D. Command and responsibility

304. The Commission emphasises that military commanders and political leaders may be held criminally responsible for the acts of subordinates who were under their effective command and control. There are two circumstances under which criminal liability arises by virtue of command responsibility: where subordinates commit criminal acts pursuant to the direct orders of their commanders; where commanders who know or ought to know about the actual or possible commission of criminal acts by subordinates fail to take measures to prevent the subordinates from committing those acts.

305. The Commission has established the names and identities of individuals responsible for the planning, ordering, and execution of the attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. The Commission finds, on reasonable grounds, that these individuals either ordered the commission of operations and acts that constituted war crimes of the nature described in this report or, at the very least, knew or should have known that subordinates under their effective command and control were committing or were likely to commit crimes in Israeli kibbutzim and other locations and failed to take any measures within their power to prevent or repress the commission of such crimes. The Commission concludes on reasonable grounds that the individuals who bear the most responsibility for the international crimes, violations and abuses that it has investigated in this conference room paper include senior members of the political and military leadership of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and of the Palestinian Joint Operations Room. The Commission will continue its investigations focusing on individual criminal responsibility and command responsibility.