* Israel has clear intent to destroy Palestinians, says human rights group
Israel is “committing genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war last year, Amnesty International said in a new report on Thursday.
The London-based rights organization said its findings were based on “dehumanising and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials,” satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans.
“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” she added.
The genocide began after the Hamas incursion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which caused 1,208 deaths, according to official data.
Israel in response has since killed at least 44,532 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
“There is absolutely no doubt that Israel has military objectives. But the existence of military objectives does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent,” Callamard told AFP at a press conference in The Hague.
She said the organization had based its findings on the criteria set out in the U.N. Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.
Israel has repeatedly and forcefully denied allegations of genocide, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
But Amnesty’s 300-page report points to “direct deliberate attacks on civilian and civilian infrastructures where there was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives, the use of heavy explosive weapons with a wide radius of destruction in densely populated residential areas,” the blocking of aid deliveries, and the displacement of 90% of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
‘Erasure’
Since Oct. 7, Israel imposed a “total siege” on Gaza, with the slogan: “No electricity, no water, no gas.” Limited supplies have been allowed in since then.
Palestinians have been subjected to “malnutrition, hunger and diseases” and exposed to a “slow, calculated death,” Amnesty said.
The rights group, which is also due to publish a report on the Hamas incursion, cited 15 airstrikes in Gaza between Oct. 7, 2023 and April 20, which killed 334 civilians, including 141 children, for which the group found “no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.”
The Amnesty report also referenced dozens of calls by Israeli officials and soldiers for the annihilation, destruction, burning or “erasure” of Gaza.
Such statements highlighted “not only systemic impunity but also the creation of an environment that emboldens … such behaviour.”
“Governments must stop pretending that they are powerless to terminate Israel’s occupation, to end apartheid and to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Callamard.
“States that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit,” she added.
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