For first time, two leading Israeli human rights groups accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza

By Ivana Kottasová, Abeer Salman, CNN

(CNN) — A pair of leading Israeli human rights groups has accused Israel of “committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” becoming the first such organizations to make the claim.

B’Tselem said in a major report released on Monday that it came to that “unequivocal conclusion” after an “examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack.”

A second Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), announced it was joining B’Tselem in calling Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide. It published a separate legal and medical analysis documenting what it called “deliberate and systematic extermination of the health system in Gaza.”

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer dismissed the report. “We have free speech in this country but we strongly reject this claim,” he told reporters, adding that Israel has allowed aid into Gaza.

Israel has consistently argued that it is acting in accordance with international law and that its war in Gaza following the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 is one of self-defense.

When other, non-Israeli, groups have previously accused the country of committing genocide or genocidal acts, the Israeli government has reacted with anger, strongly rejecting the statements and often responding with claims that the accusations are grounded in antisemitism.

B’Tselem said in the 79-page report that the reality on the ground in Gaza “cannot be justified or explained as an attempt to dismantle the Hamas regime or its military capabilities.”

Announcing the report’s findings, B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak said that “nothing prepares you for the realization that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us.

“But 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: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. Our genocide has context,” Novak said.

The group said that Israel’s onslaught on Gaza includes mass killing – both in direct attacks and through creating catastrophic living conditions – large-scale destruction of infrastructure, destruction of the social fabric, mass arrests and abuse of detainees, and mass forced displacement, including attempts at ethnic cleansing.

It added that statements made by senior Israeli decision-makers “have expressed genocidal intent throughout” the conflict.

B’Tselem said the report was based on data collected over the past 20 months, including information on “thousands of cases” allegedly committed by Israel’s forces against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Israeli territory.

The group said it used its own information as well as external data gathered by thoroughly vetted organizations.

PHRI added that the evidence it had gathered indicated a “deliberate and systematic dismantling of the health system in the Gaza Strip and other vital systems for the survival of the population.”

“This is not about collateral damage from war, but a deliberate policy aimed at harming the Palestinian population as a group,” PHRI said in a statement.

But while B’Tselem says the Israeli government is responsible for the situation in Gaza, it also accused the international community of enabling genocide.

“Many state leaders, particularly in Europe and the US have not only refrained from effective action to stop the genocide but enabled it – through statements affirming Israel’s ‘right to self-defense’ or active support, including the shipment of weapons and ammunition – which continued even after the International Court of Justice ruled that there was ‘plausible risk that Israel’s actions amount to genocidal acts,’” it stated.

The group said that the sense of fear, rage and desire for revenge which many Israelis felt after the October 7 terror attacks served as “fertile ground for incitement against Palestinians in general, and Gazans in particular.”

Hamas and its allies killed 1,200 people, including children, and kidnapped 251 others to Gaza during the attack – the worst terror attack on Israel since the country’s establishment.

The report from B’Tselem comes as pressure mounts on Israel over the catastrophic situation in Gaza. Images of children dying of acute malnutrition have provoked global outrage, with the United Kingdom, France and Germany saying last week that the crisis was “man-made and avoidable.”

At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from all sides domestically – with protests demanding the end of the war and the release of all hostages growing in strength and frequency, and far-right members of his coalition threatening to collapse the government if he ends the conflict.

On Monday, the presidents of five of Israel’s leading universities published an open letter to Netanyahu, raising concerns over the crisis in Gaza.

“Alongside a growing segment of the Israeli public, we observe with shock the harrowing scenes emerging daily from Gaza, where hunger and disease continue to claim the lives of the most vulnerable,” the university leaders said. They added that they were “appalled” by statements made by some politicians who were “advocating for the intentional destruction of Gaza and the forced displacement
of its civilian population.”

First Israeli group

While B’Tselem is the first Israeli organization to accuse the government of genocide, a number of international groups, organizations and governments have reached the same or similar conclusions in the past.

The accusations have always sparked reaction, given their seriousness and the sensitivities around the use of the word genocide, which is defined by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

The United Nations Special Committee said last November that Israel’s war conduct in Gaza was “consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” including mass civilian casualties and using starvation as a weapon.

Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by depriving them of adequate water supplies last December, while Amnesty International said around the same time that there was “sufficient evidence” to conclude genocide was happening in the territory.

The government of South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel with the International Court of Justice in December 2023, accusing the country of committing genocide in Gaza. Ireland joined South Africa’s case earlier this year.

The UN’s top court ordered Israel to take “all measures” to prevent a genocide in Gaza in a ruling on South Africa’s request for emergency measures, which act like a restraining order while the court considers the full merits of the genocide case, a move that could take years.

Several prominent Israeli individuals have also made the same accusation, including leading genocide expert Omer Bartov who penned an op-ed in the New York Times saying that his “inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

Israeli historian Lee Mordechai made a similar point earlier this month, collating a database of what he said were examples of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and saying that the evidence he had seen “indicates that one of Israel’s very likely objectives” was to “ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip.”

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CNN’s Dana Karni contributed reporting.