Major Israeli rights groups brand Gaza campaign 'genocide'
Both organisations are frequent critics of Israeli government policies, but the language in their reports issued on Monday was their most stark yet.
"Nothing prepares you for the realisation that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us," B'Tselem executive director Yuli Novak told a news conference unveiling the two reports.
"As Israelis and Palestinians who live here and witness the reality every day, we have a duty to speak the truth as clearly as possible," she said.
"Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians."
A spokesman from the Israeli prime minister's office, David Mencer, denounced the allegation.
"We have free speech here in Israel but we strongly reject the accusation," he said.
"Our defence forces target terrorists and never civilians. Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza."
Israel's war in Gaza for the past 21 months began in response to an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct 7, 2023.
The Israeli assault has left much of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, in ruins, and according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry has killed at least 59,921 people, most of them civilians.
All Gazans have been driven from their homes at least once since the start of the war, and UN agencies warn that residents face a growing threat of famine and malnutrition.
The International Court of Justice, in an interim ruling in early 2024 in a case lodged by South Africa, found it "plausible" that the Israeli offensive had violated the UN Genocide Convention.
The Israeli government, backed by the United States, fiercely denies the charge and says it is fighting to defeat Hamas and to bring back Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
The reports from B'Tselem - one of Israel's best-known rights groups - and Physicians for Human Rights Israel argue that the war's objectives go further.
B'Tselem's report cites statements from senior politicians to illustrate that Israel "is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip".
Physicians for Human Rights Israel's report documents what the group says is "the deliberate and systematic destruction of Gaza's healthcare system".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
12 hours ago
- CNA
UN conference on two-state solution convenes amid calls for increased aid into Gaza
Pressure is mounting on Israel at the United Nations as the international community discusses how to advance a two-state solution in the Middle East between a future Palestinian state and Israel. France and Saudi Arabia have convened a high-level conference on the issue, as many countries call for increased aid into Gaza amid widespread images of starvation. The United States and Israel have boycotted the event, which is being attended by representatives from 125 countries. Mitch McCann reports from the United Nations.
AsiaOne
14 hours ago
- AsiaOne
2 rights groups are first Israeli voices to accuse Israel of genocide, World News
JERUSALEM —Two Israeli human rights organisations said on Monday (July 28) Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the first major voices in Israeli society to level the strongest possible accusation against the state, which vehemently denies it. Rights group B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel released their reports at a press conference in Jerusalem, saying Israel was carrying out "coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza strip". "The report we are publishing today is one we never imagined we would have to write," said Yuli Novak, B'Tselem's executive director. "The people of Gaza have been displaced, bombed and starved, left completely stripped of their humanity and rights." Physicians for Human Rights Israel focused on damage to Gaza's healthcare system, saying: "Israel's actions have destroyed Gaza's healthcare infrastructure in a manner that is both calculated and systematic". Israel has fended off accusations of genocide since the early days of the Gaza war, including a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as "outrageous". Israel has consistently said its actions are justified as self-defence, and Hamas is to blame for harm to civilians, for refusing to release hostages and surrender, and for operating in civilian areas, which the militant group denies. A spokesperson for the Israeli government called the allegation made by the rights groups on Monday "baseless". "There is no intent, (which is) key for the charge of genocide... it simply doesn't make sense for a country to send in 1.9 million tons of aid, most of that being food, if there is an intent of genocide," said spokesperson David Mencer. Israel's military also rejected the reports' findings as "baseless". It said it abides by international law and takes unprecedented measures to prevent harm to civilians while Hamas uses them as "human shields". Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel has often described that attack, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, as genocidal. Since then, Israel's offencive has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins, and displaced nearly the entire population of more than two million. Accusations of genocide have particular gravity in Israel because of the origins of the concept in the work of Jewish legal scholars in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust. Israeli officials have in the past said using the word against Israel was libellous and antisemitic. When Amnesty International said in December that Israel had committed genocidal acts, Israel's foreign ministry called the global rights group a "deplorable and fanatical organisation". The 1948 Genocide Convention, adopted globally after the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". Palestinian plight gaining attention At a Jerusalem cafe, Carmella, a 48-year-old teacher whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said she was distressed over the suffering an hour's drive away, inside Gaza. "It feels difficult to me as an Israeli, as a Jew, to watch those images and feel anything but tremendous compassion and horror, to be honest. I feel horror." International attention to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza has intensified in recent weeks, with UN agencies saying the territory is running out of food. Israel, which controls all supplies in to Gaza, says it has let enough food in, and blames the UN for failing to distribute it. Israel shut off all supplies in March for nearly three months, reopening the territory in May but with restrictions it says are needed to prevent aid from ending up in the hands of fighters. Since then, its forces have shot dead hundreds of Gazans trying to reach food distribution sites, according to the United Nations. Israel has announced measures in recent days to increase aid supplies, including pausing fighting in some locations, allowing airlifts of food and safer corridors for aid. Throughout the conflict, Israeli media have tended to focus mainly on the plight of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Footage widely broadcast in other countries of destruction and casualties in Gaza is rarely shown on Israeli TV. That has been changing, with recent images of starving children having a little more impact, said Oren Persico from The Seventh Eye, a group that tracks trends in Israeli media. "It's very slowly evolving," he said. "You see cracks." But he did not expect the genocide allegation would spark a major shift in attitudes: "The Israeli perception is: 'what do you want from us? It's Hamas' fault, if it would only put down its weapons and (release) the hostages this could all be over'." In an editorial in the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Dani Dayan, the chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, said it was not accurate to accuse Israel of committing genocide. "But that does not mean we should not acknowledge the suffering of civilians in Gaza. There are many men, women, and children with no connection to terrorism who are experiencing devastation, displacement, and loss," he wrote. "Their anguish is real, and our moral tradition obligates us not to turn away from it." [[nid:720696]]
CNA
18 hours ago
- CNA
Trump says many are starving in Gaza, vows to set up food centres
CAIRO: United States President Donald Trump said on Monday (Jul 28) many people were starving in Gaza and suggested Israel could do more on humanitarian access, as Palestinians struggled to feed their children a day after Israel declared steps to improve supplies. As the death toll from two years of war in Gaza nears 60,000, a growing number of people are dying from starvation and malnutrition, Gaza health authorities say, with images of starving children shocking the world and fuelling international criticism of Israel over sharply worsening conditions. Describing starvation in Gaza as real, Trump's assessment put him at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Sunday "there is no starvation in Gaza" and vowed to fight on against the Palestinian militant group Hamas - a statement he reposted on X on Monday. However, Netanyahu later on Monday described the situation in Gaza as "difficult", saying his country was working to ensure aid delivery to the besieged strip. "Israel will continue to work with international agencies as well as the US and European nations to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid flow into the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. Trump, speaking during a visit to Scotland, said Israel has a lot of responsibility for aid flows, and that a lot of people could be saved. "You have a lot of starving people," he said. "We're going to set up food centres," with no fences or boundaries to ease access, Trump said. The US would work with other countries to provide more humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, including food and sanitation, he said. A White House spokesperson said additional details on the food centres would be "forthcoming". "WHEN YOU GO TO BED HUNGRY, YOU WAKE UP HUNGRY" On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said at least 14 people had died in the past 24 hours of starvation and malnutrition, bringing the war's death toll from hunger to 147, including 88 children, most in just the last few weeks. Israel announced several measures over the weekend, including daily humanitarian pauses to fighting in three areas of Gaza, new safe corridors for aid convoys, and airdrops. The decision followed the collapse of ceasefire talks on Friday. Wessal Nabil from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza described the struggle of trying to feed her three children. "When you go to bed hungry, you wake up hungry. We distract them with anything ... to make them calm down," she told Reuters. "I call on the world, on those with merciful hearts, the compassionate, to look at us with compassion, to be kind to us, to stand with us until aid comes in and ensure it reaches us." Two Israeli defence officials said the international pressure prompted the new Israeli measures, as did the worsening conditions on the ground. United Nations agencies said a long-term and steady supply of aid was needed. The World Food Programme said 60 trucks of aid had been dispatched - short of target. Almost 470,000 people in Gaza are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition treatments, it said. "Our target at the moment, every day is to get 100 trucks into Gaza," WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, Samer AbdelJaber, told Reuters. Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters the situation is catastrophic. "At this time, children are dying every single day from starvation, from preventable disease. So time has run out." Netanyahu has denied any policy of starvation towards Gaza, saying aid supplies would be kept up whether Israel was negotiating a ceasefire or fighting. A spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said Israel had not placed a time limit on the humanitarian pauses in its military operation, a day after UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said Israel had decided 'to support a one-week scale-up of aid". "We hope this pause will last much longer than a week, ultimately turning into a permanent ceasefire,' Fletcher's spokesperson, Eri Kaneko, said on Monday. Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Compared to last week, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said, there had only been a "small uptick" in the amount of aid being transported into Gaza since Israel started the humanitarian pauses. TRUMP SAYS HAMAS DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH In his statement on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel would continue to fight until it achieved the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas and the destruction of its military and governing capabilities. Trump said Hamas had become difficult to deal with in recent days, but he was talking with Netanyahu about "various plans" to free hostages still held in the enclave. The war began on Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked communities across the border in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. The Gaza health ministry said that 98 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours. Some of the trucks that made it into Gaza were seized by desperate Palestinians, and some by armed looters, witnesses said. The Hamas-run Gaza government said only 87 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, with the majority of trucks looted due to what it described as "direct and systematic Israeli complicity". "Currently aid comes for the strong who can race ahead, who can push others and grab a box or a sack of flour. That chaos must be stopped and protection for those trucks must be allowed," said Emad, 58, who used to own a factory in Gaza City. The WFP said it has 170,000 metric tons of food in the region, outside Gaza, which would be enough to feed the whole population for the next three months if it gets the clearance to bring into the enclave. COGAT said more than 120 truckloads of aid were distributed in Gaza on Sunday by the UN and international organisations. More aid was expected on Monday. Qatar said it had sent 49 trucks that arrived in Egypt en route for Gaza. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped supplies. Israel cut off aid to Gaza from the start of March in what it said was a means to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of hostages it still holds, and reopened aid with new restrictions in May. Hamas accuses Israel of using hunger as a weapon.
