ISRAEL “committed and is committing genocide” in Gaza, a major new report from Amnesty International has concluded.
The 296-page document, which the leading human rights charity has published today, concludes that Israel has “forcibly displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants” using methods which have exposed them to a “calculated death”.
The report – “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza – concluded that:
- There is “sufficient evidence” that Israel has genocidal intent – which is necessary for war crimes to qualify as genocide under international law.
- That Israel has targeted civilians as a pattern, without legitimate military objectives nearby. Such “indiscriminate attacks … are all likely to amount to war crimes”, the report states.
- The destruction of 63% of Gaza’s buildings – according to data from the UN Satellite Centre – included key cultural and religious sites with the goal of erasing Palestinian identity.
- Israel’s destruction of infrastructure, denial of aid, and mass displacement were designed to compound harm against Palestinian people.
- That “Israel not only foresaw but intended to inflict conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza calculated to bring about their destruction”.
- That children in Gaza have been disproportionately impacted, with over 13,000 killed and thousands more suffering life-changing injuries.
- That there has been a “long cycle of impunity for crimes under international law in Israel and the OPT [Occupied Palestinian territories]”.
- That Israel has not complied with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion of June 2024, which concluded its occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory is unlawful, and has instead “entrenched its military presence in Gaza”.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said the “damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community”.
She singled out the UK – along with the US and Germany – as one of the states which “must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end”, including by stopping all arms exports to the country.
Israel claimed in response that Amnesty International was a “deplorable and fanatical organisation” that had produced a “fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies”.
The UK Government did not respond when asked for comment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have both previously claimed that what is happening in Gaza does not constitute genocide.
Callamard said: “Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.
“These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.
“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.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence secretary Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Eaelier in 2024, after a case was brought against Israel by South Africa, the ICJ found that there was a real risk of Palestinians’ right to protection from genocide being violated.
Callamard called for states including the UK to “demonstrate their respect” for the courts.
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International’s chief executive in the UK, said: “As a state party to the Genocide Convention, the UK has a legal obligation to use all reasonable means to help prevent genocide.
“The UK must take urgent steps to make clear to Israel that this country does not support genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, and those acts must end immediately.
“The UK Government must, as an urgent first step, work with other countries by all diplomatic and legal means to press Israel into fully implementing the provisional measures ordered by the [ICJ].
“To avoid the risk of itself being complicit in genocide, the UK must immediately end all arms transfers to Israel.”
Responding to the report, Oren Marmorstein, a spokesperson for the Israeli government’s foreign affairs ministry, said: “The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies.
“The genocidal massacre on October 7, 2023, was carried out by the Hamas terrorist organisation against Israeli citizens. Since then, 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.”
