Israeli rights groups accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza

Two leading Israeli rights organisations have said Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza constitutes genocide against the Palestinian population.

B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel released separate reports on Monday based on studies of the past 21 months of conflict.

The organisations, which have been active in Israel for decades, said in a joint statement that “in these dark times it is especially important to call things by their name”, while “calling on this crime to stop immediately”.

An Israeli government spokesman said it strongly rejected the accusations of genocide, which are the first to be made by human rights groups based in Israel.

“Our defence forces target terrorists and never civilians. Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza,” David Mencer said.

At a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday, B’Tselem’s executive director Yuli Novak said her organisation’s report was “one that we never imagined we would have to write”.

The 88-page document states: “An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads us to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking co-ordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.”

In its 65-page report, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said its health-focused legal analysis found that Israel had targeted Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure “in a manner that is both calculated and systematic”.

“The evidence shows a deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems – through targeted attacks on hospitals, obstruction of medical aid and evacuations, and the killing and detention of healthcare personnel,” the report said.

Dr Guy Shalev, executive director of PHRI, said: “Silence in the face of genocide is not an option. We want to stress: confronting genocide is not only the responsibility of legal and political institutions. Confronting it demands urgent action from the global health community.”

The organisations found the “horrific and criminal Hamas attack” on Israel on 7 October 2023 was a triggering event that caused fear and collective trauma among Israelis.

However, in its response to the attack, they alleged, Israel’s government had pursued a campaign based on the “promotion of extremist ideologies and the dehumanisation of Palestinians in Gaza”.

They said this was a reference to language used from political and military leaders to soldiers fighting on the ground, which labelled all Palestinians in Gaza as being responsible.

PHRI concluded that the acts it identified were “not incidental to war but part of a deliberate policy targeting Palestinians as a group”, and in a manner that fulfilled at least three acts defined in Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Israel is a signatory.

A number of international rights organisations, UN human rights experts, and scholars have accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is also examining a case brought by South Africa alleging that Israeli forces are committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has vehemently denied the allegation and has called the case “wholly unfounded” and based on “biased and false claims”.

Dr Shalev told the BBC that PHRI and B’Tselem were concerned that the organisations and their staff might be subjected to verbal or physical violence in Israel in response to their reports.

“But we are hoping that people will listen to what we are saying,” he added.

Yuli Novak of B’Tselem said the process at arriving at the conclusion that Israel was conducting a genocide had been fraught.

“To really understand that your country, your collective, is actually committing genocide, that is a very hard mental and personal process,” she said.

“It breaks something very basic in your understanding about who we are.”

Israel launched its war in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, which killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 others being taken hostage.

Israeli attacks have since killed more than 59,900 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The ministry’s figures are quoted by the UN and others as the most reliable source of statistics available on casualties.