Gaza Genocide

Israel has been accused by experts, governments, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people during its invasion and bombing of the Gaza Strip as part of the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. By July 2024, after nine months of attacks, Israeli military action had resulted in nearly 40,000 confirmed Palestinian deaths — 1 out of every 59 people in Gaza — averaging 148 deaths per day. Most of the victims are civilians, including over 25,000 women and children and 103 journalists.

Thousands more dead bodies are under the rubble of destroyed buildings. By June 2024, over 500 healthcare workers in Gaza had been killed. As of May 2024, only 12 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are functional; 84% of health centers in the region have been destroyed or suffered damage. An enforced Israeli blockade has heavily contributed to starvation and the threat of famine in the Gaza Strip, while Israeli forces prevented humanitarian supplies from reaching the Palestinian population, blocking or attacking humanitarian convoys. Early in the conflict, Israel also cut off water and electricity supply from the Gaza Strip. Israel has also destroyed numerous culturally significant buildings, including 13 libraries housing thousands of books, all of Gaza's 12 universities and 80% of its schools, dozens of mosques, three churches, and two museums.

Various observers, including United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, have cited statements by senior Israeli officials that may indicate an "intent to destroy" ( in whole or in part) Gaza's population, a necessary condition for the legal threshold of genocide to be met. A majority of mostly US-based Middle East scholars believe Israel's actions in Gaza are intended to make it uninhabitable for Palestinians, and 75% of them say Israel's actions in Gaza constitute either "major war crimes akin to genocide" or "genocide".

The government of South Africa has instituted proceedings, '' South Africa v. Israel'', against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging a violation of the Genocide Convention. In an initial ruling, the ICJ held that South Africa was entitled to bring its case against Israel, while Palestinians were recognised to have "a plausible right to be protected from genocide" ("The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide, and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court."); Order, ''S. Afr.'', No. 192 (ICJ 26 January 2024), ¶ 54 ("In the Court's view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible. This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel's compliance with the latter's obligations under the Convention."). that faced a real risk of irreparable damage. The court ordered Israel to observe its obligations under the Genocide Convention by taking all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts of genocide, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza. The Israeli government rejected the court's orders and accused the court of being antisemitic.

Background

On 7 October 2023, Hamas led an attack into Israel from Gaza, resulting in at least 1,139 deaths, most of whom were civilians. Israel responded with a highly destructive bombing campaign followed by an invasion of the Gaza Strip on 27 October. Although a few scholars were arguing that there was genocide against Palestinians before the 7 October attacks, it is the Israeli military campaign in Gaza that has been characterized as genocidal by South Africa and other supporters of the genocide argument.

Legal definition of genocide

The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". The acts in question include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Genocide is a crime of special intent (); it is carried out deliberately, with victims targeted based on real or perceived membership in a protected group. Three genocides in history have been recognised under the 1948 legal definition: the Cambodian genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the Srebrenica massacre.

Other definitions of genocide

Raphael Lemkin's original definition of genocide was broader than that later adopted by the United Nations; he focused on genocide as the "destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups", including actions that led to the "disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups". Scholarly definitions vary, but there are three common themes: "the violence or other action taken should be deliberate, organized, sustained, and large-scale", atrocities are selective for a distinguishable group, and "the perpetrator takes steps to prevent the group from surviving or reproducing in a given territory". The colloquial understanding of genocide is heavily influenced by the Holocaust as its archetype and is conceived as innocent victims targeted for their ethnic identity rather than for any political reason. Genocide is often considered the apex of criminality, worse than other atrocities that lead to an equal amount of civilian death and destruction.

Victims

Direct victims

A Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor report released on 18 November 2023, which calls Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide, reported that 15,271 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed, 32,310 injured, and an estimated 41,500 were unaccounted for. Multiple news and academic outlets have reported updated figures, with at least 20,000 Palestinians having been killed in Gaza by December 2023, an estimated 70% of whom were women and children. By 14 January 2024, 100 days since the beginning of Israel's assault on Gaza, over 23,900 people had been confirmed killed. By 10 May, deaths had topped 35,000, a third of them unidentified bodies, with over 10,000 additional bodies estimated to be buried under the rubble. Within the first three weeks, the Israeli assault killed more children in Gaza than were killed worldwide across all conflict zones in any year since 2019. Over 52,000 people had been wounded by December 2023, and by May 2024 this had risen to over 77,700 people.

The proportion of women and children among the dead has been controversial. As of 7 May 2024, total deaths quoted by the UN were 34,735, of which 24,686 were fully identified. Among the fully identified, 52% were women and children, 8% "elderly" of unspecified gender, and 40% men.

As the conflict has gone on, data collection has become increasingly difficult for the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) due to the destruction of infrastructure. The ministry has had to supplement its usual reporting based on hospital dead with other sources of information, including reports by the media and first responders as well as bereaved families and widows, who must formally register their husbands' deaths to qualify for government assistance. Professor of economics Michael Spagat analysed the ministry's reports and found an urgent need for a transparent methodology to reconcile its top-line death numbers – 34,535 as of 30 April – with its detailed breakdowns summing to 24,653 on the same date. The ministry's figures for the total number killed have also been contested by Israeli authorities, but have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and the WHO.

Indirect victims

Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee, and Salim Yusuf published in the correspondence section of The Lancet an estimate of the number of deaths that may be indirectly caused in the coming months and years by the conflict. Indirect Palestinian deaths from disease are expected to be much higher due to the intensity of the conflict, destruction of health care infrastructure, lack of food, water, shelter, and safe places for civilians to flee, and reduction in UNRWA funding. Using other conflicts as a reference point, they estimated that the total number of conflict-related deaths in Gaza would likely be three to 15 times higher than the reported death toll. By multiplying the reported deaths by five, they argued that according to a conservative estimate "186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza".: "Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population's inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip. In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375,259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip." Spagat wrote that their estimate "lacks a solid foundation and is implausible". Even so, Spagat allowed it was "fair to call attention to the fact that not all of the deaths are going to be direct violent ones" and has called the death toll in Gaza "staggeringly high".

Since the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war, nearly two million people have been displaced within the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip evacuations have been criticized as a key component of the genocide by South Africa and others.

Minimum number of victims necessary to establish genocide

Neither the Genocide Convention nor ICJ jurisprudence requires a minimum number of victims to establish genocide, but rather that genocide is established when qualified acts are committed against either a "reasonably significant number" or "a significant section of the group, such as its leadership". In the Gambia v Myanmar Rohingya genocide case, France and the United Kingdom (among others) affirmed that the "number of victims killed" is not a "focus" of the assessment, given that "circumstances may be such that the perpetrator cannot, or decides not to, avail itself of the fastest or most direct means" of destruction.

Alleged genocidal intent and genocidal rhetoric

According to a May 2024 report by the University Network for Human Rights, "actions taken by Israel's government and military in and regarding Gaza following the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, constitute breaches of the international law prohibitions on the commission of genocide." Human rights lawyer Susan Akram, commenting on the report and on the resistance to labelling Israel's actions as genocide, said, "The opposition is political, as there is consensus amongst the international human rights legal community, many other legal and political experts, including many Holocaust scholars, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza".

As part of the case Defense for Children International-Palestine et al v. Biden et al, Holocaust historian Barry Trachtenberg testified that there is a consensus among genocide historians that the situation in Gaza is a genocide, mainly because Israeli officials' statements make this clear. He said: "We are watching the genocide unfold as we speak. We are in this incredibly unique position where we can intervene to stop it, using the mechanisms of international law that are available to us."

In an open letter published on 15 October on ''Opinio Juris'' and the website of the ''Third World Approaches to International Law Review'', scholars wrote that Israeli officials' statements since 7 October indicate intent to commit genocide. The NGO ''Law for Palestine'' compiled more than 500 statements by Israeli political and military officials that allegedly call for genocide. On 11 June 2024, the official Israeli X (formerly Twitter) account tweeted that "Gazan civilians participated in the horrific events of October 7", later citing a statement in a clip stating that "there are no innocent civilians there."

On 7 October, Netanyahu said the people of Gaza would pay a "huge price" and Israel would turn parts of Gaza "into rubble". In discussing genocidal actions and intent since 7 October, genocide scholar Mark Levene noted the increasing rhetoric of genocide and ethnic cleansing under the preceding Netanyahu governments. This was supported by Tia Goldenberg in AP News, who highlighted statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as increasingly genocidal rhetoric under Netanyahu's government. Israeli historian Raz Segal and legal scholar Luigi Daniele also pointed to increasing genocidal rhetoric before October 2023, highlighting a May 2023 '' Times of Israel'' article that said that the only way to achieve peace is to "obliterate" Palestine and that Palestine's existence is "an affront to society, morality, humanity". The article further calls for reeducation of Palestinians and declares that they can enjoy rights only if they no longer exist as a nation. Segal and Daniele draw parallels between that article's rhetoric and scholarship that points to Russian media outlets' equivalent rhetoric in the Russian invasion of Ukraine as genocidal. Segal and Daniele also point to previous comments by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, former Knesset member Ayelet Shaked, and Smotrich, who in February 2023 called for the destruction of Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Genocide scholar Shmuel Lederman detailed how these comments by Smotrich, alongside others denying Palestinian nationhood and calling for their destruction or removal from territory claimed by Israel, was in the forefront of political discussions by Hamas leadership in Gaza before the events of October 2023. News outlets at the time of Smotrich's comments also highlighted their genocidal nature.

''Anatomy of a Genocide'', a report presented to the UNHRC on 26 March 2024 by Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, concluded that Israel was committing acts of genocide. Israel rejected the report.

In the ICJ's Rohingya genocide case, several states (including the UK and Germany) supported a looser standard of evidence for supporting genocidal intent than the ICJ has used in the past—which is often the most difficult part of proving genocide in a court of law. The states contended that the ICJ should "adopt a balanced approach that recognizes the special gravity of the crime of genocide, without rendering the threshold for inferring genocidal intent so difficult to meet so as to make findings of genocide near-impossible."

Israeli cabinet ministers

According to scholars Mark Levene and Abdelwahab El-Affendi, since 7 October 2023, a variety of official and semi-official sources and outlets have engaged in rhetoric suggestive of genocidal intent. Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard told '' The New Arab'' that the 7 October attacks, the Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis, and Hamas's war crimes "generated rage that transformed what has been the rhetoric of marginalised groups into a flood of statements now made by politicians, journalists and celebrities,... provid nga tailwind" for others to find such speech acceptable. He added, "We have become accustomed to genocidal rhetoric that comes from Hamas. The Hamas covenant has obvious severe antisemitic articles, and also some that could be interpreted as expressing desire to eliminate the Jews in Israel.... In the past, it was seen inside Israel as something that was beyond the borders of legitimacy to talk that way about Palestinians.... But October 7th broke that red line."

On 9 October 2023, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said,

We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed. We are fighting against human animals and will act accordingly.

The statement was characterized as an example of dehumanisation. According to Kenneth Roth, while some excuse this remark as referring only to Hamas, the context makes clear that "human animals" refers to everyone in Gaza. The remarks have also been connected to the Gaza famine. On 10 October, Gallant said: "Gaza won't return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate everything."

Israeli Minister of Agriculture Avi Dichter called for the war to be "Gaza's Nakba" on Channel 12. Ariel Kallner, another member of the Knesset from the Likud party, wrote on social media that there is "one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 948 Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join". Israeli Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu called for dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza. Dov Waxman, director of UCLA's Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, said that some of the rhetoric right-wing ministers used can be perceived as "potentially genocidal" in its dehumanisation of Palestinian civilians. He added that these statements can only have limited impact on Israeli policy as they were made by ministers "not in the war cabinet", but the suggestions were nevertheless concerning.

Israeli energy minister Israel Katz said: "All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world."

On 29 April 2024, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, "There are no half-jobs... Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – total destruction. 'Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.' There is no place for them under heaven". The Israeli newspaper Haaretz described his comments as a call to genocide. In August, Smotrich said that "it might be justified and moral" to "starve 2 million people", lamenting that the world won't allow it.

In June 2024, a case involving a rabbi in Jaffa of inciting students at his hesder to kill all inhabitants in Gaza, including children and the mothers who breed them, was shelved by the police investigating the complaint.

Israeli president and members of Israeli parliament

President of Israel Isaac Herzog blamed the "entire nation" of Palestine for the 7 October attack. He added: "It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians being not aware, not involved. It is absolutely not true."

Yitzhak Kroizer, who represents the extreme-right Otzma Yehudit party in the Knesset, said in a radio interview that the "Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death." Tally Gotliv of the Likud party called for the use of nuclear weapons against Gaza.

Invocations of Amalek

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated invocation of Amalek during the war has been considered evidence of genocidal intent by many critics, including South Africa. In a speech on 28 October 2023, Netanyahu said (in Hebrew) "You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible", quoting from Deuteronomy 25:17 in the Hebrew Bible. The phrase "Remember what Amalek did to you" is used in Holocaust memorials, including Yad Vashem and the Hague Jewish Monument. Netanyahu made another allusion to the verse in a letter to IDF soldiers and officers.

Critics have connected Netanyahu's allusion to Amalek with 1 Samuel 15:3: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Noah Lanard of ''Mother Jones'' called verses discussing Amalek among the Bible's most violent and wrote that they have a long history of being used by Jews on the far-right, such as Baruch Goldstein, to justify killing Palestinians. Amalek was "the foe that God ordered the ancient Israelites to genocide", and scholars have called the verse an instance of 'divinely mandated genocide'.

Other Israeli officials

Major General Ghassan Alian, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, said: "There will be no electricity and no water n Gaza there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell".

IDF Major General Giora Eiland wrote, "Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist" and "Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieving the goal." Israeli historian and holocaust scholar Omer Bartov noted that no Israeli politician nor anyone in the IDF denounced this statement.

Of Israel's bombing of Gaza, the Israeli army spokesperson said, "while balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we're focused on what causes maximum damage". Legal scholars interpreted this as intention to destroy Gaza.

Far-right politician and former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin said: "There is one and only solution, which is to completely destroy Gaza before invading it. I mean destruction like what happened in Dresden and Hiroshima, without nuclear weapons". Minister of Economy Nir Barkat later said, "I don't remember Britain or the United States, at the tail end of the Second World War bombing Dresden, thinking about the residents." Academics, non-Israeli politicians, and news organisations have also invoked the bombing of Dresden in justifying Israel's bombing of Gaza.

Legal scholar Nimer Sultany highlights statements by various Israeli army commanders leading ground operations in northern Gaza that call for depopulation and a "scorched earth" approach. Soldiers have echoed such sentiments on social media. Historian Yoav Di-Capua also points to the increasing number of officers and soldiers who are part of Hardal, which Di-Capua identifies as following a genocidal ideology.

Other evidence of genocidal intent

Maryam Jamshidi, a professor at University of Colorado Law School, cites Israel's stated goal to "destroy Hamas including both the extermination of its political and administrative leadership and the annihilation of its civilian police force and military wing", and its actual targeting of the "intellectual, cultural, and religious leadership of Gaza". Citing previous arguments made relating to the Bosnian genocide, she writes that genocidal intent can be proven "through evidence that the protected group’s civilian leadership, as well as its military and law enforcement, have been targeted for elimination" when this renders the rest of the group more vulnerable to various illegal abuses such as forced migration. Targeting civilian organizations controlled by Hamas is illegal under international law.

Elsewhere, Jamshidi argues that "the long-standing pattern of Israeli conduct towards Palestinians generally and in Gaza"—such as the blockade of Gaza, and destruction of civilian infrastructure during previous wars— high number of civilian deaths during the war, "mass forced displacement and ethnic cleansing" under the guise of humanitarian safe zones, "IDF practices that undercut Israel's claim that its 'war' is only against Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups rather than against Palestinian civilians", the abundance of atrocities recorded by smartphones and published by media, and UN expert reports supporting a finding of genocide increase the likelihood that the ICJ will rule in South Africa's favor.

Alleged genocidal actions

Since 7 October 2023, the IDF has been accused of indiscriminate mass arrest and detainment; extrajudicial killing of unarmed Palestinian detainees, doctors, and workers; making threats of mutilation, death, arson, and rape; and torturing Palestinians detained without legal charges. It has also been accused of using excessive force against dozens of schools and hospitals; theft; the cruel and unnecessary desecration and mutilation of deceased Palestinians; and making no, or an inadequate, distinction between Hamas forces and civilians. The targeting and destruction of a variety of cultural and educational sites have also been pointed to as genocidal actions. The use of unconventional weapons such as white phosphorus has been highlighted as a genocidal act. During the fighting, Channel 14 kept a count of every Palestinian killed, labelling all Palestinian casualties as terrorists, while , a Channel 14 journalist and anchor, publicly advocated that Israel commit more war crimes.

In November 2023, Raz Segal detailed three actions the IDF was engaging in that were genocidal in nature: acts of killing, infliction of severe bodily harm, and implementation of measures strategically designed to destroy Palestinian existence. As evidence, he accuses the IDF of engaging in total warfare by destroying mass swathes of Gaza and imposing a strict blockade of essential goods.

On 26 February 2024, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both released statements declaring Israel had failed to comply with the International Court of Justice's 26 January ruling to prevent genocide by blocking aid from entry into Gaza. Both statements reference the 16-year long blockade of Gaza, which has intensified since 9 October. A report by Refugees International found that Israel had "consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza". Historian Melanie Tanielian argues that starvation, famine, and blockade should be foregrounded as methods of genocide alongside mass bombing. She references A. Dirk Moses's appeal not to ignore less spectacular forms of violence in the destruction of populations, and highlights multiple other genocides where famine and starvation were used as methods of destruction. In an April report, B'Tselem called the unfolding famine "the product of a deliberate and conscious Israeli policy".

In October 2023, the World Food Program warned of Gaza's dwindling food supply, and in December, alongside the United Nations, reported that more than half of Gaza's population was "starving", more than nine in ten were not eating every day, and 48% were suffering "extreme hunger". Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who is part of the Palestinian Authority, said Israel was using starvation as a weapon: "they are starving because of Israel's deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against the people it occupied". An Israeli official called the charge "blood-libellous" and "delusional". In December 2023, Human Rights Watch similarly found that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war by deliberately denying access to food and water. On 16 January 2024, U.N. experts accused Israel of "destroying Gaza's food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people".

The law professor and United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, said that Israel is "culpable" of genocide because "Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian" and because Israel was denying food to Palestinians by halting humanitarian aid and "intentionally" destroying "small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza ��We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts. Israel is not just targeting civilians, it is trying to damn the future of the Palestinian people by harming their children." Since the ICJ ruling, the number of aid trucks Israel allows into Gaza has dropped by 40%. In the ICJ's March reaffirmation of provisional measures, the court highlighted the "unprecedented levels of food insecurity experienced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over recent weeks, as well as the increasing risks of epidemics", acknowledging that since the Court's January order there had been a "lack of Israeli compliance" resulting in "the catastrophic living conditions" deteriorating further.

A poll conducted in the second week of January by researchers at Tel Aviv University found that 51% of the 502 Jewish Israeli responders believed that the IDF was using an appropriate amount of force in Gaza and 43% believed that it was not using enough force. In an Israel Democracy Institute survey of 510 Israeli citizens in early February, 68% of respondents supported preventing all international aid from entering Gaza.

In an interview with Sveriges Television, the Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy, who has reported on Israel's settlement policy for the newspaper Haaretz for 35 years, said of his work as a correspondent in Palestine: "I'm whistling in the dark in Israel. No one wants to listen or read. But I cannot change. Unlike other Israelis, I see with my own eyes what we do because I have been covering the occupation for almost 35 years now" and "All Swedish TV viewers, even in the northernmost village in Sweden, have seen more from Gaza than an Israeli in Tel Aviv. It's just about the soldiers, their bravery, the hostages, and their families, the soldiers who have fallen. Nothing about the Palestinians' suffering; it doesn't exist. And if you dare to show empathy for those who are suffering in Gaza, you're considered a traitor."

Mark Levene and Elyse Semerdjian locate the mass destruction of infrastructure within Israel's Dahiya doctrine that has been implemented against Gaza since 2006, with Levene calling it urbicide and a tool of genocide.

In articles published in November in the Lancet, and February 2024 in the journal BMJ Global Health, multiple doctors detailed how, in their professional opinions, the targeting of Gazan health infrastructure and medical personnel coupled with various Israeli politicians' openly genocidal rhetoric amounts to genocide. Legal scholars have also supported this assessment. Gaza's healthcare system faced several humanitarian crises as a result of Israel's assault: hospitals faced a lack of fuel and began shutting down by 23 October as they ran out of fuel. When hospitals lost power completely, multiple premature babies in NICUs died. Israeli airstrikes have killed numerous medical staffers, and ambulances, health institutions, medical headquarters, and hospitals have been destroyed. has reported that scores of ambulances and medical facilities were damaged or destroyed, including the deaths of staff. In late October, the Gaza Health Ministry said the healthcare system had "totally collapsed".

On 11 March 2024, 12 Israeli human rights organisations signed an open letter accusing Israel of failing to abide by the ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid.

UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese prepared a report for the U.N. stating that there are "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza, and advocated a global arms embargo on that basis. She said the genocidal actions included "killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to groups' members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part", and highlighted that 70% of those killed were women and children, and that Israel has failed to show the 30% who are adult men were Hamas fighters.

In late March it was reported that Israel had designated unmarked "kill zones" in Gaza, where any civilians would be shot on sight.

In April, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng said, "The destruction of healthcare facilities continues to catapult to proportions yet to be fully quantified". Mofokeng said Israel had not responded to the concerns she had raised about the situation, and that she had not been able to visit the Palestinian territory or Israel. But she said it was obvious that Israel was "killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments", adding, "They are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine, prolonged malnutrition and dehydration" and accusing Israel of "genocide". The current situation in Gaza, Mofokeng said, "is completely incompatible with the right to health".

In June 2024, an investigation by the Associated Press found that to a "degree never seen before", Israel's campaign in Gaza was killing entire bloodlines of Palestinian families.

Academic and legal discourse

As of mid-2024, there is an emerging consensus among legal scholars that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Holocaust and genocide studies

The opinions many scholars of Holocaust and genocide studies (HGS) expressed in late 2023 were discordant with others in the field as well as experts in other academic fields: they did not condemn Israeli violence despite the far larger loss of Palestinian life in the war.

On 13 October, Raz Segal called the intensified blockade of Gaza, which included the denial of water and food to the civilian population, a "textbook case of genocide" and connected it to the Nakba, the expulsion of Palestinians during the establishment of Israel in 1948. Other academics also called Israel's attacks on infrastructure, food, and water genocidal. On 19 October 2023, 100 civil society organisations and six genocide scholars sent Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan a letter calling on him to issue arrest warrants to Israeli officials for cases already before the prosecutor; to investigate new crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, including incitement to genocide, since 7 October; to issue a preventative statement against war crimes; and to remind all states of their obligations under international law. The letter said that Israeli officials' statements had shown "clear intent to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and incitement to commit genocide, using dehumanizing language to describe Palestinians." The genocide scholars who signed the document were Raz Segal, Barry Trachtenberg, Robert McNeil, Damien Short, Taner Akçam, and Victoria Sanford. Segal called the war a "textbook case of genocide".

In a 3 November 2023 interview on ''MSNBC,'' Holocaust and genocide scholar Omer Bartov said, "the possibility of genocide is staring us in the face", and on 10 November 2023 he wrote: "My greatest concern watching the Israel-Gaza war unfold is that there is genocidal intent, which can easily tip into genocidal action." In a response to Bartov's article, a group of five Holocaust scholars, while acknowledging Israeli officials' "despicable statements that cannot be ignored", said that only a few officials made such statements and justified them by pointing to Hamas's crimes. The five scholars argued that the dehumanising language was "not evidence of genocidal intent". Bartov later said that since May 2024 it was "no longer possible to deny that Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions", while noting that very few people in Israel (apart from Palestinians) were willing to entertain this view.

Victoria Sanford, a professor at City University of New York, compared the events in Gaza to the 1960–1996 killing and disappearance of 200,000 Mayans in Guatemala, known as the Guatemalan genocide. Sanford and the Holocaust and genocide scholars Barry Trachtenberg and John Cox detailed the similarities between statements Israeli government officials and ministers made and those made during the genocides in Guatemala, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, northern Iraq, and Myanmar.

Shmuel Lederman has called Israel's actions genocidal violence, but does not use the term "genocide", critiquing the simplification of intent in the term. He locates the situation in Gaza within a long and ongoing history of oppression, including mass surveillance, collective punishment, restrictions on travel and work, and settler-colonialism. He cites sociologist Eva Illouz's discussions of Gaza and human rights attorney Rabea Eghbariah's determination that Israel is conducting a genocide to highlight that even specialists using the same frame of analysis (the U.N. genocide convention) can disagree. Lederman has been criticised for not citing specialist genocide scholars' analysis of whether there is disagreement about whether Israel is conducting a genocide.

The accusation that Israel is committing genocide has been accused of being antisemitic. The anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin highlights three rhetorical formations that seem to repeatedly occur: presenting 7 October 2023 as the beginning of events, ignoring any history before that; hyperbolic claims, such as calling the events of 7 October "a new Holocaust"; and distortion, where actions taken in Gaza are disputed and the statement that Israel has "the most moral army in the world" is frequently repeated.

Genocide scholar Mark Levene applied A. Dirk Moses's analysis that "absolute securitization lends itself to collective targeting of human groups, more precisely civilians, regardless of issues of ethnos or genos". In January 2024, Levene detailed how Israel's actions are ethnic cleansing at the very least, in line with the Israeli intelligence ministry's policy paper for a forcible and permanent transfer of all Gazans, supported by Netanyahu's government. Levene also argues that Israel's actions and its politicians' and officials' statements show that it is engaging in genocide.

Middle Eastern studies

In March 2024, the Middle East Studies Association released a statement condemning the "accelerating scale of genocidal violence being inflicted on the Palestinian population of Gaza" while also saying that Israel's conduct constitutes cultural genocide.

The sociologist and genocide scholar Uğur Ümit Üngör views the 2023 Israeli assault on Gaza as continuation of a history of "asymmetrical power relations, and annihilatory attitudes towards civilians". He calls Israeli actions "unmistakably counter-genocidal in terms of the quantity, quality, and dynamic of mass violence". Norman Finkelstein has argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's description of the Palestinians as "Amalek" was a call for genocide; he accused Israel of engaging in "genocidal war".

British-Israeli historian Ilan Pappé said, "What we see now are massacres which are part of the genocidal impulse, namely to kill people in order to downsize the number of people living in Gaza". Jewish Holocaust historian Amos Goldberg said that Israel's actions in Gaza exhibit all the elements of genocide, citing explicit intent from high-ranking officials, widespread incitement, and a pervasive dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society. He also said, "Yes, it is genocide" of Israel's actions in Gaza. Historian Yoav Di-Capua charts a history of increasing genocidal ideology among Hardal, identifying Smotrich and Ben-Gvir as politicians who seek the adoption of this ideology as national policy and are using the Israel–Hamas war to implement their plan.

A Brookings 23 May to 6 June 2024 survey asked 758 Middle East scholars/experts who study the issue, most in the United States, "How would you define Israel's current military actions in Gaza?" The responses were: "major war crimes akin to genocide", 41%; "genocide", 34%; "major war crimes but not akin to genocide", 16%; "unjustified actions but not major war crimes", 4%; "justified actions under the right to self-defense", 4%; "I don't know", 2%.

International law scholars

Jurist William Schabas, one of the world's preeminent experts on international criminal law, wrote in January 2024: "To me it is increasingly clear that Israel is not aiming to defeat Hamas, but rather to uproot or erase the population of Gaza." In June 2024, Schabas said that of all recent genocide cases at the International Court of Justice, the case brought by South Africa was the strongest, citing the destruction of Gazan infrastructure and statements made by politicians in Israel that Gazans are inhuman or "human animals" and that Israel would deny them electricity, water, and medical care.

In a May 2024 interview, former ACLU director and Human Rights Watch co-founder Aryeh Neier detailed how Israel's blocking of aid and the subsequent starvation of the Gazan population is indicative of genocide. Barry Trachtenberg, a professor at Wake Forest University, said, "What Israel has been doing since October 7 is clearly in strong violation of international law – of the Conventions on Genocide, and Geneva Conventions on the pursuit of war." A joint report by the University Network for Human Rights and Boston University School of Law found that "Israel has committed genocidal acts, namely killing, seriously harming, and inflicting conditions of life calculated, and intended to, bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza". In May, the legal scholar Nimer Sultany detailed and supported Forensic Architecture's assessment that Israel had weaponised international humanitarian law into "humanitarian violence".

In December 2023, Luis Moreno Ocampo, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, told Al Jazeera that the siege of Gaza was a form of genocide due to Israel's imposing conditions of life on Gaza that would lead to the deaths of Palestinians. In January 2024, a number of prominent Israelis, represented by human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, sent Israel's attorney general and state prosecutor an open letter detailing examples of "the discourse of annihilation, expulsion and revenge". The signatories alleged that the Israeli judiciary was ignoring incitement to genocide in Gaza.

Others

On 13 November, Jürgen Habermas, a German philosopher and social theorist, and three of his colleagues at Goethe University Frankfurt published a statement in which they said that attributing genocidal intent to Israel's actions in Gaza was a misjudgment. This statement triggered public debate in Germany.

In December 2023, in correspondence published in ''The Lancet'', multiple specialists in international medicine and humanitarian aid reiterated warnings of the risk of genocide, while detailing how Israel's blocking of humanitarian support and aid were leading to unnecessary deaths, and how the death rate would only continue to worsen. They called signatories to the Genocide Convention to enforce a ceasefire on Israel.

Multiple public declarations from various journals and academic organisations have been released warning of a potential genocide and declaring opposition to an ongoing genocide.

Sociologist and genocide scholar Martin Shaw argued that the term "genocide" was underused as states wish "to avoid the responsibilities to 'prevent and punish'" the convention imposes; moreover, he argued, there is "a special aversion to investigating its implications for Israel's conduct. Western states continue to protect it out of a misplaced belief that Jews, having been prime historical victims of genocide, cannot also be its perpetrators." Others, such as the historians Michael Berenbaum and Polly Zavadivker, claim that discussing the Israeli assault on Gaza as a potential genocide is a threat to the future successful prosecution of the crime of genocide and a threat to Holocaust and genocide studies as a field, and that describing the assault as "engaged in ethnic cleansing, war crimes, crimes against humanity or has genocidal intentions" actively inhibits the ability to resolve the conflict.

Statements by political organisations and governments

World leaders and governments

On 17 February, African Union president Moussa Faki said: "Gaza is being completely annihilated and its people are deprived of all their rights. We denounce the Israeli operation, which has no parallel in the history of humanity."

In March 2024, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told the U.S. Secretary of State, "The very survival of the population in Gaza is at stake today".

On 26 March, Pakistan's OIC representative said that Israel's desire for a "final solution to the Palestinian question is plain for all to see, as its forces encircle Rafah like vultures and its ravenous land grab continues unabated". In May 2024, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation called on member states to end "the export of weapons and ammunition used by its army to perpetrate the crime of genocide in Gaza".

Civil servants and elected representatives

On 2 February 2024, it was reported that more than 800 civil servants from the U.S., U.K., and the European Union, including many senior officials, had signed an open letter criticising their governments' "public, diplomatic and military support" of Israel as "given without real conditions or accountability", and warning that their governments' policies on Gaza "are contributing to grave violations of international law, war crimes and even ethnic cleansing or genocide".

On 5 April 2024, Elizabeth Warren became the first senator from the United States, Israel's closest military ally, to publicly say that the assault on Gaza would be legally ruled a genocide. According to her office, Warren was expressing a legal analysis rather than her personal view. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar said that she feared the U.S. government and its citizens were "going to be complicit in genocide". In May 2024, Senator Fatima Payman became the first member of the Australian Labor Party to call Israel's actions a genocide, saying, "This is a genocide and we need to stop pretending otherwise."

NGOs and intergovernmental organisations

After Israel started its military operation against Hamas, both Genocide Watch and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention issued statements warning of the imminent risk of genocide. In December, the Lemkin Institute said that it viewed Israel's continuing actions as genocide.

On 1 November, Defence for Children International (DCI) accused the U.S. of complicity in Israel's "crime of genocide." On 11 March 2024, DCI addressed the famine affecting Gaza: "The starvation of children is a hallmark of genocide and a deliberate political choice by Israel, backed by the Biden administration".

On 2 November 2023, a group of UN special rapporteurs wrote, "We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide." On 4 November, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Pedro Arrojo said that based on article 7 of the Rome Statute, which counts "deprivation of access to food or medicine, among others" as a form of extermination, "even if there is no clear intention, the data show that the war is heading towards genocide". Three Palestinian rights groups, Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, have filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC) urging it to investigate Israel for apartheid and genocide and issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

On 16 November, a group of U.N. experts said there was "evidence of increasing genocidal incitement" against Palestinians. Jewish Voice for Peace said: "The Israeli government has declared a genocidal war on the people of Gaza. As an organization that works for a future where Palestinians and Israelis and all people live in equality and freedom, we call on all people of conscience to stop imminent genocide of Palestinians." On 13 December, FIDH said Israel's actions in Gaza constituted an unfolding genocide.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented evidence of executions committed by the IDF. It submitted the evidence and documentation to the International Criminal Court and the U.N. special rapporteur.

In response to a 3 January 2024 '' Times of Israel'' report that the Israeli government was in talks with the Congolese government to take Palestinian refugees from Gaza, U.N. special rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal said, "Forcible transfer of Gazan population is an act of genocide".

On 9 February, ahead of Israel's announced military assault on Rafah, Amnesty International head Agnes Callamard wrote: "Amnesty is reiterating that Palestinians in Gaza are at grave risk of genocide. The international community has an obligation to act to prevent genocide." On 26 March, Callamard said the international community "must uphold their obligations under the Genocide Convention and take concrete measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza today". In a statement commemorating Land Day, the Arab Parliament wrote that Israel "aims to destroy the identity of an entire people".

In May 2024, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Reem Alsalem said that Palestinian women "are experiencing a full-blown genocide. They are being exterminated. There are few places in the world where we've seen something like this." The UNHCR Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, stated that Israel's destruction of Gaza "constitutes an act of genocide as well because the purpose of that destruction, exceeding 70 to 80 percent across Gaza, is to make the place uninhabitable for the people of Gaza".

Legal proceedings

International Criminal Court

In 2021, the Pretrial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court confirmed that the court had jurisdiction in its investigation in Palestine. On 12 October 2023, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Ahmad Khan, confirmed that war crimes committed by Israeli nationals in Gaza are within the investigation's purview.

On 20 May 2024, Khan applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, saying he had reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza strip from at least 8 October 2023:

* Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime;
* Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health, or cruel treatment as a war crime;
* Wilful killing, or murder as a war crime;
* Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime;
* Extermination and/or murder, including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity;
* Persecution as a crime against humanity;
* Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity.

A panel of ICC judges is considering whether to issue the warrants.

Reporters Without Borders filed several complaints with the International Criminal Court over the more than 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in the first eight months of the war. On 27 May 2024, it filed its third such complaint, noting that another eight Palestinian journalists had been killed in Gaza between 20 December 2023 and 20 May 2024 and that one journalist had been injured. The organisation said it had "reasonable grounds for thinking that some of these journalists were deliberately killed and that the others were the victims of deliberate IDF attacks against civilians."

U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights lawsuit

On 13 November 2023, the Center for Constitutional Rights sued U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The suit alleges that Israel's "mass killings", targeting of civilian infrastructure, and forced expulsions amount to genocide, writing: "As Israel's closest ally and strongest supporter, being its biggest provider of military assistance by a large margin and with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II, the United States has the means available to have a deterrent effect on Israeli officials now pursuing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza". Genocide expert William Schabas supported the lawsuit, saying he believed there was a "serious risk of genocide" and the U.S. was "in breach of its obligation, under both the 1948 Genocide Convention to which it is a party as well as customary international law, to use its position of influence with the government of Israel and to take the best measures within its power to prevent the crime taking place." On 16 November, the scholars Victoria Sanford, Barry Trachtenberg, and John Cox filed a declaration in support of the CCR's lawsuit. During the court case, Trachtenberg testified that the U.S. must act and not repeat its failure to take a stand against the violence against Jews in Nazi Germany leading up to the Holocaust.

A federal judge dismissed the case Defense for Children International-Palestine et al v. Biden et al on 31 January 2024, saying the Constitution prevents his court from determining foreign policy, which is reserved to the political branches of the U.S. government, though he wrote that "as the ICJ has found, it is plausible that Israel's conduct amounts to genocide."; the judge also commented that he would have preferred to have issued the injunction and urged Biden to rethink U.S. policy, writing that the court "implores defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza".

International Court of Justice application

South Africa has instituted proceedings at the International Court of Justice pursuant to the Genocide Convention, to which both Israel and South Africa are signatories, accusing Israel of committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.Application Instituting Proceedings
(PDF), Application of Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide (S. Afr. v. Isr.), No. 192 (ICJ 29 December 2023)
archived
from the original on 5 January 2024. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa compared Israel's actions to apartheid. South Africa's application was brought pursuant to Article IX of the convention. Several human rights organisations, international organisations, and other nations supported South Africa's suit.

In an application filed on 29 December 2023, South Africa alleged that Israel's actions "are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group." South Africa requested that the ICJ issue a legal order on an interim basis (i.e., before hearing the merits of the application) requiring Israel to "immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza." Adjudication of the merits of the case may take years, but such an order could be issued within weeks. In a statement to the ICJ during the proceedings, the South African ambassador to the Netherlands argued that the current assault on Gaza is not an individual event but the escalation of "Israel's 25-year apartheid, 56-year occupation, and 16-year siege imposed on the Gaza Strip."

Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, notes that the ICJ case is not a prosecution of individuals, and does not involve the International Criminal Court, which is a separate body. Jarrah said that the case presents an opportunity to "provide clear, definitive answers on the question of whether Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people."

On 6 March 2024, South Africa asked the ICJ to order additional measures against Israel because Gazans are facing mass starvation.

Israeli response

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy rejected the allegations "with disgust" and accused South Africa of cooperating with Hamas, calling South Africa's claims "blood libel" that abets "the modern heirs of the Nazis". On 2 January 2024, Israel decided to appear before the ICJ in response to South Africa's case, despite a history of ignoring international tribunals. On 13 January, Netanyahu said, "No one will stop us. Not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil, no one." Israeli officials called the court antisemitic. Israel's position is that "while unfortunate, the mass killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians is necessary, unavoidable, and justifiable self-defense."

South Africa's actions found support from some Israeli politicians, including Ofer Cassif.

ICJ ruling

On 26 January 2024, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling finding that the rights asserted in South Africa's filing were "plausible", and issued an order to Israel requiring it to take all measures in its power to prevent acts of genocide, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza. Order, ''S. Afr.'', No. 192 (ICJ 26 January 2024).

Occupation proceedings

In the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem, Qatar said, "Israel's genocidal war on the people of Gaza has shown that the situation in Palestine is the most pressing threat to international peace and security".

German lawsuit

In February 2024, lawyers representing Palestinians in Germany filed a criminal complaint against various senior politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Economic Minister Robert Habeck, and Finance Minister Christian Lindner, for "aiding and abetting" genocide in Gaza.

''Nicaragua v. Germany''

On 1 March 2024, Nicaragua initiated proceedings against Germany at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention concerning Germany's support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war. It sought the indication of provisional measures of protection, including resumption of suspended German funding of the UNRWA and cessation of military supplies to Israel.

Australian legal proceedings

In March 2024, Sydney-based firm Birchgrove Legal referred Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, and others to the ICC as accessories to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, citing the defunding of UNRWA, the provision of military aid, and "unequivocal political support" for Israel's actions during the Israel–Hamas War.

International complicity

Some commentators have accused Western media and governments of supporting genocide against Palestinians, especially those of the United States. Among other journalists and scholars, the Canada-based sociologist M. Muhannad Ayyash has accused the U.S. of complicity in genocide, in this case amid the Israel–Hamas war, in which the U.S. has given Israel significant aid.

In January 2024, former UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said that the U.S. and U.K. are complicit in genocide against Gaza. In March, OXFAM released a statement detailing its intention, alongside several other NGOs, to sue Denmark to prevent arms sales to Israel, warning that by selling arms Denmark is "complicit in violations of international humanitarian law ��and a plausible genocide."

American complicity

On 13 October 2023, journalist Eric Levitz of '' The Intelligencer'' argued that U.S. administrations, including the Biden administration, have given approval to Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in the Israel–Hamas war. On 4 January 2024, the U.S. government acknowledged that it was not formally assessing whether Israel was violating international humanitarian law.

In November 2023, critics of President Joe Biden nicknamed him "Genocide Joe" for his support for Israel. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, described by Israeli media outlet ''Ynet'' as "an exceptionally accomplished Israeli advocate", said: "Israel's trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we're going to start using that word, fine, let's use it appropriately". On 13 November 2023, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) sued Biden for allegedly failing in his duty, defined under national and international laws, to prevent Israel from committing genocide in Gaza in the Israel–Hamas war.

In February 2024, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention said the Biden administration was complicit in genocide in Gaza: "None of the Biden Administration's tactics to deny genocide and avoid accountability will withstand the test of time. President Biden and key administration officials are on a path to be remembered as the principal enablers of one of the worst genocides in the 21st century". Ali Harb wrote, "US weapons have continued to flow to Israel to arm a military carrying out a suspected genocide in Gaza. At the same time, Biden is pushing to secure $14bn in additional aid for the US ally." In February 2024, after the U.S. vetoed a U.N. ceasefire resolution, Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez said, "They are accomplices of this genocide of Israel against Palestine". Karen Wells ''et al.'' also point to the $14.3 billion in their article in the journal ''Children's Geographies'' as evidence of U.S. complicity in Israel's "genocidal war".

Rhetoric from U.S. politicians

In the Florida legislature, Democratic U.S. Representative Angie Nixon sponsored a resolution calling for "de-escalation" and a ceasefire to end the killing of Palestinians. She said: "We are at 10,000 dead Palestinians. How many will be enough?" Republican Representative Michelle Salzman replied, "All of them," Nixon interrupted her speech saying, "One of my colleagues just said 'All of them.' Wow." Some commentators have called Salzman's remark a call for genocide. Nixon and the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for her to be censured or resign. CAIR-Florida Executive Director Imam Abdullah Jaber said in a statement: "This chilling call for genocide by an American lawmaker is the direct result of decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people by advocates of Israeli apartheid and their eager enablers in government and the media." Executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USPCR) Ahmad Abuznaid said, "There is a bipartisan effort to dehumanize the Palestinian people", referring especially to Biden voicing doubt about the accuracy of the Palestinian death count and attacks on Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for her criticism of Israel's military offensive.

Republican U.S. Representative and former Donald Trump aide Max Miller, said that Palestine is "about to get eviscerated... to turn that into a parking lot." He previously called on the Biden administration "to get out of Israel's way and to let Israel do what it needs to do best" and said there should be "no rules of engagement" during Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Miller also questioned the accuracy of the Gaza Health Ministry's claim that 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza, saying that he believes many of those killed have been "Hamas terrorists", not innocent civilians, and that the U.S. does not "trust an entity that puts munitions in mosques, and churches and in hospitals."

In December, former Republican U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann said on ''The Charlie Kirk Show'': "So it's time that Gaza ends. The two million people who live there, they are clever assassins. They need to be removed from that land. That land needs to be turned into a national park. And since they're the voluntary mercenaries for Iran, they need to be dropped on the doorstep of Iran. Let Iran deal with those people." She received a round of applause from the audience. Kirk replied: "I look at Israel and Israel says we never want another person into our country that doesn't share our values. They said they don't want refugees. They don't want any of these people. I want American immigration policy to be like that."

Republican U.S. Representative Brian Mast compared all Palestinians to Nazis in November on the House floor. On January 31, 2024, Mast said that Palestinian babies are not innocent civilians but "terrorists" who should be killed, that more infrastructure in Gaza needs to be destroyed, and "It would be better if you kill all the terrorists and kill everyone who are supporters."

In an interview with Fox News on 5 March 2024, former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that Biden "dumped Israel" due to being overly influenced by pro-Palestinian protests, that "the Democrats are very bad for Israel", that he supports Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza, that Israel has to "finish the problem", and that the Biden administration "got soft", which some commentators viewed as a call to continue and "double down" on genocidal acts. Trump's campaign also said that, if elected, he would bar Gaza residents from entering the U.S. as part of an expanded travel ban.

In a town hall meeting on March 25, 2024, Republican U.S. Representative Tim Walberg said that Palestinian civilians should have nuclear weapons used against them, "like Nagasaki and Hiroshima", to "get it over quick."

Democratic U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib accused Biden of supporting "the genocide of the Palestinian people". Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sponsored a resolution to censure Tlaib. Craig Mokhiber of the UN High Commission for Human Rights resigned, criticising the organisation for its response to the Israel–Hamas war. He later said that Israel's actions against Gaza are a "classic case of textbook genocide".

A group of eight Democratic U.S. senators, led by Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, and Chris Van Hollen, wrote Biden an official letter calling on him to "enforce federal law" by requiring Prime Minister Netanyahu "to stop restricting humanitarian aid access to Gaza or forfeit U.S. military aid to Israel", as "The severe humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is nearly unprecedented in modern history" and "The United States should not provide military assistance to any country that interferes with U.S. humanitarian assistance." They cited the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, which states that "no assistance" shall be provided under that law or the Arms Export Control Act to any country that restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance. "Stopping American humanitarian aid is in violation of the law. That should be clear. No more money to Netanyahu's war machine to kill Palestinian children," Sanders said.

British complicity

On 12 December 2023, Human Rights Watch said that selling weapons to Israel could make the UK complicit in war crimes. UK law says that licences cannot be granted where there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law, for example a complete siege of Gaza or indiscriminate shelling of civilians. The human rights groups Al-Haq and Global Legal Action Network have applied for judicial review of the government's export licences for the sale of British weapons capable of being used in Israel's action in Gaza. Additionally, James Denselow, Head of Conflict and Humanitarian at Save the Children UK, said, "By failing to push for a permanent end to the fighting or speak out against the weaponization of aid, Rishi Sunak and his government are complicit in the horror that is unfolding." In December, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf condemned the UK's abstention from a draft UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying this would lead to the deaths of more children.

In April 2024, Guy Goodwin-Gill said: "There is a serious risk of genocide, as the International Court of Justice has found. If the UK, with that knowledge in mind, carries on exporting arms to Israel, there is a risk that those arms will be used in the conduct of aggressive activities and in the conduct of genocide."

German complicity

In October 2023, political analyst Lena Obermaier argued that Germany is complicit in Israel's war crimes against Gaza. She detailed how most of Germany's most prominent news outlets have "been silent on Israeli genocidal policies in the past" and still are. She also highlighted police suppression of pro-Palestine protests throughout Germany as evidence of state complicity. Karen Wells ''et al.'' highlight how Germany has entrenched its complicity in Israel's actions by criminalising use of the word "genocide" in reference to any Israeli action. In February 2024, a criminal complaint was filed in German courts accusing various senior politicians of complicity in genocide. In March, Nicaragua sued Germany for complicity at the ICJ.

Romanian complicity

On 21 October 2023, the Association of the Palestinian Community of Bucharest organised a pro-Palestinian rally, accusing the Romanian state of complicity in the alleged Gaza genocide.

On January 13, 2024, the Iedera Social Centre, a progressive NGO, organized a protest in Timișoara. The NGO accused Romania of complicity in the alleged genocide committed by Israel in Gaza, arguing that Israel is the most important buyer of military weapons produced in Romania, with contracts worth over 50 million euros in 2022, and that the ammunition and weapons produced in Romania were used in Israel's attack on Gaza. The drone components Israel used were manufactured in Romania. The NGO also specified that taxes paid by Romanians finance the alleged genocide, and that those guilty must be held accountable.

On June 20, 2024, at a sit-in organised at the University of Bucharest by pro-Palestine students, Romania's complicity in the alleged genocide was denounced. The protest was also attended by Greens/EFA Member of the European Parliament Nicu Ștefănuță.

Cultural discourse

Various public figures have called Israel's offensive in Gaza a genocide, including Kid Cudi, Macklemore, and Summer Walker. Melissa Barrera was fired from the ''Scream'' franchise for reposting on social media an article accusing Israel of genocide. ''Time'' mentioned Barrera's firing in the context of a "growing divide" within Hollywood over the war. Raz Segal's "textbook genocide" verdict has been quoted approvingly by climate activist Greta Thunberg and BBC football presenter Gary Lineker.

In December 2023, Olly Alexander, who represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, signed a letter by the LGBT association Voices4London that accuses Israel of genocide against the Palestinians. The Israeli government and the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) condemned his views and asked the BBC not to allow him to perform at the contest. The BBC rejected Israel's request to cut ties with Alexander over his views.

Asked whether what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, Russian-American author Masha Gessen said, "I think there are some fine distinctions between genocide and ethnic cleansing and I think that there are valid arguments for using both terms". When pressed further, they said, "it is at the very least ethnic cleansing". Controversy surrounded Gessen's reception of the Hannah Arendt Prize over remarks in a '' New Yorker'' article critical of Israeli actions in Gaza in which Gessen compared them to Nazis liquidating an Eastern European ghetto.

At the 96th Academy Awards, after accepting the award for Best International Feature Film for ''The Zone of Interest,'' Jonathan Glazer drew parallels between the depiction of the Holocaust in his film and Israel's ongoing bombardment and siege of Gaza. Journalist Naomi Klein expanded on the parallels between Gaza and the film's depiction of the Holocaust, highlighting the normalisation of genocidal action.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai said: "When we see alarming signs of genocide, we cannot wait to take decisive action. We must work together to urge our leaders to stop these war crimes and hold perpetrators to account." Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman stated, "The world is silent in front of the genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza."

Media discourse

The allegations about Israel's actions have drawn criticism from several publications and individuals. Several publications argued that calling Israel's actions "genocide" cheapens the term and undermines its serious nature as defined by the UN Genocide Convention.

South Africa's claims were also criticized for diverting attention from issues such as potential breaches of war laws and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and for ignoring Hamas's actions. Several publications argued that Israel's actions are defensive responses to Hamas, not identity-based attacks on Palestinians, and warn that these claims could weaken global genocide laws.

Various, mainly western, media and news outlets have been accused of complicity in genocide against Gaza through media imperialism. Others have situated the biases of western media outlets within a long history of downplaying and excusing the oppression of Palestinians. In analysis of the language used in coverage of the Israeli assault on Gaza, it was found that the internationally legally recognised term "occupied territories" appeared more often in ''Al Jazeera English'''s coverage than in all U.S. and U.K. news outlets combined, and that emotive language was 11 times more likely to be used in descriptions of Israeli victims than of Palestinian victims. On 14 March 2024, protesters blocked access to the offices of ''The New York Times'', accusing the paper of complicity in genocide. Sultany highlights that, despite a preponderance of Israeli statements that amount to incitement to genocide, mainstream commentary has portrayed the destruction of Gaza as "an incidental outcome of urban warfare rather than the predictable outcome of a policy".

See also

* Allegations of genocide in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel
* Animal stereotypes of Palestinians in Israeli discourse
* Gaza Strip mass graves
* Human rights violations against Palestinians by Israel
* Racism in Israel
* Sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians during the Israel–Hamas war

Footnotes

References

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* Roundtable ''Israel-Palestine: Atrocity Crimes and the Crisis of Holocaust and Genocide Studies'' in ''Journal of Genocide Research'':
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External links

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{{Portalbar, Israel, Palestine, Society, Genocide

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