Amnesty Accuses Israel of Committing Genocide in Gaza

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes Amnesty International as "hateful" and "biased," denying the report's validity.

6th December 2024

3 minutes read

Amnesty Accuses Israel of Committing Genocide in Gaza

In a report published on Thursday, Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, a charge angrily denied by Israel.

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The London-based human rights organization stated that this conclusion was reached after months of analyzing events and Israeli officials’ statements. Amnesty argued that the legal threshold for the crime of genocide had been met, marking a first in an ongoing armed conflict.

The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted after the Holocaust, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”

Israel consistently denies accusations of genocide, claiming adherence to international law and asserting its right to self-defense following Hamas‘ October 7, 2023, cross-border attack from Gaza, which triggered the war.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote on X: “Amnesty International, a hateful and biased organization, has once again issued a fabricated and utterly false report based on lies.”

Amnesty’s Israel branch distanced itself from the organization’s findings, stating that it played no role in the research and does not believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

However, it described the levels of death and destruction in Gaza as “horrific” and called for an investigation into potential crimes against humanity.

Israel launched its air and ground campaign in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli statistics.

Marmorstein said: “The genocidal massacre of October 7, 2023, was carried out by the Hamas terrorist organization against Israeli citizens.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that the Israeli military campaign has killed over 44,500 Palestinians and injured many others.

Palestinian officials and UN representatives say there are no safe areas left in Gaza, a densely populated coastal enclave, where most of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced, some up to ten times.

The Amnesty report comes two weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, charges they deny.

At the report’s presentation in The Hague, Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard stated that the conclusion was not made “lightly, politically, or selectively.”

“A genocide is occurring. There is no doubt about it after six months of thorough and focused research,” she told journalists.

Amnesty concluded that Israel and its military had committed at least three of the five acts prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention: killing, causing serious physical or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a protected group.

The organization said it reviewed over 100 statements by Israeli officials.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of embedding fighters within civilian areas as a shield, which Hamas denies, accusing Israel of indiscriminate attacks.

Callamard emphasized that Amnesty did not set out to prove genocide, but after reviewing the evidence, the only conclusion was that “Israel is committing and has committed genocide.”

She added: “The claim that Israel’s war in Gaza solely aims to eradicate Hamas and not physically destroy Palestinians as a national and ethnic group does not withstand scrutiny.”

Amnesty urged ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate allegations of genocide.

Khan’s office stated that investigations into alleged crimes in Palestinian territories are ongoing and declined to comment further.