One of the world’s most prominent human rights groups concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in a bombshell report released Thursday.
In a 296-page investigation, Amnesty International found that the breadth of Israel’s military assault on Gaza — including mass civilian killings, forced displacement, the blocking of humanitarian aid, and many other alleged violations of the Genocide Convention — combined with Israeli officials’ clear intent to destroy Gaza means that their campaign amounts to genocide.
Amnesty is the first major international human rights organization to formally label Israel’s assault a genocide. Numerous UN agencies and groups have also found evidence that Israel is committing genocide.
The sprawling report details some of the most inhumane parts of Israel’s assault and invasion up until the end of November, highlighting the “unprecedented magnitude” of Israel’s military incursions and starvation campaign, as well as dozens of statements by Israeli officials and soldiers indicating their intent to wipe out Gaza.
The report cites numerous Israeli massacres investigated by Amnesty that targeted civilian structures in densely populated areas, including 15 attacks between October 2023 and April 2024 that killed 334 people, 141 of whom were children. It also points to statements by Israeli officials, like when President Isaac Herzog claimed that there were no Palestinian civilians who were “not involved” in the attack on October 7, 2023.
The human rights group found Israel guilty of three of five acts prohibited in the Genocide Convention, including killing members of the group, causing physical or mental harm to members of the group, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction.
Further, as Amnesty argues, the Genocide Convention specifies that in order for an assault to be classified as genocide, it must have an “intent to destroy” a group. The group says that, while Israel claims its attacks have only targeted Hamas, Amnesty found that “these claims are not credible,” as Israel has consistently ignored its obligations to avoid civilian harm and has thus committed indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks.
“The evidence presented in the report clearly shows that the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, as such, was Israel’s intent, either in addition to, or as a means to achieve, its military aims,” the report says. “There is only one reasonable inference that can be drawn from the evidence presented: genocidal intent has been part and parcel of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including its military campaign.”
The group calls on international powers to stop sending arms to Israel or else risk complicity in genocide, specifically calling out key arms suppliers like the U.S. and Germany.
“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,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now. States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide,” Callamard said.
Amnesty also called on the International Criminal Court to add genocide to the recently issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“No one should be allowed to commit genocide and remain unpunished,” said Callamard.
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