‘The conclusion that Israel is committing genocide is unequivocal’ — Amnesty International

In the lead-up to the 76th anniversary of the 1948 Genocide Convention on Monday, 9 December, Israel has been accused by Amnesty International of having committed and of continuing to commit genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip. 

A new report by the human rights group has found “sufficient evidence” that Israel’s conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide. 

“The conclusion that Israel is committing genocide is unequivocal, evidence-based, the finding of intensive investigation by Amnesty International into Israel’s conduct since 7 October 2023, and in-depth legal analysis of courts’ decision on genocide. We do not come to that conclusion lightly, politically or preferentially,” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, said at a press conference on Wednesday. 

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“It is clear that Israel has committed three of the five acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention: killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. But the existence of those acts alone is not sufficient to meet the Genocide Convention threshold. We have further determined, crucially, that Israel committed those actions with the clear intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” she said. 

Callamard addressed reporters from the home of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN), and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.  

Amnesty International’s 296-page report is an encyclopaedia of evidence illustrating the “deliberately calculated” actions by Israel to commit genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip, according to Callamard. The report focuses on violations perpetrated by Israel in Gaza over nine months, between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024. 

“Ever since 7 October 2023, on which Hamas committed horrific crimes against Israeli civilians and others… the Palestinians of Gaza have been held in a nightmare day after day… Palestinians have been bombed, starved, repeatedly displaced. Israel’s actions have wiped out entire multigenerational families, they have destroyed Palestinian homes and livelihood, wrecked a dreadful havoc on their infrastructure and on their ties to the land,” she said. 

The Israeli military, Callamard said, has destroyed entire cities, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and denied survivors essential aid, leading to widespread suffering and deprivation. 

To date, Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed at least 44,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 100,000 since 7 October 2023, according to the Gazan Health Ministry. At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel during Hamas’ attack that same day, and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. 

Israeli authorities were not only fully aware that its conduct would lead to the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza – they intended exactly that outcome. They actively sought to secure exactly that result. That is genocide, and that is genocidal intent.

In response to questions from reporters, Callamard said the human rights group had communicated the findings contained in its report on a number of occasions to the Israeli authorities, but had received no response. 

“We have communicated with the Israeli authorities since the very first investigation that we carried out – we have received no response. We have written to them extensively with every single finding for the last 14 months, including the latest, of course, on genocide,” she said. 

Three genocidal acts

To determine whether Israel had carried out killings and serious bodily and mental harm against Palestinians, prohibited under the Genocide Convention, Amnesty focused on investigations it had conducted into 15 air strikes that took place in Gaza between October 2023 and April 2024, according to Kristine Beckerle, researcher and adviser on Middle East and north Africa socioeconomic rights abuses.   

“Every single one of these attacks hit civilian objects, including homes. In all but one case, Israel gave no warning before carrying out the attack and in the last case, although Israel did give a warning, it was not effective. In none of these attacks did Amnesty, despite really looking, find evidence there was any military objective in or near the locations struck,” Beckerle said. 

Beckerle added that the strikes analysed by Amnesty were only a “tiny fraction” of the air strikes which have rained on Gaza since 7 October. 

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“Viewed in isolation maybe, maybe you could argue that some of these attacks were reckless or negligent, but when you look at it together; when you view them cumulatively over the course of nine months, the fact that Israel repeated such deadly attacks on homes and other buildings in densely populated areas… indicates deliberateness,” she said.   

The third genocidal act prohibited under the convention is actions that make life impossible to sustain. 

“To determine whether Israel inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians, we assessed Israel’s role in three patterns of events in Gaza. First, massive damage and destruction of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. Second, repeated mass forced displacement of the vast majority of Gaza’s population under inhumane conditions. And third, the obstruction and denial of the delivery of essential services and lifesaving supplies into and within Gaza,” Beckerle explained. 

The report had concluded that Israel had “ample options to fulfil its responsibility as occupying power” to protect the needs of Palestinians in Gaza. 

“It repeatedly failed to do so. The Israeli authorities knew the impact their actions and omissions were having on civilians in Gaza, yet they continued their course despite repeated warnings – pleas, really – by the UN and humanitarian organisations as well as the legally binding orders issued by the ICJ,” she said. 

An example of this is the Israeli authorities’ decision to go ahead with its ground offensive in the city of Rafah. The ICJ, on 24 May, ordered Israel to immediately halt its military incursion in Rafah, after South Africa had requested the court to order Israel to withdraw from and cease its operations in the city. 

The UN had noted that about 1.5 million Palestinians were sheltering in Rafah – making it one of the most densely populated areas on Earth – when Israel’s military began its ground incursion in the city on 7 May. 

“Rafah was key because of decisions the Israeli authorities took in the aftermath of October 2023, most notably decisions that ensured the aid response would centre around Rafah and ensured that the majority of Gaza’s population would seek shelter there. Knowing this, the Israeli authorities attacked Rafah anyway. The ICJ ordered Israel to stop. Israel continued,” Beckerle said.  

“The only possible conclusion is that Israel intended the resulting devastation. As such, we conclude that Israel perpetrated the act of deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part, as prohibited by the Genocide Convention.”

Genocidal intent

According to the report, having found that Israel committed acts that are prohibited under the Genocide Convention against Palestinians in Gaza, Amnesty analysed the overall pattern of Israel’s actions in Gaza to determine whether it revealed genocidal intent to destroy Palestinians in the enclave.

“For over a year, Israel has convinced many of its allies that its effort to annihilate Gaza is a legitimate conduct lawfully targeting Hamas fighters located among Palestinian civilians. 

“Yes, in this armed conflict, Israel has its military objectives. But let me be clear, military objectives can co-exist with genocidal intent. And the military objective of the destruction of Hamas does not justify, excuse in any way, or make permissible the genocide of the Palestinians of Gaza,” Callamard said. 

Amnesty International analysed more than 100 statements by Israeli officials and found the repeated use of dehumanising language and calls for genocidal acts, according to Callamard.  

“When all of this, we then considered against the background of dispossession and apartheid, in the context of inhumane blockades and unlawful military occupation, only one reasonable conclusion could be drawn: Israel authorities intended, and intend to commit genocide in Gaza, as a means of achieving its military goal, including defeating Hamas. 

“Israeli authorities were not only fully aware that its conduct would lead to the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza – they intended exactly that outcome. They actively sought to secure exactly that result. That is genocide, and that is genocidal intent,” she said.  

‘Pursuit of justice cannot be selective’

In The Hague on Wednesday, Callamard denounced world leaders for failing to act to prevent genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip since October 2023.

“What are states doing to end the genocide in Gaza? What have they done over the past 14 months to comply with their obligation under international law to prevent genocide?” she asked. 

“The short answer is not just far too little, but rather, far too much to make it far too worse.”  

“Some governments, in the first place the United States, but also Germany, the UK and other European countries, have transferred or sold weapons to Israel; have provided training and other military and security assistance. It cannot be more plain: states that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit in the crime of genocide committed by Israel,” Callamard told reporters.

Amnesty International was calling on nations to take “strong, sustained and coordinated action” to end the genocide, “no matter how uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be”. 

What are states doing to end the genocide in Gaza? What have they done over the past 14 months to comply with their obligation under international law to prevent genocide? The short answer is not just far too little, but rather, far too much to make it far too worse.

The ongoing case filed before the ICJ by South Africa, which has accused Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention, Callamard called “an important step towards justice”. 

Israel has consistently rejected the accusation of genocide in its war in Gaza, and has previously maintained it was doing it everything it could to protect the civilian population. 

Defending its case before the ICJ in January, Israel said South Africa empties the world “genocide” of its unique force and meaning. It asked the court to throw out South Africa’s case.

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In response to questions from reporters, Callamard said she hoped the ICJ judges would consider the evidence contained in Amnesty’s report. 

“We certainly hope that the judges of the ICJ will consider the evidence that we have provided; that they will read with the attention and respect that the report deserves – all the evidence that we have provided. And that it will indeed provide them with what they need to reach the conclusion that they need to reach – that this is genocide,” she said. 

Callamard also described the recent ICC arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri as a “historic breakthrough”. 

However, she said the responses of some leaders, including US senators and French President Emmanuel Macron, are “undermining” the post-World War 2 rules-based system by threatening the ICC and suggesting immunity for Netanyahu. 

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“In other words, the very architects of the post-World War 2 rules-based system are actively disregarding that system, undermining its institution, working against the delivery of justice and the securing of peace. The same countries that vigorously support the ICC in its prosecution of President [Vladimir] Putin for the abduction of Ukrainian children, take a very different – even hostile – posture when warrants target their allies.

“The inconsistencies of such political self-serving, only demonstrate a fundamental truth – pursuit of justice cannot be selective if the credibility and authority of international institutions is to be preserved,” said Callamard.

Amnesty International urged “all ICC member states and non-state parties, including the US and other allies of Israel”, to demonstrate their respect to the court and international law, by arresting and handing over those wanted. 

Israel’s response

In a post on X on Thursday morning, the Israeli government rejected Amnesty International’s report accusing it of genocide.

“The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

It said since Hamas’ attack on 7 October 2023, Israeli citizens have been “subjected to daily attacks from seven different fronts”.

“Israel is defending itself against these attacks acting fully in accordance with international law,” it added. DM

This article was updated at 12.45pm on Thursday, 5 December, to include the response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry.