Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has publicly criticized the recent United Nations report that accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, declaring that the U.S. should use sanctions against those responsible. The report, issued by the UN’s United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (COI), states that Israel is responsible for failing to prevent and committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Cruz condemned the report as an antisemitic smear, arguing it undermines American national security and creates a dangerous international environment for Israel, including risks to U.S. servicemembers and citizens.
Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, added that the report promotes genocide against Jews, downgrading the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 as an understandable reaction to prior Israeli wrongs. Furthermore, she criticized the COI for omitting critical facts in its reporting and for failing to recommend action against Hamas, despite highlighting the terror group’s tunnel network which was integral to the October 7 attacks. Salo Aizenberg, of media watchdog group HonestReporting, questioned the report’s claim that Israel aimed to prevent births, citing evidence that Israel allowed WHO teams to vaccinate 603,000 children before the attacks.
In its recommendations, the COI report specifically calls for Israel to ensure full, unimpeded access of humanitarian aid at scale and to end the distribution of food aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. However, recent U.N. statistics show that only 14.5% of U.N. aid trucks have reached their intended destinations since May due to armed looting and theft. While the COI currently assigns specific blame to three Israeli officials, it also highlights many other individuals and media commentators in Israel who have incited genocide. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres stated that the attribution of genocide belongs to the International Court of Justice, not the U.N. itself, and described the report as morally, politically, and legally intolerable.