Israeli’s war in Gaza attained genocidal proportions soon after it began in 2023, marked by comprehensive efforts to destroy or displace the Palestinian population in the embattled territory, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
In addition to its direct military strikes against civilian centers, Israel contributed to the deaths of thousands more by targeting food distribution, sanitation, medical, mental health and humanitarian aid services, the organization said in its report titled, “‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.” The study focuses mostly on the nine-month period after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas sneak attack on Israel that sparked the conflict, but includes some data gathered later last year.
The 296-page report also demonstrates how hate speech and biblical references were used to justify military violence against Palestinians in Gaza.
“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,” Amnesty International says.
“Israel’s military offensive has killed and seriously injured tens of thousands of Palestinians.”
Altogether, Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the standard for genocide as outlined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, a 1948 United Nations treaty prohibiting nations from attempts to inflict bodily and mental harm against whole populations or ethnic or religious groups, the group charges.
Israel has committed “prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Amnesty International noted it is not alone in its assessment of Israel’s conduct.
Cover art for Amnesty International report: “Eye of heaven”, an illustration by Gaza-based Palestinian artist Maisara Baroud depicting Palestinians’ experience of Israel’s genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip. ©️ Maisara Baroud
“On Dec. 29, 2023, South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice over alleged breaches by Israel of its obligations under the Genocide Convention in relation to Palestinians in Gaza. This prompted the court to issue a series of legally binding provisional measures over the following months to guarantee the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide. Yet, Israel failed to implement them.”
International outrage spiked when Israel launched a ground offensive in Rafah in May 2024. The city located on Gaza’s northern border with Egypt originally was designated a safe zone for Palestinians fleeing military operations, the report explains. “Not only did Rafah provide shelter for over 1 million Palestinians after they were displaced following a series of mass ‘evacuation’ orders by the Israeli military, but it also served at that point as the main hub for the humanitarian response.”
The assault “prompted the ICJ to issue new provisional measures ordering Israel to ‘immediately halt its military offensive.’ Israeli officials knew precisely the devastation the ground operation in Rafah would inflict on Palestinian civilians,” the report adds.
Pressure to launch the operation came in part from numerous government officials comparing Rafah’s destruction to the biblical account of divine vengeance against Amalek, one of ancient Israel’s enemies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a similar reference in 2023 to generate support for what was then a new and extremely destructive phase of the war, the report explains. “Netanyahu would have most certainly known that his words would be understood by soldiers, particularly those affiliated with the settler movement and religious nationalist parties led by the two ministers, as calls for the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza.”
The consequences have devastated every aspect of Palestinian life, with all but 10% of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents displaced multiple times into continuously shrinking and shifting areas where squalid conditions expose them to slow and intentional deaths.
“The armed conflict in Gaza has seen some of the highest known death tolls among children … of any recent conflict in the world.”
Palestinian deaths exceeded 42,000 at the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks, and close to 98,000 people have been injured since 2023, Amnesty International says. “The armed conflict in Gaza has seen some of the highest known death tolls among children (13,319 by Oct. 7, 2024), journalists, as well as health and humanitarian workers of any recent conflict in the world.”
Property destruction has been massive, as well, with 62% of all residences in Gaza damaged or destroyed by the end of January 2024. “By July 2024, around 63% of the total structures in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed, according to a UN Satellite Center satellite imagery-based assessment. Amnesty International estimated that there was, on average, one damaged or destroyed building every 17 meters (55 feet) in Gaza by then.”
Many Palestinians survivors, meanwhile, have suffered intense mental and physical anguish from prolonged periods of weakness, hunger and trauma, all of which contribute to the definition of genocide, the report says. “Amnesty International has also concluded that these acts were committed with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, as such, who form a substantial part of the Palestinian population, which constitutes a group protected under the Genocide Convention.”
The report calls on the European Union, the United States and other international actors to convince Israel “to take urgent steps to bring an end to all Israeli conduct in Gaza which may amount to genocide” and to “urgently oppose any attempts by Israel to establish a permanent military presence in Gaza, alter its borders and demographic make-up or shrink its territory, including through any expanded buffer zones or the construction of permanent checkpoints inside Gaza.”
In the meantime, Amnesty International says it is preparing a separate report on the crimes committed by Hamas in the war with Israel.
“Hamas and other armed groups attacked civilian and military targets, carrying out deliberate mass killings, summary killings and other abuses, causing suffering and physical injuries,” the group notes. “They destroyed civilian property by burning houses, making them uninhabitable and causing the internal displacement of civilians. They abducted 223 civilians, Israeli and foreigners, including children, and captured 27 Israeli soldiers. Some of their actions constituted war crimes under international law.”
Related articles:
Netanyahu has turned Israel into an evil empire | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
Netanyahu’s got to go but so do other obstacles to Mideast peace | Opinion by Erich Bridges
Mr. Netanyahu goes to Washington | Analysis by Rodney Kennedy