The United Nations issued its harshest evaluation of the Israeli military operation in Gaza to yet in 2025, declaring that Israeli acts amounted to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry, led by former ICC judge Navi Pillay, has discovered a pattern of intentional destruction, targeting of civilians, and cultural erasure that it calls a “concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life.” The scope, purpose, and effects of Israeli operations in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories are examined in this research, which compiles the most recent data, stakeholder statements, and court rulings.
Israeli authorities are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, UN independent commission of inquiry finds.
— United Nations (@UN) June 12, 2024
The investigation also concludes that Palestinian armed groups are responsible for war crimes committed in Israel. https://t.co/Glh07KtlLk pic.twitter.com/NgagmTzNHY
The Devastation Scale: Civilian Life, Culture, and Education
Educational Infrastructure Decimated
Israeli soldiers destroyed between 70 and 90 percent of Gaza’s institutions and schools between October 2023 and February 2025. This devastation has left over 658,000 children without access to education for nearly two years—a loss described by the UN as robbing Palestinians of “stability, hope and the possibility of a future”.
The report documents not only airstrikes and shelling but also deliberate burning, demolition, and the conversion of educational facilities—such as part of Al-Azhar University’s campus—into military or religious sites for Israeli use.
More than 800 educators and school staff have been killed, and 742 civilians died in attacks on UNRWA facilities, further crippling Gaza’s educational system.
Cultural and Religious Heritage Targeted
The UN and UNESCO have verified damage to at least 75 cultural and religious sites, including the historic Great Omari Mosque and the Palace Pasha Museum. The devastation is more than collateral damage; as the report points out, looting of archaeological sites by Israeli forces is among the actions that contribute to, what the UN calls, the erasure of Palestinian cultural identity.
Civilian Casualties and Displacement
The human cost is staggering. The Gaza Ministry of Health has reported over 37,000 deaths since October 2023, but the UN states that this number does not differentiate civilians from combatants. The Commission also explains that Israeli attacks have resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, numerous injuries, and the forced displacement of at least 1.7 million people in Gaza.
The West Bank has also seen a sharp increase in violence: over 806,000 Palestinian students have had their education disrupted by security checkpoints and settler violence, with 96 killed and 500 detained since October 2023.
Legal Findings: War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
UN Commission’s Conclusions
The June 2025 report from the UN Commission of Inquiry is clear: Extermination is one of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Gaza. The commission discovered:
- Intentional targeting of civilians and civilian targets: The Israeli forces have violated international humanitarian law by targeting civilian residences, medical facilities, students, and secure United Nations facilities.
- Famine circumstances brought on by Israeli siege and military operations were cited by the UN as evidence of Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war and collective punishment.
- At least 1.7 million Gazans have been forced from their homes, often without anywhere secure to go.
- Gender-based violence and persecution: The report highlights systematic sexual violence and gender persecution and a culture of gender persecution, especially targeted at Palestinian women and girls.
- Destruction of cultural heritage: The targeting and looting of religious sites and archaeological heritage areas are seen as the intention to erase Palestinian identity
Crimes Against Humanity: Extermination
The UN defines extermination as the deliberate and mass killing of an entire group, including also by subjecting part of a population to conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population. The report suggests that the Israeli operations in Gaza meet this requirement. It cited intentional and systematic actions that completely devastated civilian life and the civilian infrastructure.
Parallel Investigations: Accountability for All Sides
The commission’s report also addresses crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups, including the October 7, 2023, attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis (800 civilians) and the taking of hostages. However, the scale and systematic nature of Israeli actions in Gaza are singled out as constituting crimes against humanity.
Stakeholder Statements and International Reactions
UN Commission and Navi Pillay
Navi Pillay, chair of the UN Commission, described the Israeli campaign as “the most ruthless, prolonged and widespread attack against the Palestinian people since 1948”. She emphasized the loss of education as a critical blow to Palestinian society and called for global institutions to take immediate action to protect Palestinian rights and heritage.
UNESCO
UNESCO’s verification of serious damage to cultural and religious sites highlights the international community’s unease over the erasure of Palestinian history and identity.
Calls for Justice and Ceasefire
The Commission has asked the international community to hold accountable every person or group responsible for war crimes, and repeated its assertion that there is a cycle of violence that can be broken only through a strict adherence to international law and an immediate and total ceasefire.
Responses in Palestine & Israel
- Palestinian officials have described the Israeli operation as a “genocidal war” and “unrestrained barbarity against a defenceless civilian population.”
- Israeli officials have largely disregarded the UN findings as biased, and the UN’s investigators were not cooperative in the investigation, arguing that the UN researchers were restricted from practical access to the relevant consent of sites and witnesses.
The 2025 Context: Latest Instances of War Crimes
February – June 2025: Severity of Attacks Intensifies
- Spring 2025: Israeli operations had functionally destroyed the last two hospitals and schools remaining in Khan Younis and Rafah and left former whole areas uninhabitable and tens of thousands more displaced.
- In April 2025, UNRWA noted that humanitarian convoys were regularly attacked and dozens of aid workers had been killed by air strikes, exacerbating conditions of famine in the region.
- The subsequent evidence presented by the UN in June 2025 demonstrated that works of former educational facilities had been converted to military outposts and that new archaeological sites had been looted, and only then were Israeli military forces further entrenched into the Gaza Strip.
Impact on future generations
The loss of Gaza’s educational infrastructure and cultural heritage will likely affect Palestinian society for years to come. According to the Un’s declaration, “an entire generation of children are growing up traumatized and without education, and further, detached from their cultural roots.” The mental and developmental consequences could last for decades and compound the immediate humanitarian crisis.
Legal and Political Ramifications
International Criminal Court (ICC) Actions
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, charging them with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. These moves mark a significant escalation in international efforts to hold Israeli leaders accountable.
Obstacles to Accountability
The UN Commission has noted Israeli non-cooperation, including directives to medical professionals not to share information and obstruction of investigative access. This has complicated efforts to collect evidence and ensure justice for victims.
The UN’s 2025 report, which details a pattern of systematic damage, targeting of civilians, and cultural erasure that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, is a serious indictment of Israeli activities in Gaza. The scope, purpose, and effects of Israeli operations are characterized as a purposeful attempt to destroy Palestinian life and identity, even though the study admits crimes by all parties. There are now pressing demands on the international community to uphold responsibility, defend Palestinian rights, and make sure that such deliberate destruction is not tolerated.