Gaza’s genocide: the UN report is not the end, but just the beginning for Palestinians

As a Palestinian, the latest report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry came as no surprise to me, nor to any Palestinian who has lived through or followed what has been happening in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

We live the details of the genocide every day: the sounds of aircraft, the smell of rubble, the cries of children, and the hunger of mothers. But for this acknowledgment to come this time from the highest independent international human rights body, using the explicit term “genocide,” is a game-changer, because it strips away the last fig leaves from the Israeli narrative.

The UN report on Israel leave it little place to hide

The UN report documented four acts of genocide committed by Israel, including mass murder, starvation, and the deliberate destruction of children’s futures. These are not just numbers or cold facts, but our daily lives as Palestinians: thousands of bodies under the rubble, generations of children suffering from malnutrition and milk shortages, and entire families wiped out in an instant. What the report describes in the language of international law, we describe in our simple language as “the erasure of life.”

Israel was quick—as usual—to deny the report and accuse it of bias. But can an official denial erase the image of the child Hind Rajab, who was killed by soldiers despite her screams and cries for help? Can any political rhetoric cover up the hunger of thousands of infants who have been deprived even of their milk?

What is important now is that the report does not become just another document on the shelves of the United Nations. Its value lies not only in its words, but in the responsibility it imposes on the world. International law, established after the tragedies of war and genocide, is not just a set of idealistic texts, but an obligation on states to prevent crimes when they occur and to punish their perpetrators. Today, it must be said: the world is facing a moral and legal test.

The UN report confronts Israel with the truth, but it also holds up a mirror to the international community: Will the tragedies of Rwanda and Bosnia, where recognition came too late, be repeated, or will the world act this time before what remains of Gaza is wiped out?

Palestinians do not need miracles. We just need the law to be enforced.

We are not asking for miracles, but for the application of the law. We are not asking for pity, but for justice. If the UN has described what is happening as genocide in its report, the least that can be expected of states is to stop the arms that fuel this genocide, impose sanctions on Israeli leaders who openly incite our murder, and support the course of justice at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

The UN report said that “the essence of childhood has been destroyed in Gaza.” I say that the essence of humanity is being destroyed with it. That is why international silence is no longer mere complicity, but participation in crime.

Gaza today is not just a Palestinian issue; it is a humanitarian issue, a yardstick by which to measure the sincerity of the slogans raised by nations about human rights. Those who do not see this report as an urgent call to action are choosing to be complicit in genocide, even if only through their silence.

Featured image via the Canary