Despite the ongoing ceasefire talks in Doha (Qatar), the suffering of the people of Gaza shows no sign of ending. Faced with the systematic destruction of the enclave and daily slaughter – the death toll is approaching 50,000 according to Hamas figures – many international organisations are now using the symbolically charged term ‘genocide’ to describe Israel’s acts of war.
In a statement accompanying its latest report (1), Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that ‘Israeli authorities have deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the population in Gaza by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths. In doing so, [they] are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide.’ HRW calls on governments and other international organisations to ‘take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, including discontinuing military assistance, reviewing bilateral agreements and diplomatic relations, and supporting the International Criminal Court and other accountability efforts.’
A few days earlier, Amnesty International levelled the same accusation, backed by a report over 300 pages long (2). Based on a nine-month investigation (testimony from Gazans, interviews with healthcare leaders, examination of video footage), the document concludes that Israel’s actions show a specific intent to destroy Gaza. According to Amnesty, its military operation in the enclave has included three out of five acts prohibited under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention: ‘killing’, ‘causing serious bodily or mental harm’ and ‘inflicting … conditions of life calculated to bring about … physical destruction’. Amnesty also notes that Israel has ignored the legally binding rulings issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in late January 2024: after South Africa filed a suit against it, the court ordered Israel to implement a series of measures to prevent genocide (3).
To date, at least five international authorities have used the terms ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’, including the International Federation for Human Rights; the UN special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese; and the UN Special Committee on Israeli Practices. We should add to these Médecins Sans Frontières, which talks of ethnic cleansing and states, in a report titled ‘Gaza: Life in a death trap’, that its members have ‘witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities, and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel’s campaign to unravel the very fabric of society in Gaza’ (4).
Tel Aviv has rejected all these accusations, calling them lies and slander, but former Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon let the cat out of the bag: ‘The path we are being dragged down is one of occupation, annexation and ethnic cleansing,’ he told private broadcaster DemocratTV on 30 November.