Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza

Our Institution’s work on the “Gaza Genocide” is based on reports from United
Nations (UN) agencies, resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council,
statements by UN officials and representatives of UN agencies such as UNICEF, WHO,
WFP, UNRWA, Human Rights Council, the report of the UN Independent Commission
of Inquiry, the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice where
Israel is being tried for genocide, the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant
for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, reports published
by the UN on independent UN special rapporteurs, Reports by international human
rights organizations, including Israeli civil society organizations and newspapers,
Research reports and photographs by national press organizations such as Anadolu
Agency and international press organizations and human rights organizations,
including the Guardian, BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera, as well as health organizations,
press organizations, and journalists, Testimonies of doctors and humanitarian aid
workers working in Gaza, news reports supported by satellite imagery, video footage
shared with the international community, interviews conducted by our Institution
and other human rights organizations with individuals living in Gaza, statements
by the President of the Republic of Türkiye and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and
statements shared with the international public by Israeli officials themselves.
Since October 7, 2023, numerous international organizations, including United Nations
bodies, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, Save
the Children, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have documented through
reports that Israel has committed the crime of genocide. By 2025, even institutions
such as the Council of Europe and the European Union, which had previously
remained silent in the face of ethnic cleansing practices and the crime of genocide,
could no longer deny this reality and began to issue statements. Israel’s own civil
society organizations and newspapers have also openly acknowledged that the acts
committed against Palestinians constitute genocide.
Our Institution’s special report on the ‘Gaza Genocide,’ published in February 2024
under the auspices of the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, was
entitled ‘From the World’s Largest Open-Air Prison to the World’s Largest Children’s
Cemetery’. Already in the fifth month of the attacks, the report declared that Gaza
was the target of occupation and that the atrocities constituted genocide. This
special report was shared with all relevant stakeholders, including the International
Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Since February 2024, as acts of
genocide have continued, the crimes that must be subject to criminal investigation
have been categorized according to their nature and published as thematic reports.
Through the ongoing thematic reports, the Ombudsman Institution — a
constitutional body for the protection of rights and an Institution active in many
fields — aims both to fulfill its duty to legally confront genocide and to record in
history in order to safeguard the rights of Palestinian babies, children, women, the
elderly, the sick, the disabled, and all innocent civilians who are victims of genocide
and ethnic cleansing.