A panel of experts commissioned by the United Nations (UN) says Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

The Israeli foreign ministry says the Commission’s report is “distorted and false” and based “entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others”.

How is genocide defined?

The Genocide Convention sets the definition of genocide for the purposes of international law. It took effect in 1951.

It says that if a state commits any one of the following five acts with the intention of destroying “in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, then it has committed genocide:

“Killing members of the group”

“Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”

“Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life

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