The attribution of genocidal intent to Israel often focuses on the multitude ofverbal statements made by Israeli officials thatdehumanize Palestinians and whichincite,justify, or praise atrocities against them.[11] The United Nations commission of inquiry found that Israeli PresidentIsaac Herzog, Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, and former Defence MinisterYoav Gallant had engaged in the crime of "direct and public incitement to commit genocide" with their comments. Incitement to genocide is a stand-alone crime that is prosecutable even if genocide does not occur.[12]
Genocidal intent is also evidenced by the scale and systematic nature of actions that exceed any legitimate military objective[13][14][15]—including the extensive targeting of children,[16] widespread sexual violence,[17] the destruction of cultural heritage,[18][6] and the imposition of life-destroying conditions[19]—together with the persistence of these practices despitefull awareness of their catastrophic effects.[20]
Legal determination
According to a 2025United Nations commission of inquiry that convened on Israel's actions in Gaza, genocidal intent can be established through "direct evidence, such as statements expressing an intent to destroy", or inferred from "circumstantial evidence, taking into account the totality of the evidence, by inference through the examination of the pattern of conduct".[21]
Overview
Approximate situation on October 7–8
On 7 October, afterarmed incursions and massacres in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to exact a "huge price" by turning Hamas hideouts "into rubble",[22][23] while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared, "We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly."[24] ProfessorOmer Bartov interprets these statements asgenocidal intent.[25] ScholarMark Levene noted the increasing rhetoric of genocide and ethnic cleansing under the preceding Netanyahu governments.[26]
The Israeli historianRaz Segal and legal scholar Luigi Daniele also pointed to increasing genocidal rhetoric before October 2023, highlighting a May 2023Times of Israel article that said that the only way to achieve peace is to "obliterate" Palestine.[27] Segal and Daniele draw parallels between that article's rhetoric and scholarship that points to Russian media outlets' rhetoric in theRussian invasion of Ukraine asgenocidal.[28]
Segal and Daniele also point to previous comments by National Security MinisterItamar Ben-Gvir, the former Knesset memberAyelet Shaked, and Smotrich, who in February 2023 called for the destruction of Palestinian villages in the West Bank.[27] The genocide scholar Shmuel Lederman detailed how these comments by Smotrich, alongside others denying Palestinian nationhood and calling for their destruction or removal from territory claimed by Israel, were in the consideration and mindset of Hamas's leadership in Gaza before October 2023.[29] News outlets at the time of Smotrich's comments also highlighted their genocidal nature.[30][31] Segal also mentioned how children were targeted, as in theRohingya genocide case.[1]
In a report presented to the UNHRC in March 2024,Francesca Albanese concluded that Israel was committing genocide.[32][33][34] She wrote that genocidal intent can be inferred from "the totality of conduct targeting the totality of Palestinians, in the totality of the occupied Palestinian territory".[35] Israel rejected the report.[36][33][34] Albanese later accused Israel of "carrying out a systematic campaign of forced displacement, destruction, and genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank".[37][38]
In June 2024, historian Yoav Di-Capua said a "genocidal mindset" was pervasive among settler communities and politicians in Israel, often mirroring Hamas' own genocidal ideology.[39] He charted the history of this ideology among Israel's "ultra-orthodox Zionist nationalists", orHardal, from the 1970s up to the Gaza war, and its influence on the politics of Netanyahu's government, particularlyBezalel Smotrich andItamar Ben-Gvir.[40] According to Di-Capua, this genocidal ideology includedJewish supremacy and a desire for maximalist territorial expansion across the biblicalLand of Israel.[41] Di-Capua described Netanyahu as a "political captive" of Hardal, saying he had "echoed" their rhetoric of "eradication".[41] He said Smotrich and Ben-Gvir seek the adoption of this ideology as national policy and are using the Gaza war to implement their plan.[42]
ProfessorMaryam Jamshidi cites Israel's stated goal to "destroy Hamas including both the extermination of its political and administrative leadership and the annihilation of its civilian police force and military wing", and its targeting of the "intellectual, cultural, and religious leadership of Gaza". She writes that genocidal intent can be proven "through evidence that the protected group's civilian leadership, as well as its military and law enforcement, have been targeted for elimination" when this renders the rest of the group more vulnerable to illegal abuses such as forced migration. Targeting civilian organisations controlled by Hamas is illegal under international law.[43]
ProfessorJohn B. Quigley argued that the living conditions the war has inflicted on Gaza could be used as proof of genocidal intent in the absence of direct evidence, as they are so destructive that Israel should have known they would result in the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza.[45] Melanie O'Brien said that, in addition to statements by Israeli leaders, "patterns of conduct" such as large-scale loss of life, mass bombings, and aid blockade show intent.[1] Iva Vukusic pointed to the "systematic deprivation of basic needs".[1]
TheLemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention states that Israel's deliberate destruction of cemeteries in Gaza is a crime indicative of genocidal intent "because of its erasure of a people's ancestors and therefore of their historical presence,"[6] adding that "intentional murder and forced displacement of all Palestinians from their ancestral homes...has been going on sinceIsrael's founding, but sped up significantly first after Netanyahu assumed power in 2022 and again after October 7, 2023."[46]
Genocide Watch, states that genocidal intent may be established either through "statements or orders" by state officials, or through a "systematic pattern" of acts listed in the Genocide Convention, and—contrary to common misconception—the Convention requires only an intent to destroy "part of a people."[7][5] Genocide Watch further reports a database of "over 500" statements by Israeli officials indicating incitement and intent in Gaza;[47] however, Genocide Watch founder Gregory Stanton states that ICJ precedent suggests that genocide must be the "only intent" to warrant a conviction which could allow Israel to argue additional aims such as "defeating Hamas," thereby complicating proof of exclusive genocidal intent.[48]
Lederman has suggested that the determination of genocidal intent should be modified, in line with a suggestion by Ireland, to include "the foreseeable consequences of a given policy". This would consider the "structural nature of genocidal dynamics", rather than attempting to determine the "obscure mental states" of those engaged in genocide.[49]
Alongside but separate to intent is potential motive. The Israeli government has said that the military actions it has undertaken are in response to theOctober 7 attacks and sought to destroy Hamas and overthrow itsgovernance of the Gaza Strip,[51] while denying that their military operations constitute genocide.[52] Multiple commentators argue that part of the motive is retaliation for the October 7 attacks.[53][54][55] Another stated purpose is to free the hostages taken in the October 7 attacks.[56]Nimer Sultany argues thatanti-Palestinianism is in part the motive,[57] while historian Mark Levene points toZionism.[26] Multiple genocide scholars argue thatsettler colonialism is an important motive.[58] Raz Segal andB'Tselem also highlight the increasing idea ofJewish supremacy in Israeli politics,[59][60] while reports by Albanese andAmos Goldberg highlight the project ofGreater Israel.[61][62][63]
"Davidster" by Dick Stins, also known as "the Amalek monument", is aHolocaust memorial inThe Hague. The text at the side is fromDeuteronomy 25:17, 19 – "Remember what Amalek has done to you ... do not forget."[64][65]
Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu's repeated invocation ofAmalek and the phrase "remember what Amalek did to you"[66] during the war has been considered evidence of genocidal intent by many critics,[67] including South Africa.[68][69][70] "Remember what Amalek did to you"[a] is used at Holocaust memorials, includingYad Vashem.[64] Amalek was "the foe that God ordered the ancient Israelites to genocide",[71] and scholars have called the verse an instance of "divinely mandated genocide".[72][70][25] In February 2025,Norman J. W. Goda argued that there was undue attention paid to this phrase to conclude genocidal intent.[73]Genocide Watch states that "That the President of Israel invoked this divine mandate [ofAmalek] for genocide is evidence of his genocidal intent to destroy in part the Palestinian people of Gaza. The historical parallel is precise: Palestinians in Gaza live in nearly the same area as the ancient Amalekites."[5]
According to scholars Mark Levene and Abdelwahab El-Affendi, since 7 October 2023, official and semi-official sources have engaged in rhetoric suggestive of genocidal intent.[74][75] The Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard said that the7 October attacks, theGaza war hostage crisis, andHamas's war crimes "generated rage that transformed what has been the rhetoric of marginalised groups into a flood of statements now made by politicians, journalists and celebrities,... provid[ing] a tailwind" for others to find such speech acceptable. He added:
We have become accustomed to genocidal rhetoric that comes from Hamas. TheHamas covenant has obvious severe antisemitic articles, and also some that could be interpreted as expressing desire to eliminate the Jews in Israel.... In the past, it was seen inside Israel as something that was beyond the borders of legitimacy to talk that way about Palestinians.... But October 7th broke that red line.[76]
On 9 October 2023, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said:
I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.[77][78]
The statement was characterised asdehumanisation.[25][79] According toKenneth Roth, while some excuse this remark as referring only to Hamas, the context makes clear that "human animals" refers to everyone in Gaza.[80] On 10 October, Gallant said: "Gaza won't return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate everything."[81][82][64]
In May 2025, Netanyahu said in closed-door testimony to members of the Knesset that Israel was "destroying more and more houses [in Gaza, and Palestinians accordingly] have nowhere to return", and that "the only obvious result will be Gazans choosing to emigrate outside of the Strip".[83] TheInternational Commission of Jurists characterised these statements as support forforced displacement,[84] and formerUK Supreme Court justiceJonathan Sumption said that they would be likely to substantiate a case of genocidal intent.[b][85]
In July 2025, Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to relocate all Gazans to a "humanitarian zone" in the destroyed city of Rafah, in preparation for an unspecified "emigration plan".[86][87] Legal experts condemned this as a violation of international law, includingcrimes against humanity,[86] and an open letter by Israeli legal scholars said that the plan "could amount to the crime of genocide".[88]
Israeli Minister of AgricultureAvi Dichter called for the war to be "Gaza'sNakba".[89] Following the October 7 attacks, thenMinister of IntelligenceGila Gamliel recommended a plan which proposed the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.[90][91] Minister of HeritageAmihai Eliyahu called for dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza.[89][92] Minister of CommunicationsShlomo Karhi advocated for the forced removal of civilians and for Israel to settle the region, a position that other ministers endorsed.[93]Dov Waxman said that some of the rhetoric right-wing ministers use can be seen as "potentially genocidal" in its dehumanisation of Palestinian civilians. He added that these statements can have only limited impact on Israeli policy, as they were made by ministers "not in the war cabinet", but are still concerning.[89][94]
I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did when they murdered their families, raped them and kidnapped their citizens! Neither a dove nor an olive leaf, only a sword—to cut offSinwar's head![95]
Israeli energy (later defense) ministerIsrael Katz said: "All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world."[96][97]
On 29 April 2024 Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, "There are no half measures ...Rafah,Deir al-Balah,Nuseirat – total annihilation. 'Thou shalt blot out the remembrance ofAmalek from under heaven.'"[98] The Israeli newspaperHaaretz described his comments as a call to genocide.[99] In August, Smotrich said that "it might be justified and moral" to "starve 2 million people", lamenting that the world would not allow it.[100][101] The Knesset memberOfer Cassif claims the plan for genocide dates back to Smotrich's Subjugation Plan in 2017, which he called the "prime exhibit" of Israel's genocidal intent.[102] On 6 May 2025 Smotrich said that Gaza would be "entirely destroyed" and that Palestinians would "leave in great numbers to third countries".[103][104]
In August 2025,Eli Cohen, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, called for Gaza City to be turned into a wasteland, saying "Gaza City itself should be exactly likeRafah, which we turned into a city of ruins."[105]
In September 2025,Zoé Samudzi said that most experts believed "annihilatory intent has rarely been more explicit than the repeated comments made by Israeli leadership in the progression of the state's aggression from the days after 7 October 2023".[106]
Israeli president and members of Israeli parliament
An aerial view of theFlour Massacre captured by an Israeli drone. Aid trucks and Palestinian pedestrians (some dead) are visible.[107]
President Isaac Herzog blamed the "entire nation" of Palestine for the 7 October attack.[108] He added: "It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians being not aware, not involved."[8] Herzog later claimed that his remarks had been taken out of context, saying that he was attempting to highlight "the involvement of many residents" and that he accepted that there are innocent Palestinians in Gaza.[109]
Deputy Speaker of the KnessetNissim Vaturi wrote that the government was allowing too much aid to enter Gaza and that the IDF should "burn Gaza now".[110] He said that Israel's goal was "erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth."[111] When asked to clarify his statements byKol BaRama, Vaturi reiterated that Gaza and its inhabitants must be destroyed, saying: "I don't think there are any innocent people there now... If there is an innocent person there, we will know about them. Whoever stays there should be eliminated, period."[112] In 2025, Vaturi called Palestinians "scoundrels" and "subhumans" and called for the adult men in Gaza to be killed.[113][114]
Yitzhak Kroizer, who represents the extreme-rightOtzma Yehudit party in the Knesset, said that the "Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death."[115]Tally Gotliv of the Likud party called for the use of nuclear weapons against Gaza.[115] Gotliv later praised the value of revenge in relation to the Gaza war, saying"'May your village burn!' Yes yes as far as I'm concerned it is a great chant to wish upon Gaza to be erased and go up in flames." She further called to "Wipe out the memory of Amalek!"[116][117] Likud Knesset memberBoaz Bismuth said in relation to Gaza: "It is forbidden to take mercy on the cruel, there's no place for any humanitarian gestures. The memory of Amalek must be erased."[115]Moshe Saada, also of the Likud party, approvingly quoted an acquaintance who told him that everyone in Gaza should be killed.[118]Ariel Kallner of the Likud party wrote that there is "one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of [1948]. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join".[119]Galit Distel-Atbaryan of Likud wrote "Erase Gaza from the face of the earth. Let the Gazan monsters rush to the southern border and flee into Egypt, or die. And let them die badly. Gaza should be wiped off the map, and fire and brimstone on the heads of the Nazis in Judea and Samaria. Jewish wrath to shake the earth around the world. We need a cruel, vengeful IDF here. Anything less is immoral."[120] In 2024,Keti Shitrit of Likud said "If you ask me personally, not as a member of the Knesset, I'd flatten Gaza. I have no sentimental feelings about it, because there's no separating the murderers of women and children from the citizens of Gaza."[121]Zvika Fogel of Otzma Yehudit called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, saying that not a single Palestinian should remain in the Gaza Strip at the war's conclusion.[122] In May 2025,Zvi Sukkot of theReligious Zionist party appeared to celebrate public indifference to Palestinian civilian casualties, saying "Last night, almost 100 Gazans were killed. And the question you asked me just now had nothing to do with Gaza. Do you know why? Because it doesn't interest anyone. Everyone has gotten used to [the fact] that [we can] kill 100 Gazans in one night during a war and nobody cares."[123]
After Hamas released the bodies of theBibas family,Ohad Tal of the Religious Zionist Party compared Gaza to the biblical city ofSodom, which was destroyed byGod for its' wickedness. Tal said that "No one there in Gaza protested, no one in this Sodom condemned, no one tried to save them. A collective of murder, and there is no righteous person in Sodom."Avihai Boaron of Likud compared Hamas to Amalek, saying "Only a neo-Nazi-Shiite ideology of systematic murder of Jews, based on a brutal and sadistic culture, can give rise to such animalistic barbarity. If they could, they would murder us all and rape all our daughters. This is the very nature of Amalek. His purpose. His whole essence, to hunt down the Jews and kill and destroy them."[124] Boaron had previously, in 2011, published an editorial that called for Amalekites to be put inextermination camps.[125]
In January 2025, eight members of the Knesset'sForeign Affairs and Defense Committee signed a letter to Defense MinisterIsrael Katz proposing that Katz order the destruction of all of Gaza's food and power supplies and "kill anyone without a white flag".[126][127] The Palestinian officialRawhi Fattouh said of the letter, "The Knesset has become a den for bloodthirsty extremists...now they are astonished that Palestinians in Gaza are still alive".[128]
The Knesset membersAmit Halevi andLimor Son Har-Melech disagreed with a doctor who argued that suffering children in Gaza should receive "painkillers or minimal medical treatment". Halevi said, "When fighting a group like this, the distinctions that exist in a normal world don't exist." Halevi and Son Har-Melech both also claimed that reports of starvation in Gaza were Hamas lies.[129] Halevi had previously said: "We want to occupy the territory to cleanse it of the enemy; otherwise, it will kill your children and kidnap your grandchildren again."[130][131] In May 2025,Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionist Party said that the children of Gaza were his enemies and denied that children in Gaza were starving.[132]
Ghassan Alian,Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, said: "There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell."[76]Giora Eiland wrote, "Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist" and "Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieving the goal."[25] The Israeli scholarOmer Bartov noted that no Israeli politician nor anyone in the IDF denounced this statement.[25]
Of Israel's bombing of Gaza, Israeli army spokespersonDaniel Hagari said, "while balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we're focused on what causes maximum damage".[133] Legal scholars interpreted this as intention to destroy Gaza.[8]
The legal scholarNimer Sultany highlights statements by Israeli army commanders leading ground operations in northern Gaza that call for depopulation and a "scorched earth" approach.[134] Soldiers have echoed such sentiments on social media.[134] Former Israeli defence ministerMoshe Ya'alon said, "The path we are currently being led down involves conquering, annexing, and ethnic cleansing."[135]
In comments published in August 2025,Aharon Haliva, the former head of Israel'sMilitary Intelligence Directorate, said that 50 Palestinians should be killed for every Israeli killed on 7 October, "regardless of whether they are children or women", and called the killing of 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza "necessary and required so that future generations will say to them: you humiliated us and killed us, but that was the price".[136][137][138]
Other Israeli officials
On 11 June 2024, the official IsraeliTwitter account posted that "Gazan civilians participated in the horrific events of October 7", later citing a statement that "there are no innocent civilians there".[139] Far-right politicianMoshe Feiglin said: "There is one and only solution, which is to completely destroy Gaza before invading it."[140][141] In May 2025, Feiglin said, "every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy".[142][143]
Statements by American officials
U.S. congressmen and senators
GovernorRon DeSantis speaking with attendees at theRepublican Jewish Coalition's Annual Leadership Summit in Nevada, October 2023.Bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel, October 2023
In theFlorida legislature,Democratic RepresentativeAngie Nixon, supporting a ceasefire resolution, highlighted the high death toll of Palestinians questioning how many had to die before a ceasefire was called for,Republican RepresentativeMichelle Salzman replied instantly "All of them." Salzman's remark, perceived as a call for genocide, led to calls for censure or resignation from Nixon and the Florida chapter of theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations called for her to be censured or to resign.[144][145] CAIR-Florida Executive Director Imam Abdullah Jaber said in a statement: "This chilling call for genocide by an American lawmaker is the direct result of decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people by advocates of Israeli apartheid and their eager enablers in government and the media."[146]
Republican US CongressmanMax Miller, onFox News, stated that Palestine is "about to get eviscerated... to turn that into a parking lot." He said there should be "no rules of engagement" during Israel's bombardment of Gaza.[147] Miller also questioned the accuracy of theGaza Health Ministry's claim that 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza, saying that he believes many of those killed have been "Hamas terrorists" and not innocent civilians.[148]
Republican U.S. RepresentativeBrian Mast compared all Palestinians toNazis in November on the House floor, stating "I don't think we would so lightly throw around the term 'innocent Nazi civilians' during World War II. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians."[149] On January 31, 2024, Mast said that Palestinian babies are not innocent civilians but "terrorists" who should be killed, that more infrastructure in Gaza needs to be destroyed, and "It would be better if you kill all the terrorists and kill everyone who are supporters."[150] RepublicanTennesse representativeAndy Ogles said "I think we should kill them all."Arkansas senatorTom Cotton remarked "As far as I'm concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza."Michigan representativeTim Walberg said "We shouldn't be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It [Gaza] should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick."South Carolina senatorLindsey Graham called the genocide a "religious war" and said he sides with Israel, calling on it to do "whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself; level the place."[10]
Florida representativeRandy Fine called for Gaza to be nuked likeNagasaki and Hiroshima and made numerous statements endorsing genocide and starvation in Gaza, such as "There is no suffering adequate for these animals. May the streets of Gaza overflow with blood," "Release the hostages. Until then, starve away," "There is no starvation. Everything about the 'Palestinian' cause is a lie," and "Kill. Them. All. #NoMercy #BombsAway."[151][152]
Former U.S. PresidentJoe Biden said "I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it's the price of waging a war."[10] Former presidential candidate in the2024 Republican Party presidential primaries,Nikki Haley, wrote "finish them" on an Israeli bomb bound for Gaza.[153]
Others
Fox News commentatorJesse Watters claimed "This population in Palestine is hostile, it's uneducated. It's even more radicalized than they were at the beginning of this. I mean, now, they have no homes at all. They're even more hateful of the Israelis. And their birthrate is explosive."[10]
Israeli media
In 2023, a group of over 55 scholars in genocide studies stated that there was widespread incitement to genocide in Israeli media since October 7, including calls to turn Gaza "into a slaughterhouse", "violate all norms on the way to victory" and "let there be a million bodies" of dead Palestinians.[4][154] According to B'Tselem, incitement and dehumanisation play a role in the genocide.[155] Dehumanisation of Palestinians has been a long-term issue in Israel,[156] with the Israeli media contributing to it.[157] Ayala Panievsky, a researcher atMolad, compared Israel'sChannel 14 toRadio Rwanda and believed they should be tried for incitement to genocide.[158]
TheLemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention states that "the vast majority of Israelis agree with...[Israel's] plan and clearly will support anything to see it realized – from apartheid to extermination."[159] A January 2024Tel Aviv University poll of Israeli Jews found that 51% believed the IDF was using an appropriate amount of force in Gaza and 43% believed it was not using enough.[160][161]
In a February 2024Israel Democracy Institute survey of Israelis, 68% of Jewish respondents supported preventing all international aid from entering Gaza,[162][163][c] and 55% of Jewish respondents opposed ending the war.[162]
A March 2025 poll of Israeli Jews found that 82% supported the forced expulsion of Gaza residents;[164][163] 47% responded affirmatively to the question: "When conquering an enemy city, should the IDF act like the Israelites led by Joshua when theyconquered Jericho, that is, kill all its inhabitants?"[164][165][d] A June 2025 poll by theHebrew University of Jerusalem found that 64% of Israelis largely agreed with the statement "there are no innocent people in Gaza".[167][157] A July 2025Israel Democracy Institute poll found that 79% of Israeli Jews were "not so troubled" or "not troubled at all" by reports of famine and suffering in Gaza.[168]
^Hebrew:זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק (zchor et asher ase lech amlak)
^Sumption wrote: "Statements like these from the prime minister and senior ministers in his cabinet have to be considered together with the sheer scale of the human casualties and the indiscriminate physical destruction inflicted on their orders. The most plausible explanation of current Israeli policy is that its object is to induce Palestinians as an ethnic group to leave the Gaza Strip for other countries by bombing, shooting and starving them if they remain. A court would be likely to regard that as genocide."[85]
^As detailed in theBook of Joshua, when the city of Jericho was conquered, the ancient Israelites "utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword."[166]
^Amnesty International report 2024, p. 35: "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. 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."
^UN Commission of Inquiry report 2025, p. 64: "On the basis of fully conclusive evidence, the Commission finds that statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent. Additionally, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, the Commission finds that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn, based on the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities. Thus, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
UN Commission of Inquiry report 2025, p. 54: "The Commission finds that many statements made by Israeli officials contain dehumanising sentiments that encourage hatred toward Palestinians and violence against Palestinians and are consistent with the pattern of conduct...that point to an intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group. The Commission considers that these statements by Israeli officials are reasonably interpreted as statements expressing an intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza and they have been acted on as such by Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip. They are direct evidence of dolus specialis."
Amnesty International report 2024, pp. 26–35: "Bearing in mind that...the othering and dehumanization of the protected group and that the use of derogatory language...can provide evidence of genocidal intent, Amnesty International examined Israeli officials' use of dehumanizing, racist and derogatory rhetoric against Palestinians.... It reviewed 102 statements made by Israeli government officials, high-ranking military officers and members of the Knesset made between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 which dehumanized Palestinians, or called for, or justified, genocidal acts or other crimes under international law against them."
Kulkarni 2023: "Army's spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who bragged of dropping 'thousands of tons of munitions'...had no qualms admitting that 'we're focused on what causes maximum damage', rather than 'accuracy'. Referring to Palestinians as 'human animals', Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who prided in having 'released all the restraints' on the military, had said in the early days of the war that 'we will eliminate everything' in Gaza...Legitimizing the mass killing of civilians in Gaza, Israeli President Isaac Herzog had declared that 'an entire nation out there is responsible' for the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, arguing that the 'rhetoric' about innocent civilians is 'absolutely not true.'... 'This practice of casting an entire population as enemies, as legitimate military targets, is a common genocidal mechanism,' Raz Segal, a prominent Jewish Israeli scholar of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, said in his remarks at the panel discussion."
^Al-Waheidi, Majd (25 September 2025)."A question of intent: Is what's happening in Gaza genocide?".NPR. Archived fromthe original on 26 September 2025. Retrieved25 September 2025.Fyfe, the Washington and Lee University legal scholar, said, 'Genocide can occur within or outside of war. But it is never permissible, even if the war itself is. So war is not a defense...If a military leader intends to gain land and removing a group is the only way to do it, that's not necessarily genocide. But if the only reasonable inference from a siege or campaign is that the group itself is being destroyed as such, then that is genocidal intent...I do not think it is reasonable to claim that the siege is a military objective, given that Hamas is already crippled."
^Sumption, Jonathan (22 September 2025)."The genocide case is growing".New Statesman. Retrieved29 September 2025.But it does not confront the fundamental problem that the scale and character of Israeli operations in Gaza go well beyond anything that can reasonably be explained by legitimate military objectives. This is why responsible organisations have concluded that the targeting and elimination of at least part of the Palestinian population is the only reasonable explanation of what is happening.
^UN Commission of Inquiry report 2025, p. 64: "The extensive and deliberate targeting of Palestinian children shows that the military operations were not conducted solely to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, nor can they legitimately contribute to the other stated goals of defending the state of Israel and securing the release of Israeli hostages."
^UN Commission of Inquiry report 2025, p. 25: "Whether targeting women, men, boys or girls, sexual violence was conducted not just to degrade and humiliate profoundly the direct victims but to punish the Palestinian group as a whole."
^Amnesty International report 2024, p. 213: "The nature of the conditions of life that Israel imposed on Palestinians in Gaza following 7 October 2023 indicates that the destruction of the group, as such, was their intended outcome. The Israeli authorities decided to impose a total siege on Gaza on 9 October 2023...fully aware that this would necessarily cause and exacerbate malnutrition, hunger, the outbreak of multiple diseases and, ultimately, bring Gaza to the brink of famine. Indeed, Israel must have been aware of the 'objective probability' that these conditions of life would lead to the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a factor identified as probative of intent."
^UN Commission of Inquiry report 2025, p. 62: "The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities were aware that, by destroying the healthcare system throughout Gaza, their actions would lead to the destruction of Palestinians as a group... the systematic and complete destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza, the siege-induced deprivation of medical necessities... were part of the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza by preventing their capacity and possibility to heal, recover and live"
^Stanton, Gregory (25 May 2025)."Israel's Twelve Tactics of Denial".Genocide Watch. Archived fromthe original on 15 September 2025. Retrieved23 September 2025.Claiming that Israeli leaders have made no statements advocating destruction of the Palestinian population of Gaza is simply false. There are over 500 recorded instances in a database of statements by Israeli politicians, officers, and other public figures that show incitement and intent to commit genocide in Gaza.
Mackenzie & Lubell 2023: "Israel has tightened its blockade on and bombarded Gaza for three weeks after the Islamist group Hamas' Oct. 7 assault killed 1,400 Israelis ... Abbas ... said, 'Our people in the Gaza Strip are facing a war of genocide and massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces in full view of the entire world.'"
Antonio 2023: "Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss rejected the notion that his country is committing genocide in Gaza City, where a two-week war has erupted ... their measures were targeting Hamas members, and they were 'taking all measures to avoid having civilians affected" by attacks. 'We are informing civilians even before attacks: keep away from Hamas' infrastructure and Hamas' facilities,' ... Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians."
^Abraham 2024:'"There was a completely permissive policy regarding the casualties of [bombing] operations – so permissive that in my opinion it had an element of revenge," D., an intelligence source, claimed. ... A. also used the word "revenge" to describe the atmosphere inside the army after October 7.'
^UN Commission of Inquiry report 2025, p. 64: "The extensive and deliberate targeting of Palestinian children shows that the military operations were not conducted solely to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, nor can they legitimately contribute to the other stated goals of defending the state of Israel and securing the release of Israeli hostages."
^Goda 2025: Netanyahu quoted...'Remember what Amelek did to you.' The line immediately became 'proof' not only of Israel's genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza but also of Israel's genocidal nature...There is a lot to unpack here, but the following is worth noting. Netanyahu's October 28 speech mentions several figures in ancient Jewish history, including Judah Maccabee and Bar Kochba, both of whom rebelled against imperial rule. Netanyahu also reminded his listeners that the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza worked 'to avoid harming non-combatants,' and he urged Gaza's civilians to go to more safe areas. Whatever one thinks of Netanyahu, those who cite his speech as incitement to genocide do not mention these passages.
^"Public Statement: Scholars Warn" 2023 ("Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on 9 October that 'we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly'. He subsequently announced that Israel was moving to 'a full-scale response' and that he had 'removed every restriction' on Israeli force.").
^Avraham, Yuval (28 October 2023)."המסמך המלא של משרד המודיעין: כיבוש עזה וטרנספר כולל לתושביו" [The complete document of the Ministry of Intelligence: occupation of Gaza and total transfer to its residents].Shicha Mekomit (in Hebrew). Retrieved8 October 2025.
Sorek, Tamir (6 February 2025). "Mainstreaming a Genocidal Imagination in Israeli Society: Settler-Colonialism, Settler Anxiety, and Biblical Cues".Journal of Genocide Research (Forum: Israel-Palestine: Atrocity Crimes and the Crisis of Holocaust and Genocide Studies):1–24.doi:10.1080/14623528.2025.2456321.
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