Israel Genocide In Gaza

Amnesty International's research has sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit the starkest of all crimes under international law-genocide-against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said today in a landmark new report.

The report, 'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman': Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how Israel, in the wake of deadly Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 that targeted southern Israel, has created hell and destruction for the Palestinians in Gaza with unmatched brazenness, consistently and with complete impunity.

Amnesty International's report identified that Israel has committed acts prohibited under the Convention of Genocide, with intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, including by killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as if they were a subhuman group, unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them," said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.  "Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.".

States that continue to supply arms to Israel at this time must understand that they themselves are breaching their own obligation not to contribute to genocide and putting themselves in jeopardy of being complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel-most notably major arms suppliers including the USA and Germany, but others too within the EU membership, UK, and others-must act now to bring a halt to Israel's atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza without further delay.

These phenomena have turned particularly sharp over the past two months in North Gaza-starvation, displacement, and annihilation of the besieged population under round-the-clock bombardment, combined with the choking restrictions on the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian relief.

"Our findings are that for months, Israel has continued to act in ways that constitute genocide in full knowledge of the irreparable harm it was causing Palestinians in Gaza. It did so notwithstanding the multitude of warnings about the disaster humanitarian situation and in direct defiance of legally binding decisions of the ICJ to take immediate action toward enabling the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza," said Agnès Callamard.

"Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military objective to eradicate Hamas. Yet, genocidal intent can coexist alongside military objectives and does not need to be Israel's sole intent."

Amnesty International examined Israel's acts in Gaza closely and in their entirety, in light of their repetition and simultaneity, and of their immediate and aggregate and intersecting effects.

In that connection, the organization assessed casualties and damage over time along with their extent and severity and considered public statements made by the officials and found many prohibitions of acts had in fact been announced or advocated at first by high-ranking government leaders in charge of the war effort.". "We considered the already existing context of dispossession, apartheid, and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel's intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas," said Agnès Callamard. The atrocity crimes, when committed by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities on 7 October 2023, including deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking, can never justify Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

International jurisprudence has defined that for a genocide to take place, it is not necessary for the perpetrator to actually be successful in attempts to destroy, wholly or in part, the protected group; the mere commission of the prohibited acts with intent to destroy the group, as such, is sufficient.

The Amnesty International report identifies Israel's violations in Gaza over nine months, between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024. In compiling the report, the organization interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, health workers, and conducted fieldwork, analyzing an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery.

It also analyzed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials, and official Israeli bodies.

The organization brought these findings before the Israeli authorities on several occasions, and at the date of this publication had not received any substantive response.