Israel carrying out a genocide in Gaza, concludes Amnesty International
Israel is carrying out a genocide in the Gaza Strip, a new report by Amnesty International has concluded.
The report, titled 'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman': Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza is based on research and legal analysis carried out since October 2023 and concludes that Israel's war on the enclave is being carried out with "the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza".
Amnesty International is arguably the highest profile rights group to conclude Israel's actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocidal acts as laid out under the Genocide Convention.
The report involved interviews with 212 people, including survivors of, and witnesses to, Israeli air strikes, victims of displacement and detention, and victims of Israel's strangulation of aid deliveries.
Speaking at a press conference in the Hague on Thursday, Amnesty's Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said that Israel was creating a "nightmare" for Palestinian in the Gaza Strip.
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"The state of Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," she said, adding that this was an "unequivocal" conclusion by Amnesty.
"We do not come to that conclusion lightly, politically or preferentially."
She said Israel's claims to its allies and others that its attack on Gaza was a legitimate response to the "horrific crimes" carried out by Hamas were not legitimate.
"That assertion simply does not stand up to scrutiny," she said.
'A wake up call'
Israeli forces have killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians in 14 months of war on Gaza, with many more more missing and presumed dead under rubble.
Nearly 70 percent of victims are children and women, according to the UN.
The conflict, which followed a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, has caused the displacement of 90 percent of Gaza's 2.2 million residents, with homes, mosques, historical sites, hospitals, UN buildings, agricultural land and other facilities obliterated by attacks.
In addition, Israel's war has killed more journalists over the past year than any other conflict over the past three decades.
'States have a clear choice before them: they can decide to continue granting Israel impunity for its atrocity crimes against Palestinians or they can act now to stop it'
- Grazia Careccia, Amnesty
Amnesty said it looked into 15 Israeli air strikes that took place in northern, central and southern Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 20 April 2024.
They said "deliberately indiscriminate" strikes hit 12 homes and other residential buildings, a church and a street, killing 334 civilians, including at least 141 children, and wounding hundreds of others.
The report said investigations did not find "any evidence that any of the strikes were directed at a military
objective" while a review of all available evidence showed that all those killed were "civilians not taking a direct part in hostilities".
"Every single one of these attacks hit civilian objects, including homes. In all but one case, Israel gave no warning before carrying out the attack," said Callamard.
"And in the last case, although Israel did give a warning, it was not effective. In none of these attacks did Amnesty, despite really looking, find evidence there was any legitimate military objective in or near the location struck."
With regards to "specific intent", Amnesty International pointed to comments made by a range of Israeli officials as proof that they were "deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part" and contradicted claims to be acting in self-defence.
"One of the reasons we are publishing this report is to issue a wake up call to the international community and ensure states recognise this is genocide and it has to stop now," said Amnesty's Grazia Careccia told Middle East Eye.
"States have a clear choice before them: they can decide to continue granting Israel impunity for its atrocity crimes against Palestinians or they can act now to stop it. States that continue to transfer arms to Israel need to know they face the risk of complicity in genocide if they continue to do so."
'Western states must act'
Several Palestinian advocacy groups have characterised Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide, while a case is also ongoing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The ICJ in May issued a preliminary ruling that it was plausible that Israel had breached the Genocide Convention.
As an emergency measure, it ordered Israel to ensure that its army refrained from genocidal acts against Palestinians and halt its offensive on the south Gaza city of Rafah.
Israel has not abided by ICJ orders, however, branding the world's top court antisemitic.
A spokesperson for the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said it welcomed Amnesty's conclusions and hoped they would be taken seriously.
"Western states must act on this evidence, and the evidence put forward by innumerate other NGOs and UN bodies," the ICJP's Jonathan Purcell told MEE.
"Continued inaction by any state simply shows a flagrant disregard for the Genocide Convention."
However, Israel's western allies have repeatedly pushed back on the accusation, saying that the country is fundamentally defending itself.
US President Joe Biden has said that Israel's actions in Gaza do not constitute genocide, as have British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
MEE asked the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) if the new report by the London-based rights group would change the government's position - in response the ministry said the UK‘s long-standing policy was that any judgement as to whether genocide has occurred is a matter for a competent national or international court.
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