Palestine · A closer look
2023
Gaza
On 7 October 2023 Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel's war on Gaza brought mass death, displacement and destruction. In August 2025 the IPC confirmed famine in Gaza governorate. A UN Commission of Inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide, a finding Israel rejects.
The attack and the war that followed
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other armed groups attacked communities and military sites in southern Israel, killing civilians and soldiers and taking hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza. By January 2024, the International Court of Justice was considering evidence of large-scale deaths, destruction, displacement and deprivation. The court's account of this early stage provides a dated record of the rapidly developing humanitarian catastrophe.
Source: International Court of Justice: Order of 26 January 2024
Hunger as a measured emergency
In August 2025, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification confirmed famine in Gaza governorate with reasonable evidence and projected a risk of expansion. Famine is a technical classification based on extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and deaths; it is not simply another word for shortages. The finding applied to a specified place and reporting period. Later assessments must be consulted separately rather than assuming that one classification describes all of Gaza indefinitely.
Source: IPC: Famine confirmed in Gaza governorate, August 2025
Different kinds of legal finding
The ICJ's January 2024 order imposed provisional measures in the case brought by South Africa under the Genocide Convention. Such measures protect rights while a case proceeds; that order was not a final judgment on whether genocide had occurred. Distinguishing the stage and jurisdiction of a legal process is essential. A court order, an investigative report and an arrest warrant carry different meanings and cannot be substituted for one another.
Source: International Court of Justice: Order of 26 January 2024
The Commission’s September 2025 conclusion
In September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. This was the conclusion of an investigative commission, distinct from a final ICJ judgment or a criminal conviction. Israel rejected the accusation. This entry describes findings and events through September 2025; the separate count on the timeline provides dated casualty figures from the site's data sources.
Source: UN Commission of Inquiry: Findings published 16 September 2025