Human rights activists in Israel believe that the actions of the Jewish state authorities in relation to the Gaza Strip have the characteristics of genocide. This assessment is given in reports by two Israeli human rights organizations - B'Tselem and "Physicians for Human Rights".
According to B'Tselem, since October 2023, when military operations began in the enclave after the attack on Israel by radicals from the Hamas movement, “mass killings“, “creating uninhabitable conditions“, “causing serious physical and mental harm“ have been recorded in Gaza of the entire local population, as well as “large-scale forced displacement of people“.
“Analysis of Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific consequences, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the objectives of the attack, lead to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate actions to destroy the Palestinian community in the Gaza Strip. In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip“, B'Tselem argued.
In their statement, the human rights activists defined the term “genocide“ as “a socio-historical and political phenomenon involving actions committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group“.
“Genocide cannot be justified from a moral or legal point of view, under any circumstances, including as an act of self-defense“, B'Tselem is confident.“
“Physicians for Human Rights“ for its part, draws attention to the total destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza during the fighting, the mass deaths of medical workers and severe hunger. In its statement, the organization blames Israel and qualifies what is happening as genocide, without specifying what it means by this term.
“This is not a temporary crisis. This is a strategy to destroy the conditions necessary for life. Even if Israel were to halt its offensive today, the devastation guarantees that deaths from starvation, infection, and chronic disease will continue for years to come. This is not collateral damage. This is not a side effect of war. This is the systematic creation of impossible living conditions. This is the denial of the possibility of survival. This is genocide,” says Physicians for Human Rights.
Israeli authorities have yet to comment on these statements. As noted by the Times of Israel, B'Tselem, and Physicians for Human Rights, are the first prominent Israeli human rights organizations to make such assessments.
Previously, the Israeli government and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly categorically rejected any accusations of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and have also denied the problem of mass starvation in the enclave and emphasized that the Israeli army provides access to humanitarian aid. They insist that Israel is waging a defensive war in Gaza solely to free Israeli hostages held there and destroy the military-political structure of Hamas, which they consider an existential threat to the Jewish state.