The human rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, in a report published on Thursday. It's the first time the organization has leveled such an accusation during an active conflict.
Israel strongly rejected Amnesty's claim, labeling its investigation "fabricated."
Genocide claims
Amnesty's report says that since the Hamas deadly cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, Israel "has carried out relentless aerial and ground attacks, many of them with large explosive weapons, which have caused massive damage and flattened entire neighborhoods and cities across Gaza, along with their life-supporting infrastructure, agricultural land, and cultural and religious sites and symbols deeply engrained in Palestinians' collective memory."
"Israel's military offensive has killed and seriously injured tens of thousands of Palestinians, including thousands of children, many of them in direct or indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families," the report said, adding that 90% of Gaza's 2.2 million inhabitants have been forcibly displaced.
"[Israel] has deliberately obstructed or denied the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid," according to the report, which concludes that "there is sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza following the 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide."
Gaza casualties
More than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in 14 months of fighting in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The figure does not differentiate between militants and civilians, but Hamas says the number of dead includes more than 13,000 children.
"These crimes were and continue to be deliberate actions, deliberately calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza. They have also been perpetrated with total impunity. The conclusion that Israel is committing genocide is unequivocal, evidence based," Amnesty International's Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said Wednesday in a news conference in the Netherlands.
FILE - A Palestinian woman holds the body of a child as she sits by bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp, at the Indonesian hospital, northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 18, 2023.
Israel's response
Israel strongly denies committing genocide. Israel's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the Amnesty report "is entirely false and based on lies."
The Israeli military blames the high casualty rate in Gaza on Hamas, accusing its fighters of hiding in schools and hospitals and using civilians as human shields. It also disputes the casualty figures, accusing Hamas of deliberately inflating the numbers.
The claims are difficult to verify as Israel has not allowed foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip since its offensive began last year.
Israel also accuses Hamas of carrying out a genocidal massacre in its cross-border attacks on October 7 last year, which killed more than 1,200 people. More than 240 people were taken hostage, with over 100 still in Gaza. Israel believes around half of them are still alive.
The Israeli government has consistently maintained that it is acting in self-defense and within international law against Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by most Western countries.
"We will never waver in our determination to defend our people, protect our future, and bring all of our hostages back home," said Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, ahead of an emergency U.N. session on Gaza on Wednesday.
'Dehumanizing language'
Amnesty International also cited the language used by some Israeli officials.
"Senior Israeli military and government officials intensified their calls for the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, using racist and dehumanizing language that equated Palestinian civilians with the enemy to be destroyed," the report said.
"In a widely publicized statement made at a press conference on 12 October 2023, President Isaac Herzog held all Palestinians in Gaza responsible for Hamas's attacks: 'It's an entire nation out there that is responsible. It's not true, this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,'" according to the Amnesty report.
That language was reflected on the battlefield, said Callamard.
"We found statements calling for genocidal acts and other crimes under international law," she told reporters. "We verified videos of soldiers replicating those narratives, calling for the erasure of Gaza or to make it uninhabitable."
Evidence 'daunting'
The United Nations' special rapporteur to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, said in March there are "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel is committing genocide.
The International Court of Justice is also investigating accusations of genocide by Israel in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.
Amnesty's report adds another layer of evidence, said Andreas Krieg, a Middle East analyst at Kings College London.
"The evidence that we have is daunting in terms of atrocities being committed, war crimes being committed, there's overwhelming evidence for ethnic cleansing, there is evidence for crimes against humanity," Krieg told VOA.
"But to say that … this is a genocide, I'm not sure whether the NGO is able to actually establish that case," Krieg added. "Genocide is a contested concept that has to be established based on a tribunal. The term is being used quite loosely, in this case by an NGO."
Krieg also questioned whether the report is likely to have an immediate and palpable impact on the war in Gaza.
"There are two centers of gravity for this war in Israel, for the Israelis," said Krieg. "One is the support of the U.S. government. The other is domestic public opinion and the pressure on the government. I think this report will have no impact on either of these centers of gravity. It won't shape decision-making in the United States — certainly not of the [incoming] Trump administration."
Callamard of Amnesty said Wednesday that Israel's allies, including the United States, could be complicit in the alleged genocide and urged them to stop supplying weapons.
