A new report by a UN commission finds that Israel intended to murder civilians en masse, inflict wide-scale civilian destruction, and collectively punish Palestinians in Gaza — holding them hostage to its political aims.

The Israeli government and military have committed systematic “crimes against humanity,” including “extermination,” during their eight-month-long assault on Gaza, a key United Nations commission found in a report published Wednesday.

The report is the first in-depth investigation by the United Nations into the events that have happened since October 7 and is based on detailed interviews with victims and witnesses. The three-person commission is led by Navi Pillay, a former United Nations human rights chief.

The commission concluded that the Israeli military and government “committed the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare; murder or willful killing; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; forcible transfer; sexual violence; outrages upon personal dignity; and [sexual and gender-based violence] amounting to torture or inhuman and cruel treatment.”

It found that Israel was responsible for crimes against humanity. According to the report “extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed.”