THE HAGUE (AFP) – Amnesty International on Thursday said Israel is 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.
At least 44,532 people have been killed by Israel’s relentless campaign 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 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
