Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, say human rights groups based in Israel

Reports that detail the intentional attack to Palestinians as a group and the systemic destruction of Palestinian society increase the pressure by action

Two important human rights organizations based in Israel, B’TSelem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and that the country’s Western Allies have a legal and moral duty to prevent it.

In reports published on Monday, the two groups said that Israel had attacked civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinians over almost two years of war, causing serious damage and, in some cases, irreparable to Palestinian society.

Several international and Palestinian groups have already described the war as genocide, but reports from two of the most respected human rights organizations in Israel and Palestine, which have been documenting systemic abuse for decades, will likely increase pressure per action.

Reports detail crimes, including the deaths of tens of thousands of women, children and the elderly, mass forced and hunger displacement, and the destruction of houses and civil infrastructure that deprived the Palestinians of Medical Assistance, Education and other basic rights.

“What we see is a clear and intentional attack on civilians to destroy a group,” said Yuli Novak, director of B’TSelem, asking for urgent action. “I think every human being needs to ask himself: what to do in the face of a genocide?”

It is vital to recognize that a genocide is underway even without a case decision before the International Court, she said. “Genocide is not just a legal crime. It is a social and political phenomenon.”

Human Rights Doctors (PHR) focuses on its report in a detailed chronological report of the attack on the Gaza health system, with many details directly documented by the group’s own team, which regularly worked in Gaza before October 7, 2023.

Relatives of Palestinians who lost their lives in Israeli attacks regret during a funeral ceremony at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. | Anadolu/Getty Images

The destruction of the health system itself makes the war genocide, according to Article 2C of the Convention on Genocide, which prohibits deliberately imposing calculated living conditions to destroy a group “in whole or in part,” said its director, Guy Shalev.

“It is not necessary that all five articles of the Convention on Genocide be fulfilled so that something is considered genocide,” he said, although the report also details other genocidal aspects of the war of Israel.

Both B’TSelem and PHR stated that the Western Allies of Israel were enabling the genocidal campaign and shared responsibility for suffering in Gaza. “This could not happen without the support of the western world,” said Novak. “Any leader who is not doing his best to prevent this is part of this horror.”

The US and European countries have the legal responsibility to take more energetic measures than those who have adopted so far, Shalev. “All available tools should be used. That’s not what we think, this is what the genocide convention requires.”

Israel denies being committing a genocide and claims that the war in Gaza is a matter of self -defense, after Hamas transionic attacks on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and taken to Gaza, where 50 remain hostage, and it is believed that 20 of them are still alive.

A key element for the crime of genocide, as defined by the international convention, is to demonstrate the intention of a state to destroy a target group in whole or in part.

Genocidal statements from politicians and military leaders and a chronology of well -documented civil impacts after nearly two years of war are proof of this intention, even without a trail of orders from above, they say both PHR and B’TSelem.

The PHR report details as “the genocidal intention can be inferred from the pattern of conduct”, citing legal precedents from the International Criminal Court to Rwanda.

Extensive documentation by doctors, media and human rights organizations over a long time has prevented the Israeli government from claiming not to understand the impact of its actions, Shalev said. “There were enough moments and opportunities for Israel to interrupt this gradual and systematic attack.”

Incitement to genocide has been registered since the beginning of the war. It is one of two issues in which the Israeli judge who judges the case at the International Court of Justice voted with the majority by ordering emergency measures to protect Palestinians against the plausible risk of genocide.

“We do not need to guess what Israel is doing and what the Israeli army is doing, because from the first day of this attack, Israeli leaders, the highest leadership, political leadership, including the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the president of Israel said just that,” said Novak.

“They talked about human animals. They talked about the fact that there are no civilians in Gaza or that there is an entire nation responsible for 7 October.”

Palestinians take the bodies of the victims of Israeli attacks to Nasser Hospital in Khan Youis on Monday. | Anadolu/Getty Images

“If Israel’s leadership, whether army leadership or political leadership, knows the consequences of this policy and continues, it is very clear that this is intentional.”

The destruction of health infrastructure, two years without medical care and the death of health professionals also meant that the number of genocide victims would continue to increase even after any ceasefire interrupts fighting, Shalev said.

For example, it’s been a for months that there are no magnetic resonance imaging in Gaza, so what to say of all diseases and diseases that have not been diagnosed all this time? There is all malnutrition and chronic diseases that were not treated; We will see the effects of this for months and years.

Although medicines can be delivered in a few days, there is no easy way to replace health professionals who have been killed, including experts who took decades to be trained, he said.

“Observing living conditions opens this kind of time scale that is frightening if we want to believe in a future where… The people of Gaza somehow can live their lives safely and health. It’s very hard to imagine it.”

The number of dead in Gaza due to war is approaching 60,000, or more than 2.5% of the pre-war population. Some of those who defend the war of Israel argue that this number is very low for the campaign to be considered genocide.

Palestinians are waiting to receive food from a charity kitchen in the city of Gaza. | Khamis al-Rifi/Reuters

This is based on a fundamental misunderstanding about the crime of genocide, which the convention defines how to attack a group “in whole or in part,” said Novak. “This does not mean that it is necessary to kill all people.”

A genocide against Palestinians as a group was only possible because Israel for decades dehumanized the Palestinians and denied their rights, Novak said. Collective trauma was explored by far -right politicians to accelerate an agenda they’ve been chasing for years.

“[7 de outubro] It was a shocking moment and a turning point for the Israelis, because it instituted a real and sincere feeling of existential threat. It was the moment that boosted a whole system and the way it operates in Gaza from a policy of control and oppression to one of destruction and extermination. ”

Now that Israel has launched a genocidal campaign in Gaza, there was an urgent risk that it could spread and reach other Palestinians, warned the B’Tselem report.

“The Israeli regime now has a new tool that did not use before: genocide. And the fact that this tool or this policy used in Gaza is not yet being [implementada] In other areas it’s not something we can count on for a long time, ”said Novak.

The West Bank is a particular concern, with almost 1,000 Palestinians killed and more than 40,000 displaced from communities such as Jenin and Tulkarem, in a campaign of increasing attacks and ethnic cleaning since October 7, 2023.

“What we see is basically the same regime with the same logic, the same army, usually the same commanders and even the same soldiers who have just struggled in Gaza. They are now in the West Bank, where violence is increasing,” said Novak.

“What worries us and we want to warn is the fact that any small trigger can make genocide spread from Gaza to the West Bank.”

Originally published by The Guardian on 07/28/2025

By Emma Graham-Harrison