Amnesty accuses Israel of 'genocide' in Gaza

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israel of "committing genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war last year, saying its new report was a "wake-up call" for the international community.

The London-based rights organisation said its findings were based on "dehumanising and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials", satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans.

"Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them," Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.

"Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now," she added.

The Palestinian group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack inside southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering a deadly Israeli military offensive on Gaza as Israeli officials vowed to crush the militant group.

A total of 1,208 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, were killed during the Hamas attack, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Since then at least 44,532 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

"There is absolutely no doubt that Israel has military objectives. But the existence of military objectives does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent," Callamard told AFP at a press conference in The Hague.

She said the organisation had based its findings on the criteria set out in the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.

Israel has repeatedly and forcefully denied allegations of genocide, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

But Amnesty's 300-page report points to "direct deliberate attacks on civilian and civilian infrastructures where there was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives, the use of heavy explosive weapons with a wide radius of destruction in densely populated residential areas," the blocking of aid deliveries, and the displacement of 90 percent of Gaza's 2.4 million people.

- 'Erasure' -

In the days after the October 7 attack, Israel imposed a "total siege" on Gaza, with the slogan: "No electricity, no water, no gas". Limited supplies have been allowed in since then.

Palestinians have been subjected to "malnutrition, hunger and diseases" and exposed to a "slow, calculated death", Amnesty said.

The rights group, which is also due to publish a report on the crimes committed by Hamas, cited 15 air strikes in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and April 20, which killed 334 civilians, including 141 children, for which the group found "no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective".

The Amnesty report also referenced dozens of calls by Israeli officials and soldiers for the annihilation, destruction, burning or "erasure" of Gaza.

Such statements highlighted "not only systemic impunity but also the creation of an environment that emboldens...such behaviour."

"Governments must stop pretending that they are powerless to terminate Israel's occupation, to end apartheid and to stop the genocide in Gaza," said Callamard.

"States that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit," she added.