An investigation by human rights organisation Amnesty International has concluded that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The report titled ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, prepared after investigating Israel's actions in Gaza over a period of nine months from October 2023 to late July 2024, throws light on various serious violations of international law by Israel, which when considered broadly hint at its "genocidal intent."
“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza," said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
"These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction," she said.
Callamard stated that as Israel's genocide progressed in Gaza, it has continuously treated Palestinians as a "subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.”
Citing the findings of the report, Callamard mentioned that Israel has "persisted in committing genocidal acts," fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza.
"It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” she noted.
"Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now," Callamard stressed.
She pointed out that countries like US, which continue to supply arms to Israel are "risking" being complicit in the genocide.
"States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end,” she said.
The 296-page report, released on Thursday noted that Israel cannot justify or legalise its genocide in Gaza using its military goal to eradicate Hamas. It noted that genocidal intent can "co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be the sole intent."
It further added that Hamas attack on Israel and hostage-taking "can never justify" its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas,” said Agnes Callamard.
The Amnesty International report adds to a March report by the UN special rapporteur for Palestine that concluded “there are reasonable grounds to believe” Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians.
Important findings
1. Unprecedented scale and magnitude
The report noted that Israel's genocidal attacks on Gaza have "caused unprecedented destruction, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites," thereby making "large swaths of Gaza uninhabitable."
Throwing light on Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid and essential services into Gaza, the report noted that it created a "deadly mixture of malnutrition, hunger and diseases, and exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death."
The report also mentioned the illegal detentions and torture of Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Amnesty International observed that when viewed in isolation Israel's actions in Gaza amount to serious violations of international laws and human rights laws but when the "cumulative impact" of its policies and acts are considered "genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion."
2. Intent to destroy
The report noted that the genocidal intent of Israel can be observed in the statements made by its government and military officials and others between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 which "dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them."
"Of these, Amnesty International identified 22 statements made by senior officials in charge of managing the offensive that appeared to call for, or justify, genocidal acts, providing direct evidence of genocidal intent," the report noted adding that it has found evidence which show the language being replicated by Israeli soldiers on ground.
The report further stated that Israel's justifications for the overwhelming number of civilian casualties and the denial of humanitarian aid to Gaza by accusing Hamas of using civilians as "human shields" and diverting aid are not credible.
"The presence of Hamas fighters near or within a densely populated area does not absolve Israel from its obligations to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks," the report said.
3. Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm
The report investigated 15 Israeli airstrikes on Gaza's civilian populated areas which killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children. It found no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.
Acknowledging that the case study represents just a fraction of "Israel’s aerial attacks," Amnesty International noted that "they are indicative of a broader pattern of repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects or deliberately indiscriminate attacks."
"The attacks were also conducted in ways designed to cause a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population," the report said.
4. Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction
Amnesty International observed that Israel has, since the beginning of its war on Gaza, made life difficult for Palestinians by attacking hospitals, preventing the supply of humanitarian aid and life-saving essentials and the mass “evacuation” orders that forcibly displaced almost all of Gaza's population.
"In the nine months reviewed for this report, Israel maintained a suffocating, unlawful blockade, tightly controlled access to energy sources, failed to facilitate meaningful humanitarian access within Gaza, and obstructed the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid, particularly to areas north of Wadi Gaza," the report said.
The report noted that these conditions, along with the widespread attacks on hospitals, homes, agricultural land, water and sanitation facilities caused "catastrophic levels of hunger and led to the spread of diseases at alarming rates."
It observed that the impact of this was "especially harsh" on young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, with "anticipated long-term consequences for their health."
The report further said that despite having the chance to improve these conditions, Israel "deliberately" refused to take steps that would have protected the civilian population in Gaza.
"They refused to allow those displaced to return to their homes in northern Gaza or relocate temporarily to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory or Israel, continuing to deny many Palestinians their right to return under international law to areas they were displaced from in 1948. They did so knowing that there was nowhere safe for Palestinians in Gaza to flee to," the report said.
The report slammed the international community's failure to stop the genocide and stated that it will remain a "stain on our collective conscience.'
“Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law. States need to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies," the report stressed calling on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to "urgently consider adding genocide to the list of crimes it is investigating and for all states to use every legal avenue to bring perpetrators to justice."
