Amnesty International accuses Israel of committing 'genocide' in Gaza

Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of its offensive against Hamas in October 2023, claims an Amnesty International report released Thursday, an allegation vehemently denied by Israel.

“Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity,” Amnesty said.

In what the London-based human rights organization describes as a “landmark report,” it claims to have “sufficient evidence” to conclude that Israel’s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 amounts to genocide.

The 296-page report, “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza,” details the group's evidence, including satellite imagery, it gathered over the course of nine months, between October and July 2024. During this same period, Amnesty also conducted fieldwork in Gaza and interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and witnesses of airstrikes, displacement and other forms of violence, local authorities and healthcare workers. 

Amnesty accuses Israel of “genocidal intent” to “destroy, in whole or in part” the Palestinian people, which it determined is part of a protected group under the 1948 Genocide Convention, officially the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The report states, “Having established that Israel committed acts that are prohibited under the Genocide Convention against Palestinians in Gaza, part of a protected group, between Oct. 7, 2023, and early July 2024, Amnesty International analysed the overall pattern of Israel’s conduct in Gaza to determine whether it revealed genocidal intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in “direct or indiscriminate attacks” by Israel throughout its offensive in Gaza, according to the report, “often wiping out entire multigenerational families.”

The international rights group also accuses Israel of forcibly displacing 90% of the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, forcing them “to live in conditions that exposed them to a slow and calculated death,” and of deliberately obstructing access to humanitarian aid.

According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, more than 44,532 Palestinians have been killed and over 105,538 others injured since Israel began its air and ground campaign in the enclave in response to Hamas’ cross-border attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

UN agencies estimate that 1.7 million to 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza — nine out of 10 people — are currently internally displaced due to Israeli attacks, which remain ongoing.

Israel says its campaign in Gaza is aimed at eliminating Hamas and releasing the hostages taken during the group's assault in Israel, when its militants killed nearly 1,200 people and kidnapped more than over 240 others.

Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard said in a press release on Thursday that the crimes Hamas committed during its October attack cannot justify “Israel’s genocide” against 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,” she warned.

Amnesty’s report must be a “wake-up call” to the international community, Callamard added, calling on countries that supply Israel with arms — including the Germany, United Kingdom and the United States — “to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.”

“This is genocide. It must stop now,” Callamard said.

Israel’s reaction

The Israeli branch of Amnesty International has strongly rejected the claim of genocide being committed in Gaza, stressing that it did not take part in the investigation.

In a press release on Thursday, Amnesty Israel said that “although the scale of the killing and destruction committed by Israel in Gaza … reaches horrific proportions, and must be stopped immediately,” it does not believe that the findings in the report “meet the definition of genocide as strictly laid out” in the Genocide Convention.

Amnesty Israel further said that despite rejecting the genocide claim, it does, however, suspect that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute widespread violations of international law and “may even amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.”

The Israeli military rejected the Amnesty report outright, calling it “entirely baseless.”

In a statement cited by Israeli media, the Israel Defense Forces said that the army is operating in Gaza to dismantle Hamas while complying with its obligations under international law and taking the necessary measures to mitigate harm to civilians.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also joined the chorus in Israel rejecting the report.

“The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Palestinian officials, including from Hamas, have not yet reacted to the Amnesty report.

Know more

Israel has been much criticized for alleged indiscriminate shelling and targeting of civilians, hospitals, places of worship and shelters since launching its military offensive in Gaza.

In January, based on a South African request, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a ruling ordering Israel to take all possible measures to prevent genocide in Gaza.

South Africa had filed a case with the court arguing that Israel’s military operation in Gaza amounted to a state-led genocide. Israel refuted the accusation as “grossly distorted” and a “blood libel.”

More recently, on Nov. 21, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed from Oct. 8, 2023, to May 20 in Gaza. The Israeli premier quickly dismissed the ICC’s move, calling it an “antisemitic decision.”