A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded this week that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the findings as biased and based on unverified evidence.

Below is an explanation of how genocide is defined legally, how it is tried by the courts, and how the U.N. inquiry reached its findings.

What Is Genocide?

Genocide has a strict legal definition and has rarely been proven in court since it was cemented in humanitarian law after the Holocaust. The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”.

Five criminal acts can constitute genocide: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, creating conditions calculated to de

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