EU commissioner urges action after UN inquiry declares Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

By Melike Pala and Selen Valente

BRUSSELS (AA) - All UN nations have a responsibility to act after the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory declared that genocide is being committed by Israel in Gaza, EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib said Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening of an exhibition in Brussels featuring 40 works by Gazan artist Ahmed Muhanna, EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Lahbib underlined that the UN commission of inquiry declared that genocide is being committed by Israel in Gaza.

"It is our responsibility, all the UN nations, to stop it. So we take our responsibility," she said

The UN commission concluded on Tuesday that Israeli forces committed "four of the five" genocidal acts defined under the 1948 genocide convention: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.

Lahbib underlined that the EU began using all available levers because there was no real improvement in Gaza. "It is why we started to use all leverages, because we didn't see a real improvement of the situation ... The situation is only getting worse, and we are facing a famine now."

Earlier, the European Commission unveiled plans to downgrade trade ties with Israel and sanction top officials over findings of human rights abuses in Gaza, marking a major shift in the bloc’s approach to Tel Aviv.

The exhibition, titled "Gaza: Stories of Hope and Resistance," is a joint initiative by the EU and the World Food Program (WFP). Housed in a container at Place de la Monnaie in central Brussels, it will run until Sept. 18.

After a video call with Muhanna, Lahbib said: "We see you and we hear you. You have the right to be an artist, as all Palestinian artists have the right to dream, as all Palestinian children have the right to play, to go to school, and all Palestinian mothers have the right to see their children grow up."

The Israeli army has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.