Palestinians assess the destruction following an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 5, 2024. – Reuters
Amnesty International has accused Israel of 'committing genocide' against Palestinians in Gaza since the commencement of the war last year, describing its latest report as a 'wake-up call' for the international community. The London-based rights organization stated that its findings are based on 'dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials,' satellite imagery documenting the devastation, fieldwork, and ground reports from 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,' said Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard in a statement. 'Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,' she added.
The Palestinian group Hamas initiated an unprecedented attack within southern Israel on October 7, 2023, prompting a lethal Israeli military offensive on Gaza as Israeli officials vowed to dismantle the militant group. According to an AFP tally based on official data, a total of 1,208 people in southern Israel, predominantly civilians, were killed during the Hamas attack.
Since then, at least 44,532 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN deems reliable. 'There is absolutely no doubt that Israel has military objectives. But the existence of military objectives does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent,' Callamard told AFP at a press conference in The Hague.
She noted that the organization had based its findings on the criteria outlined in the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide. Israel has vehemently denied allegations of genocide, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields. However, Amnesty's 300-page report highlights 'direct deliberate attacks on civilian and civilian infrastructures where there was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives, the use of heavy explosive weapons with a wide radius of destruction in densely populated residential areas,' the obstruction of aid deliveries, and the displacement of 90 percent of Gaza's 2.4 million people.
In the days following the October 7 attack, Israel imposed a 'total siege' on Gaza, with the slogan: 'No electricity, no water, no gas.' Limited supplies have been permitted in since then. Palestinians have endured 'malnutrition, hunger, and diseases' and have been exposed to a 'slow, calculated death,' according to Amnesty.
The rights group, which is also set to publish a report on the crimes committed by Hamas, cited 15 air strikes in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and April 20, which killed 334 civilians, including 141 children, for which the group found 'no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.' The Amnesty report also references numerous calls by Israeli officials and soldiers for the annihilation, destruction, burning, or 'erasure' of Gaza.
Such statements underscore 'not only systemic impunity but also the creation of an environment that emboldens...such behavior.' 'Governments must stop pretending that they are powerless to terminate Israel's occupation, to end apartheid, and to stop the genocide in Gaza,' said Callamard. 'States that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit,' she added.
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