By Quds News Network
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Israel has committed the crime against humanity of extermination in Gaza, according to a damning new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry. The report states that Israeli forces systematically target civilians sheltering in schools, mosques, and cultural sites across the besieged territory.
The Commission also found that Israeli forces committed war crimes, including wilful killing and directing attacks at civilians, especially in educational and religious facilities. These attacks have devastated Gaza’s civilian life and infrastructure and amounted to a deliberate effort to erase Palestinian identity and future.
“We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission and former UN human rights chief.
he report found that Israel destroyed or damaged over 90% of Gaza’s school and university buildings and more than half of its religious and cultural sites. Hundreds of thousands of children have been denied access to education for nearly two years. The commission says this scale of destruction reflects intent to exterminate a protected group and deny them the means to survive and thrive.
Cultural Erasure and War Crimes
The Commission documented Israeli airstrikes, shelling, arson, and controlled demolitions that targeted education facilities. In several cases, Israeli soldiers filmed themselves mocking Palestinians before destroying schools. Such actions, it said, demonstrate intent to permanently destroy the Palestinian education system.
In attacking civilians sheltering in mosques and schools, Israel committed the crime of extermination under international law. While the destruction of cultural sites is not in itself genocidal, the report notes it may infer genocidal intent when combined with other actions aimed at destroying a population.
The report also confirms that Israeli forces used Gaza schools and universities for military purposes, including converting part of Al-Azhar University into a synagogue for soldiers.
The report strongly condemns Israel’s systematic and disproportionate attacks, which violated international law requiring distinction between civilian and military objects.
The report says Israel deliberately destroyed 10 major cultural and religious sites in Gaza with no military justification. Artefacts were looted or destroyed, and civilian heritage was erased. The Commission says this erasure of culture is part of a broader campaign to weaken Palestinian collective identity.
“The destruction of cultural and religious life harms not just the present generation but generations to come,” said Pillay. “It erodes Palestinians’ historical ties to the land.”
West Bank Also Targeted
The Commission also documented severe impacts on the education system in the occupied West Bank and the eastern part of Jerusalem. Over 806,000 students have faced harassment, school closures, and settler violence. Israeli authorities have done little to prevent or prosecute these attacks.
In the eastern part of Jerusalem, religious worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque has been heavily restricted. Israeli forces have carried out militarized raids and allowed increased access to Jewish settlers, triggering tension and eroding Palestinian religious freedoms.
The report will be formally presented to the UN Human Rights Council on June 17, 2025.
Israel, which withdrew from the Council in February, has previously accused it of bias. After the Commission’s March report accused Israel of committing genocidal acts by targeting Gaza’s reproductive healthcare system, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the council as “anti-Semitic” and “irrelevant.”
But Navi Pillay said the findings are based on international legal standards and rigorous investigation.
“Children in Gaza have lost their childhood,” she said. “They live without education, without safety, and with no hope. This is not just war. This is extermination.”
11 June 2025
Source: countercurrents.org