Israel says it is at war with Hamas, not the people of Gaza. And key allies, including the US and Germany, have also pushed back against the genocide allegations. But Amnesty accused Israel of violating the 1951 Genocide Convention through acts it says are intended to bring about the physical destruction of Gaza’s Palestinian population by exposing them to “a slow, calculated death”.
Amnesty said it analysed the overall pattern of Israel’s conduct in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and early July. It noted that there was no casualty threshold in proving the international crime of genocide, which is defined by the United Nations as acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
To establish intent, Amnesty said it reviewed more than 100 statements by Israeli government and military officials and others since the start of the war that “dehumanised Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them”.
Israeli officials have previously said that such statements were taken out of context or referred to their stated goal of destroying Hamas, not Palestinian civilians.
Israel says it goes to great lengths to protect civilians and comply with international law – including ordering civilians to evacuate areas ahead of airstrikes and ground offensives. It also says it has facilitated the deliveries of large quantities of food and humanitarian supplies – a claim that is disputed by the UN and aid organisations working inside Gaza.
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On Sunday, a former top Israeli general and defence minister accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where the army has sealed off the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp and allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter.
Amnesty said it found that Israel “deliberately inflicted conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza intended to lead, over time, to their destruction”. Those actions included the destruction of homes, farms, hospitals and water facilities; mass evacuation orders; and the restriction of humanitarian aid and other essential services.
It also analysed 15 airstrikes from the start of the war until April that killed at least 334 civilians, including 141 children, and wounded hundreds of other people. It said it found no evidence that any of those strikes were directed at military objectives.
It said one of the strikes destroyed the Abdelal family home in the southern city of Rafah on April 20, killing three generations of Palestinians, including 16 children, while they were sleeping. An Associated Press investigation identified at least 60 families in which at least 25 members had been killed.
Amnesty has previously angered Israel by joining other major rights groups in accusing it of the international crime of apartheid, saying that for decades it has systematically denied Palestinians basic rights in the territories under its control. Israel has also denied those allegations.
Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, lack of aid on UN
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas and have built tunnels and other militant infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
It blames the lack of humanitarian aid on United Nations agencies, accusing them of not delivering hundreds of truckloads of aid that have been allowed in. The UN says it is often too dangerous to retrieve and deliver the aid. It blames Israel as the occupying power for the breakdown of law and order – which has enabled armed groups to steal aid convoys – while also accusing it of heavily restricting movement within the territory.
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The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage, including children and older adults. Some 100 captives are still held inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 44,500 people, according to Gaza health officials, whose count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters, though they say more than half the dead are women and children.
The offensive is among the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, and has destroyed vast areas of the besieged coastal territory. It has displaced some 90 per cent of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people have crammed into squalid tent camps with little in the way of food, water or toilets.
Aid groups say the population is at risk of disease and malnutrition, especially as winter sets in. Experts have warned of famine in northern Gaza, which Israel has almost completely sealed off since launching a major military operation there in early October. Hamas militants have repeatedly regrouped there and in other areas, and the group has faced no major internal challenge to its rule.
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Amnesty says the US needs to press for an end to the war
The US, which has provided crucial military aid to Israel and shielded it from international criticism, has repeatedly appealed to Israel to facilitate more aid, with limited results.
The Biden administration said in May that Israel’s use of US-provided weapons in Gaza at times likely violated international humanitarian law but that the evidence was incomplete.
Callamard urged the United States, Germany and other countries supplying arms to Israel to pressure Netanyahu to end the war.
