Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: Amnesty International accused Israel on Thursday 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 world

The London-based human rights group said its findings were based on satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans as well as “dehumanising and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials”.

Israel angrily dismissed the findings as “entirely false”, denouncing the report as “fabricated” and “based on lies”.

Amnesty´s Israel branch said it was not involved in the report and “does not accept” the allegation of genocide.

Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard accused Israel of treating the 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,” she said in a statement.

Hamas, which has beaen fighting Israel in Gaza, welcomed the report as a “message to the international community... on the need to act to bring an end to this genocide”.

Independent UN human rights experts have accused Israel of genocide several times, and South Africa brought a case against Israel to the UN´s top court in December 2023 accusing it of “violating the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza”. The case is still ongoing.

But Israeli officials have repeatedly and forcefully denied all such allegations, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

“The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” the Israeli foreign ministry said.