Australia and the World Past and Present

This month, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Gaza released a report into Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

It looked at various aspects of the conflict, but one specific area it examined was the statements of Israeli officials and whether these may have constituted crimes under the Genocide Convention.

The Commission gives examples as early as 7 October 2023.

Israeli officials have described the war in Gaza as a a war of self-defense and a just war.

But the Commission says “The attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 were brutal war crimes but they did not pose an existential threat to the State of Israel. “¹

The Commission noted the press conference of 7 October 2023 where Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be “mighty vengeance” on “all of the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble. I say to all residents of Gaza: leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.” Although the Commission recognises that Netanyahu specified Hamas, it believes that by using expressions such as “that wicked city” etc that his statement should be interpreted as having a wider reference to Palestinians in general.

The Commission makes it clear that it has looked at the statements of Israeli officials from the very inception of the war. The attack by Hamas on 7 October would certainly have been shocking to Israeli’s leaders. The level of shock would be expected to be highest at this very early stage. No doubt emotions would have been running high for Israel’s leaders. But the Commission does not consider these utterances to be unconsidered, off the cuff remarks. Rather, the Commission sees them as clear examples of calls to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.

Two days later, Yoav Gallant (Defense Minister at the time) said that Israel was fighting “human animals”. On 10 October, he said in a address to members of Israel’s security forces, “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate everything…we will reach all places”.

One of the features of genocide is a dehumanisation of the target group. The term “human animals” seems to be contradiction in terms. The use of the word “human” would usually point towards a recognistion of humanity. But the use of the word “animal” would tend to point towards the opposite. The Commission is clear that it finds the term dehumanising.

On 13 October 2023, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said “it’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware and not involved.”

On 15 August 2025, a recording of the former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence was made public. He is quoted as saying “the fact that 50,000 have already been killed in Gaza in necessary and required for future generations…they need a Nakba from time to time to feel the price.”

So how does the Commission interpret all of the these statements?

It said that “these statements by Israeli officials are reasonably interpreted as statements expressing an intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza…They are direct evidence of dolus specialis.”²

In the first fews days following the attacks of October 7, Israeli leaders would have been aware of a pressing need to address their people. The idea that their comments would one day be used as evidence of crimes of genocide probably would not have been front of mind. However, the Commission of Inquiry makes it clear that international bodies that have an interest in breaches of international law, the committing of war crimes and even establishing whether genocide has occurred take a keen interest in the words of political and military leaders.

1. United Nations, Human Rights Council, Sixtieth session, Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Conference room paper of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian territory, Including Jerusalem, and Israel, 16 September 2025, p. 52. ↩︎
2. Ibid, p. 54 ↩︎