Amnesty report accuses Israel of genocide of Palestinians in Hamas war

NGO Amnesty International said that its investigation into the ongoing Gaza War found enough evidence to conclude that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, the group said.

Titled “‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman:’ Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza,” the report is said to have documented military operations, imposed conditions, and statements by soldiers and political leaders that indicated that Israel was engaged in genocide.

Amnesty secretary-general Agnès Callamard said in a press release that “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.”

The NGO said that the allegedly “unprecedented” level of destruction and death in Gaza, when viewed as part of broader policy and military action, indicated that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion.”

The activist group claimed that 42,000 Palestinians, including 13,300 children, had been killed by the Israeli military from October 7, 2023, until October 7, 2024. Amnesty said that over 97,000 Palestinians had been injured during the war.

Amnesty claimed that many of the civilian casualties were the result of a widespread pattern of direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks. Amnesty said that it reviewed 15 airstrikes from October to April that killed 334 civilians and found no evidence that the strikes were directed at a military objective.

Responding to the IDF's claim it targets Hamas, armed groups in Gaza

“Before reaching its conclusion, Amnesty International examined Israel’s claims that its military lawfully targeted Hamas and other armed groups throughout Gaza and that the resulting unprecedented destruction and denial of aid were the outcome of unlawful conduct by Hamas and other armed groups, such as locating fighters among the civilian population,” said Amnesty.

“The organization concluded that these claims are not credible. The presence of Hamas fighters near or within a densely populated area does not absolve Israel from its obligations to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks. Its research found Israel repeatedly failed to do so, committing multiple crimes under international law for which there can be no justification based on Hamas’s actions.”

Amnesty added that even if Israel was just acting recklessly, treating Palestinians as “disposable” was also evidence of genocidal intent.

In addition to direct action, Israel allegedly inflicted conditions on the lives of Palestinians that were intended to lead over time to their destruction. Life-threatening conditions were caused by widespread life-sustaining infrastructure, the displacement of Gaza’s population through evacuation orders, and the denial of humanitarian aid and services.

Total siege

Amnesty said that after the October 7 massacre, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza, cutting off electricity, water, and fuel. These conditions allegedly led to widespread humanitarian crises, which Israel declined to improve with sufficient steps.

The intent to commit genocide – by the government and army – was not just revealed by the character of military operations but by “dehumanizing and genocidal” statements by officials and soldiers. Amnesty said that it had reviewed 102 statements of political and military officials and identified that 22 statements appeared to call for or justify genocidal intent. Soldiers replicated the rhetoric when making calls to “erase” Gaza or in the celebration of destroying civilian objects, said the press release.

NGO Monitor said in advance of the publication of the report that the announcement used selective evidence to come to its conclusions. The group highlighted how casting the humanitarian effort of evacuation orders as genocidal contradicted demands that Israel take precautions to avoid civilian deaths in combat.

NGO Monitor also noted that the IDF said that it had facilitated the transfer of 1.1 million tons of aid into Gaza, established humanitarian corridors, imposed tactical pauses, and vaccinated Gazans to avoid civilian deaths from the conditions of war.

NGO Monitor slammed Amnesty for figures such as the death of 42,000 Palestinians, which it said were obtained from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and did not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The activist group “has devoted many years to the delegitimization of Israel regardless of policies, [and] is simply continuing its decades-long lawfare campaign,” said NGO Monitor.

The International Legal Forum said that the Amnesty report was written under the “guise” of international law and human rights but was “utterly baseless and replete with malicious lies, gross distortions of truth, and fabrications of law.”

“To accuse Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza is a gross and egregious subversion and weaponization of the very term itself, made even more unconscionable given the October 7 attacks were the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust,” said ILF.

Amnesty called for the cessation of arms trade with Israel and said that states must respect the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants and detain Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Callamard urged the ICC to consider adding the crime of genocide to the investigations into Israeli leaders and for sanctions to be leveled by the UN Security Council against Israeli and Hamas officials.

The ILF said that in response to the report, the incoming American administration should declare Amnesty a “hate group” and adopt sanctions against them, “including withdrawing financial support and any cooperation with government agencies.”

Amnesty is reportedly set to produce another document on crimes committed by Hamas and other groups during the October 7 massacre.