What is happening to Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip is genocide.
This is the finding of Amnesty International’s landmark new report, and it is clear — it is not a looming genocide or a perceived genocide, but rather a very clear finding that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide.
The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.
The definition of genocide is provided for in Article II of the Genocide Convention, and lists five prohibited acts that constitute genocide when committed with intent to destory wholly or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Amnesty International’s report focuses on three of the five acts namely: killing members of the group, causing them serious mental and bodily harm and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
This finding was not made lightly and is a culmination of thorough research documenting Israel’s pattern of conduct in Gaza. This was done through both field and remote research, hundreds of interviews, and analysis of an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery, video footage and photos. We also reviewed a huge range of statements, datasets and reports by Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, UN agencies and humanitarian organisations operating in Gaza, and analysed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials and official Israeli bodies.
Amnesty International considered a wide range of evidence to assess whether Israel committed acts prohibited by the Genocide Convention “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part”, the Palestinians, as such.
As per the jurisprudence, evidence for Israel’s genocidal intent, was inferred from direct, contextual and circumstantial evidence, such as statements from authorities in charge of the military campaign, the existence of patterns, the scale and systematic nature of the prohibited acts, and the scale, nature, extent and degree of casualties and harms against the protected groups.
Our research reveals that, for months, 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.
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.
Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas.
Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, Amnesty International could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza.
The crimes committed on 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking, are atrocious, but it can never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Israel’s brutal military offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, including over 13,300 children, and injured over 97,000 more, by 7 October 2024, many of them in direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families. It has caused unprecedented destruction, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, leveling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites. It has rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.
In light of our findings, we are calling on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court 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. No one should be allowed to commit genocide and remain unpunished. We are also calling for the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in crimes under international law.
Another call is for civilian hostages to be released unconditionally and for Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups responsible for the crimes committed on 7 October to be held to account.
Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community.
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.
The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and 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.
This opinion piece first appeared on News24 on 5 December 2024.
