the ceasefire in Gaza remains “precarious,” citing renewed bombardment in Rafah and the prospect of resumed hostilities. Humanitarian aid levels, he said, are “far from sufficient to sustain life,” despite international orders to increase deliveries.
Calls to designate Israeli rule an apartheid regime have grown louder. Pillay, who lived under apartheid in South Africa, pointed to separate legal systems, discriminatory planning laws and movement restrictions. These, she said, resemble experiences many once believed would “never change.”
The commission was also tasked with investigating arms transfers and settler violence—mandates it was unable to fulfil due to withheld funding. “We didn’t get the support,” Pillay noted. “It’s unfortunate.”
As reporters absorbed the implications, another UN voice entered the conversation. Speaking online from South Africa after being sanctioned by the United States, Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese accused powerful governments of aiding genocide and warned that the international legal system itself is collapsing.
“I claim through this report that Israel’s genocide in Gaza is part of an international system of complicity,” she told journalists. International law, she stressed, prohibits assisting internationally wrongful acts. Instead, states must prevent, stop, and punish them. “We are living a dystopic moment where influential states do not play by the rules,” she said. “They openly say they do not need the international system anymore.”
Albanese revealed she could not attend the briefing in New York because of U.S. sanctions—travel bans, financial penalties and restrictions that apply even to family members. “Simply for fulfilling my UN mandate,” she said, adding that the United Nations has taken “no concrete steps” to defend her.
She identified military cooperation as the “most significant form” of complicity: the United States and Germany alone account for 90 percent of Israel’s arms imports. At least 26 states are implicated through sales, component transfers, or logistics. Trade, too, is central. Electronics, pharmaceuticals, minerals and energy—worth an estimated $474 billion—sustain Israel’s wartime economy. Europe remains Israel’s largest trading partner.
She accused Israel and its allies of weaponizing aid, restricting food, fuel and medicine while dismantling UNRWA, Gaza’s primary lifeline. She said Western leaders revived “colonial tropes” that paint Palestinians as terrorists by default, erasing distinctions between civilians and combatants. “What happened on October 7 did not come from a vacuum,” she insisted, placing the violence in the context of decades of occupation and forced displacement. She cited “mounting evidence” that some October 7 killings were caused by Israeli forces during chaotic responses. For Albanese, the true turning point was October 9, when officials announced plans to cut basic necessities while calling Palestinians “human animals.” “That,” she said, “was the game-changer.”
The crisis, she warned, now threatens the legitimacy of international law itself. Multilateral institutions are paralysed. National courts may be the last avenue for justice: arms manufacturers, tour companies operating in settlements, and foreign nationals serving in the IDF could all face litigation. Albanese also criticised Western media for parroting official narratives and omitting history. “The lack of balance,” she said, “is quite striking.”
Asked why the International Criminal Court has issued so few arrest warrants, she blamed unprecedented political interference, violations of arrest obligations and diplomatic shielding. “The ICC is being strangled,” she warned. “I don’t know if in five or ten years it will still exist.”
She reserved particular criticism for Italy, her home state, accusing it of violating its own constitution by supplying weapons. “Italy is showing a level of political immaturity I have not registered in any other country,” she said. As long as it continues, she warned, Italian officials may face charges of complicity.
“Nearly 100 Palestinians were killed and 350 injured just in the previous days,” she concluded. Ten thousand remain imprisoned without charges. Returned bodies show signs of torture. Diplomats, she lamented, “celebrate peace.” She quoted Nelson Mandela: leaders are remembered either for injustice or for resisting it. “We are living on a borrowed future.”
Back in New York, Sidoti reiterated that without accountability, violence will continue. “There can be no peace in Israel and Palestine without accountability,” he said. “There can be no justice without accountability.” Pillay signed off by expressing faith—not in states, but in people. “There is hope,” she said. “Hope rooted in an overwhelming desire for justice.”
Could UK Officials Be Liable Under the Rome Statute?
As allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza intensify, legal scholars have begun examining whether third-party leaders—including in the United Kingdom—could face scrutiny under the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Under Articles 25 and 28, individual criminal responsibility may arise through:
- aiding and abetting international crimes
- providing political or moral support that substantially affects the crime
- complicity through arms transfers or logistics
- failure to prevent, when leaders have knowledge and influence
The threshold for opening an ICC preliminary examination is significantly lower than that required to issue arrest warrants.
Prosecutors typically ask:
- Did officials know mass atrocities were occurring?
- Did they continue support despite warnings?
- Could they have applied diplomatic pressure?
Under Article 27, official capacity is no defence. Prime ministers and ministers can be prosecuted personally.
Aiding and Abetting Genocide — What Counts?
Aiding and abetting does not require sharing genocidal intent. Courts look for:
- reasonable knowledge that assistance facilitates the crime
- material support such as arms, intelligence or logistics
- public encouragement or rhetorical cover
- omissions where leaders had capacity to act
“Ignoring credible genocide warnings” can be used as evidence. As one tribunal judge wrote: “Silence, where there is a duty to speak, may amount to encouragement.”
Global Warnings on Gaza (as Notice Evidence)
October 2023 — UN human-rights office warns siege tactics are collective punishment.
November 2023 — UN experts warn of a “genocide in the making.”
December 2023 — Humanitarian agencies report systemic starvation.
January 2024 — ICJ rules genocide is “plausible” and orders protective measures.
Spring 2024 — UNICEF, WHO and WFP warn of imminent famine.
Summer 2024 — UN committees warn deprivation may satisfy elements of genocide.
Autumn 2024 — ICJ compliance hearings show non-implementation.
June 2025 — ICC Prosecutor warns perpetrators and enablers publicly.
October 2025 — UN Commission finds Israel committed four genocidal acts with intent.
Repeated warnings close the door on plausible deniability.
As the commissioners depart, the substance of their findings—genocide, incitement, demographic engineering and systematic deprivation—now enters the evidentiary record. Pillay suggested international law has been honoured more in breach than enforcement. Albanese argued the system itself is at risk of collapse. Both insisted accountability remains possible.
“The strength of the international legal system,” Pillay said, “is something I still very much believe in.” Whether states share that belief—or abandon it—remains the defining legal question ahead.
