As of December 2025, at least 70,117 people in Gazahad been killed.[33][17] The vast majority of the victims were civilians,[34][35] and around 50% werewomen andchildren.[36][37] Compared to other recent global conflicts, the numbers of knowndeaths of journalists, humanitarian andhealth workers, and children are among the highest.[38] Thousands more uncounted bodies are thought to be under the rubble of destroyed buildings.[35][39] A study in the medical journalThe Lancet estimated that traumatic injury deaths were undercounted by June 2024, while noting an even larger potential death toll when "indirect" deaths are included.[40] The number of injured is greater than 171,000.[5][18][41] Gaza has the most childamputees per capita in the world;[42] the Gaza war caused more than 21,000 children to bedisabled.[43]
AnIsraeli blockade heavily contributed tostarvation and confirmed famine. As of August 2025, projections show about 641,000 people experiencingcatastrophic levels and that "the number of people facing emergency levels will likely increase to 1.14 million".[44][45] Early in the conflict, Israel cut off Gaza's water and electricity, but it later partially restored the water.[46] As of May 2024, 84% of Gaza's health centres have beendestroyed or damaged.[47] Israel alsodestroyed numerous cultural heritage sites, including all 12 of Gaza's universities, and 80% of its schools.[48][49] Over 1.9 million Palestinians—85% of Gaza's population—were forcibly displaced.[50] Israel's bombing also causedsevere environmental devastation across the territory.
In December 2023, the government ofSouth Africa instituted proceedings,South Africa v. Israel, against Israel at theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging a violation of theGenocide Convention.[51] In January 2024, the court ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts of genocide, to prevent and punishincitement to genocide, and to allow basic humanitarian service, aid and supplies into Gaza.[52][53][54] The court later ordered Israel to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza and to halt itsRafah offensive.[55][56] Israel did not fully comply with the court's orders.[57][58][59]
A September 2023United Nations map of Gaza, showing itsborder barrier and checkpoints into Israel and Egypt and Israel'sMaritime Exclusion Zone, illustrating the geographic scope of the preexisting blockade and the physical constraints on movement and access.
Since 2007, theGaza Strip has been governed byHamas, anIslamist militant group, while theWest Bank remained under the control of thePalestinian Authority. After Hamas took over, Israel intensified itsblockade of the Gaza Strip, citing security concerns;[67][68] international rights groups have called the blockade a form ofcollective punishment.[69][70][71]UNRWA reported that, due to the blockade, 81% of Gazans were living below the poverty level in 2023, with 63% food insecure and dependent on international assistance.[72][73] Since 2007, Israel and Hamas (and other Palestinian militias in Gaza) have engaged in conflict,[68][74][75] including four wars in2008–2009,2012,2014, and2021.[76][77]
During the first 48 hours of Israel's retaliatory attack, IDF chiefHerzi Halevi reported that the IDF attacked 1,000 targets. According to his wife, he told her that "Gaza will be destroyed". Reportedly, Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu subsequently said he wanted 5,000 targets to be attacked, even though the IDF had not confirmed 5,000 enemy targets. Artificial intelligence was used to generate a list of targets, in many cases based on unconfirmed or outdated intelligence. About 10,000 Palestinians were killed in a month, including entire families.Shmuel Lederman called this "as criminal as it gets".[103]
The Israeli government has said that the military actions it has undertaken are in response to theOctober 7 attacks and sought to destroy Hamas, overthrow itsgovernance of the Gaza Strip, and free Israeli hostages. It has denied that its military operations constitute genocide.[61][54][62] Multiple commentators argue that part of the motive is retaliation for the 7 October attacks.[104][105][106]Nimer Sultany argues thatanti-Palestinianism is also a motive.[107]
The original definition coined byRaphael Lemkin was broader than that used by the Genocide Convention and includedcultural and social destruction. In contrast, orthodox scholarly definitions emphasise actions targeting a group's physical survival.[112][113] No minimum number of victims[114][115][116] or intended victims[117] is required to establish the crime, nor is complete destruction of the group.[118] In theRohingya genocide case, several states contended that the ICJ should "adopt a balanced approach that recognizes the special gravity of the crime of genocide, without rendering the threshold for inferringgenocidal intent so difficult to meet so as to make findings of genocide near-impossible."[119]
"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."[e]
In September 2025, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, presidentIsaac Herzog, and former defence ministerYoav Gallant were found by a United Nations commission of inquiry to have engaged in "direct and publicincitement to commit genocide".[145] Israeli leaders'repeated references toAmalek—the biblical enemy of Israelites whose annihilation is commanded by God—have been considered evidence of genocidal intent by many critics,[146][147] including South Africa.[148][149]
Onset
B'Tselem, theSouth African legal case against Israel, and some scholars who argue Israel is committing genocide argument give 7 October as its start date.[150][151][152] According to B'Tselem, "The genocidal assault on the residents of Gaza, and on all Palestinians as a group, cannot be understood without acknowledging the impact of the 7 October attack on Israeli society. The shock, fear and humiliation elicited by the attack, and the societal upheaval it triggered, served as a driving force for a shift in government policy toward the Palestinians—from oppression and control to destruction and annihilation."[83]Martin Shaw andA. Dirk Moses argue that this "front-loaded violence" makes it harder to argue that the genocide began after the initial Israeli attack on Gaza.[153][154]
On 13 October 2023, the historianRaz Segal said Israel was committing a "textbook case of genocide". He was one of the first scholars to do so.[155] Others argue that the war was initially legitimate and the genocide started later, in 2024 or 2025.[153][154] In September 2024, a UNSpecial Committee concluded, "the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period [i.e. October 2023 to July 2024] are consistent with the characteristics of genocide."[156]
Genocidal acts
Clockwise from top:
Anewborn baby killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike
Palestinians injured by an Israeli airstrike in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
Video interviews conducted with several survivors of October 2023 Israeli airstrikes
UN experts and human rights organisations have characterised Israel's actions in Gaza asextermination,[157] acrime against humanity that involves "the act of killing on a large scale". During thefirst two months of bombing, Israel dropped 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip. Many of these were unguided bombs dropped in densely populated areas, obliterating entire neighbourhoods.[158] Since 7 October 2023, the IDF has been accused of extrajudicial killing of unarmed Palestinians[159][160] and healthcare personnel.[161] Israeli soldiers have killed Palestinian civilians, with a December 2023 UN report stating that they allegedly shot them in front of their families.[162] In January 2024, Israeli soldiers shot at civilians wavingwhite flags, killing one.[162][163] Doctors have identified numerous Palestinian children with single gunshot wounds to the head and chest, consistent with intentional targeting by Israeli forces.[164]
In April 2024,mass graves were found containing over 300 corpses,[165][166] allegedly including older people, women and wounded,[166] and others with their hands tied.[166] The IDF said accusations that it caused the killings were "baseless and unfounded",[167] and that during its operation "in the area of Nasser Hospital, in accordance to the effort to locate hostages and missing persons, corpses buried by Palestinians in the area of Nasser Hospital were examined."[168] It added, "Bodies examined, which did not belong toIsraeli hostages, were returned to their place."[168][169]
At least 14,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza by December 2023.[170] In late 2024, a study limited only to those fatalities confirmed by at least three independent sources, and only from November 2023 to April 2024 (about 8,100 people), corroborated previous reports by the UN and news outlets that 70% of fatalities were women and children.[171][f] As of 31 August 2024, data from the Ministry of Health (only for those of the dead who were fully identified, about 34,000 people at the time) showed that 60% of those killed were women, children, and the elderly.[173] Eleven months later (31 July 2025) the number of those of the dead who were fully identified reached 60,199, 52.6% of whom were women, children, and the elderly.[174][175][g]
By 14 January 2024, over 23,900 Gazans had been confirmed killed.[176] By 10 May, deaths had topped 35,000, a third of them unidentified, with over 10,000 more estimated to be buried under the rubble.[177] Within the first three weeks, the Israeli assault killed more children in Gaza than were killed worldwide across all conflict zones in any year since 2019.[178][179] Over 52,000 people had been wounded by December 2023,[180][181] and by May 2024 this number had risen to over 77,700.[182][183]
As of 10 October 2025, the Gaza Health Ministry reports that at least 67,194 Gazans were killed, which is between 3% and 4% of Gaza's total population.[184]
+972 Magazine andLocal Call reported that the IDF decided early in the war to authorise killing up to 15 to 20 civilians per low-ranking militant, while for a senior militant killing more than 100 civilians was authorised. According to six Israeli intelligence officers, a major factor in the high death toll is the military's practice of striking targets in their homes with their families present, chosen partly because automated intelligence systems make those residences easier to identify.[185] Another intelligence officer said that in targeting junior militants, Israel used onlydumb bombs, which can destroy entire buildings, to not "waste expensive bombs on unimportant people".[186]
In March 2024,Haaretz reported that some Israeli commanders had set up "kill zones" in which soldiers werecommanded to kill anyone on sight, even if they were unarmed.[187][188] According to an Israeli officer, "in practice, a terrorist is anyone the IDF has killed in the areas in which its forces operate."[187][h]
In June, theAssociated Press found that Israel's campaign in Gaza was killing entire bloodlines of Palestinians to a "degree never seen before".[190] According to testimony given to the IsraeliKnesset, Israeli soldiers drivingarmoured bulldozers had been ordered to "run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds".[191]
The proportion of women and children among the dead is disputed,[192][193] but the names, gender, and age of 60,000+ of the victims are known and published.[194] On 7 May 2024, total deaths quoted by the UN were 34,735, of which 24,686 are fully identified: 52% women and children, 8% elderly of all genders, and 40% men.[192] In November 2024, the UN published an analysis covering 8,119 fatalities that were verified by at least three independent sources, between November 2023 and April 2024, with 70% of them women and children.[195] As of 31 August 2024, per the Gaza Ministry of Health, the number of fatalities had risen to 40,691, 34,344 identified by name: 17,652 (51%) women and children, 2,955 (9%) elderly of all genders (defined as those aged 60 or older), and 13,737 (40%) men.[196][173][197] A year later (31 July 2025), per the Gaza Ministry of Health, the number of fatalities identified by name reached 60,199: 28,728 (48%) were women and children, 2,928 (5%) were elderly of all genders (defined as those aged 65 or older), and 28,543 (47%) were men. A minimum of 18,457 children had been killed since October 2023.[194] In November 2024, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that 1,410 Gazan families had been completely erased from the civil registry as a result of Israeli bombings.[198] Data collection has become increasingly difficult for the Gaza Health Ministry due to the destruction of infrastructure.[177] The ministry has had to supplement its usual reporting based on hospital dead with other sources of information,[177] including reports by the media and first responders as well as families and widows, who must formally register their husbands' deaths to qualify for government assistance.[199] Professor Mike Spagat found an urgent need for a transparent methodology to reconcile its top-line death numbers—34,535 as of 30 April 2024—with its detailed breakdowns, including only those of the dead who were fully identified, summing to 24,653 on the same date.[36] By August 2025, this gap between the number of victims and the number of fully identified vicitms became smaller (about 62,000 vs. about 60,000), as more victims were identified.[200] The ministry's figures for the total number killed have been contested by Israeli authorities but accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and theWorld Health Organization.[177] More recently,The Guardian has reported that a classified IDF database registered 8,900 killed militants. This and GHM's data imply a civilian death rate of 83%, which exceeds that of any conflict since 1989 except theRwandan genocide, theSiege of Mariupol, and theSiege of Srebrenica.[201] The IDF denied this, saying the figures were inaccurate and inconsistent with its data.[202]A 2025 paper on the Gaza war estimated 64,260 deaths from traumatic injury between October 2023 and 30 June 2024, and likely exceeding 70,000 by October 2024, with 59.1% being women, children and the elderly. It concluded that the GHM undercounted trauma-related deaths by 41% in its report, and also noted that its findings "underestimate the full impact of the military operation in Gaza, as they do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation."[203] A comparable estimate for traumatic injury deaths was around 80,000 for January 2025.[204] A February study inThe Lancet estimated that life expectancy in the Gaza Strip between October 2023 and September 2024 decreased by 34.9 years, excluding indirect deaths. The study also used census and registration data to assess the reliability of the Gaza Health Ministry's death count, and found no substantial errors.[205]
In May 2025, finance ministerBezalel Smotrich claimed that Israel was targeting Hamas's civilian workers, saying, "We're eliminating ministers, bureaucrats, money handlers—everyone who holds up Hamas's civilian rule."[206] Killing civilian members of Hamas is in itself illegal.[207][page needed]
Starting in June 2025, IDF soldiers said they were ordered toshoot at crowds of Palestinians nearGaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites,[208] killing over 1,000 people.[209] Amnesty International alleged Israel was trying to restrict aid to starve and inflict genocide upon the Palestinians.[210]
In November 2025, a study by theMax Planck Institute for Demographic Research estimated that the total number of violent deaths in Gaza was between 100,000 and 126,000, of which 27% were children under 15 years old, and 24% women.[211][212][213]
Indirect deaths
Mother cries for her 4-year-old daughter, who died due tomalnutrition and lack of treatment
Rasha Khatib,Martin McKee, andSalim Yusuf published an estimate of the number of deaths, directly or indirectly caused by the conflict, that by July 2024 had already occurred or would occur in the coming months and years. Indirect Palestinian deaths from disease are expected to be much higher due to the intensity of the conflict, destruction of healthcare infrastructure, lack of food, water, shelter, and safe places for civilians to flee, and reduction inUNRWA funding. They estimated that the total conflict-related deaths in Gaza will likely be four to 16 times higher than the reported death toll. By multiplying the reported deaths by five, they argued that "186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza".[177] Spagat wrote that their estimate "lacks a solid foundation and is implausible",[214][215] but it was "fair to call attention to the fact that not all of the deaths are going to be direct violent ones", and has called the death toll in Gaza "staggeringly high".[192][215]Donald Bloxham also notes that most deaths have been "indirect deaths" in various wars and that the "systematic obstruction of supplies into Gaza" is an Israeli policy, which makes calling these deaths "indirect" incorrect.[216]
An October 2024 letter by US healthcare workers who had served in Gaza since 7 October 2023 tried to estimate the number of Gazans who had died of starvation based on publicly available IPC reports.[217] It said the most conservative estimate was that at least 62,413 people in Gaza had died from starvation, most of them young children; this estimate was based on the assumption that catastrophic (level 5) food insecurity results in a death rate of at least 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day.[i] The physicians also estimated that at least 5,000 people had died from lack of access to care for chronic diseases.[218][219][220] The indirect death estimates in two studies reviewed byThe Economist implied that the life expectancy in Gaza has fallen by 35 years, rivalling theRwandan genocide in absolute terms.[221][222]
A four-year-old Palestinian girl who died due tomalnutrition and lack of treatment
Displaced Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
Displaced Palestinians receive food from charitable Tekiya during Ramadan in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
In February 2024,Human Rights Watch andAmnesty International both released statements declaring Israel had failed to comply with the ICJ's 26 January ruling to prevent genocide byblocking aid from entering Gaza.[58][57][223] A Refugees International report found that Israel had "consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza".[224] The historian Melanie Tanielian argues that starvation and blockade should be foregrounded as methods of genocide alongside mass bombing.[225] In an April report,B'Tselem called the unfolding famine "the product of a deliberate and conscious Israeli policy".[226][227] Elyse Semerdjian characterised Israel's actions asgenocide by attrition.[228]
In October 2023, theWorld Food Program warned of Gaza's dwindling food supply,[229] and in December, alongside the UN, it reported that more than half of Gaza's population was "starving", fewer than one in ten were eating every day, and 48% were suffering "extreme hunger".[230][231][232] Palestinian Foreign MinisterRiyad al-Maliki referred to "Israel's deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against the people it occupied"; an Israeli official called the charge "blood-libellous" and "delusional".[233] In December 2023, Human Rights Watch found that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war by deliberately denying access to food and water.[234] In January 2024, UN experts accused Israel of "destroying Gaza's food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people".[235] In February 2024, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich personally blocked US-funded shipments of flour from entering Gaza, in violation of promises Israel had made to the US government.[236]
In early 2024, theUnited Nations special rapporteur on the right to foodMichael Fakhri said that Israel is "culpable" of genocide because "Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian" and because Israel was denying food to Palestinians by halting humanitarian aid and "intentionally" destroying
small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza ... We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts. Israel is not just targeting civilians, it is trying to damn the future of the Palestinian people by harming their children.[237]
After the ICJ ruling, the number of aid trucks Israel allowed into Gaza dropped by 40%.[238] In the ICJ's March reaffirmation of provisional measures, the court highlighted the "unprecedented levels of food insecurity experienced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over recent weeks, as well as the increasing risks of epidemics",[239] acknowledging that since the Court's January order there had been a "lack of Israeli compliance" resulting in "the catastrophic living conditions" deteriorating further.[240]
In March 2024, 12 Israeli human rights organisations signed an open letter accusing Israel of failing to abide by the ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid.[241][242] In April the UN special rapporteur on the right to healthTlaleng Mofokeng said Israel was "killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments", adding, "They are also knowingly and intentionally imposingfamine" and accusing Israel of "genocide".[243]
In October 2024, Israel had reportedly adopted a modified version of theGenerals' Plan.[244][245][j] The proposed plan included orders for all residents of northern Gaza to leave within a week; a full siege on water, food, and fuel; and then the arrest or killing of all who remained.[247][248] By mid-October 2024, Israel had ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza and prevented the entry of humanitarian aid for almost two weeks.[249][250] According to Stephen Devereux, avoidable deaths due to starvation as a result of Israeli policies "almost certainly constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity".[251]
On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Courtissued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant, asserting that the two "bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare".[252][253][254]
Israel lifted restrictions on aid into Gaza in January–February 2025 during the first stage ofthe January ceasefire. But on 2 March, Israel announced that all humanitarian aid would be blocked indefinitely unless Hamas agreed to alter the terms of the ceasefire deal, which Hamas refused to do.[255][256] Within four days, food supplies in Gaza had rapidly depleted while the price of food had more than doubled. Aid agencies such asOxfam andUNICEF warned of mass starvation if the aid freeze continued. Oxfam policy lead Bushra Khalidi predicted "the total collapse of systems that sustain life".[257] Lawyer Salah Abdel-Ati said Israel's actions were illegal under theGeneva Conventions, which prohibits the destruction or withholding of essentials such as food in combat zones.[258]
In May 2025, after blocking the import of all food, medicine, and fuel for two and a half months,[259] Netanyahu announced that Israel would allow "minimal humanitarian aid" into Gaza due to international pressure.[206] Israel has proposed using private companies to distribute aid to the south of Gaza only. The plan is backed by the US, which has created theGaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to deliver aid without "Hamas stealing, looting or leveraging this assistance for its own ends". The United Nations aid chiefTom Fletcher criticised the plan, saying it "forces further displacement" and "makes aid conditional on political and military aims".[260] Numerous Palestinians have beenkilled by Israeli forces while approaching GHF aid distribution points.[261]
In August 2025, it was reported that Israel planned to surge aid to other parts of Gaza while cutting off all aid to Gaza City to force residents to evacuate while Israel takes over the city.[262] As of August 2025, projections show the entire population is experiencing "high levels of acute food insecurity", with about 641,000 people experiencingcatastrophic levels.[44] The IPC confirmed famine is taking place in theGaza Governorate.[44][263]
Two weeks after theOctober 2025 ceasefire came into effect, dozens of NGOs, including theNorwegian Refugee Council andDoctors Without Borders, announced that Israel was arbitrarily blocking their shipments of aid to Gaza. World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "the situation still remains catastrophic because what's entering is not enough" and "there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food".[264][265]
By December 2025, the food situation improved, with famine and catastrophic food insecurity (level 5) no longer happening; but 27% of the population still experienced emergency-level food insecurity (level 4) and another 50% of the population experienced crisis-level food insecurity (level 3).[266][267] At the turn of the year, Israel's expulsion of Doctors Without Borders and several other humanitarian organizations from Gaza raised fears that the effects of malnutrition on the population would not be adequately treated or monitored; these organizations helped alleviate effects of famine/malnutrition by treating children with severe acute malnutrition.[268][269]
An aerial view showing destruction in Rafah after Israeli forces withdrawal and as the ceasefire took hold, Gaza Strip
Damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on 9 October 2023.
Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City
Mark Levene and Elyse Semerdjian locate the mass destruction of infrastructure within Israel'sDahiya doctrine, implemented against Gaza since 2006, with Levene calling iturbicide and a tool of genocide.[270][271] In October 2024,Forensic Architecture concluded, "Israel's military campaign in Gaza is organised, systematic, and intended to destroy conditions of life and life-sustaining infrastructure".[272]
In July 2025,The Guardian reported that "about 70% of the structures in Gaza are either completely destroyed or severely damaged". Israel was reportedly paying contractors up to 5,000 shekels per building demolished.[273] In February 2025 it was reported that at least 15 children had died ofhypothermia over the winter due to Israel's destruction of housing and power facilities.[274] In May 2025, Netanyahu said, "we are destroying more and more homes, and Gazans have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip."[275]
In a December 2024 report, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing acts of genocide in Gaza by targeting water and sanitation infrastructure and depriving Palestinians of adequate access to water. The report alleges that Israel intentionally damaged solar panels powering treatment plants, a reservoir, and warehouses, while blocking repair materials and fuel for generators, cutting electricity supplies, and attacking workers.[276][277] According to B'Tselem, Israel has destroyed 84% of Gaza's water facilities,[278] while in a report authored and published by theWorld Bank,European Union, and United Nations it was reported that 89% of Gaza's water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities had been destroyed or damaged.[279] UN Special RapporteurPedro Arrojo-Agudo called these attacks "an important part of a genocidal strategy."[280]
Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, has been razed;[281] this has been mostly carried out by bulldozing and controlled demolitions of buildings, rather than by aerial bombardment.[282] In July 2025, the BBC reported that Israel had engaged in controlled demolitions of civilian infrastructure, potentially in violation of the Geneva Convention.[283] The BBC reported an IDF spokesperson saying, "Hamas and other terrorist organizations conceal military assets in densely populated civilian areas. The IDF identifies and destroys terrorist infrastructure located, among other places, within buildings in these areas."[283] In November 2025, the BBC reported that Israel had demolished over 1,500 more buildings in Gaza since the ceasefire with Hamas.[284] A spokesperson for the IDF said it was acting "in accordance with the ceasefire framework" as the demolitions occurred behind theYellow Line, in the portion of Gaza under Israeli military control, which comprises 53% of Gaza.[284]
Return of displaced people via Al-Rasheed Street after ceasefire, January 2025, Gaza Strip
An aerial photo of displaced Palestinians waiting in northern Nuseirat to return to their homes in Gaza
An aerial view of Al-Mawasi area where displaced Palestinians live in tents, Gaza Strip
Since October 2023, Israel's evacuation orders have displaced 1.9 million people—nearly Gaza's entire population—through unclear, inconsistent directives, often issued amid bombings, leaving civilians with no safe routes or destinations. Humanitarian zones were repeatedly attacked, while Israel blocked aid, leading to starvation, destroyed infrastructure, and uninhabitable conditions. Senior Israeli officials openly declared intentions to reduce Gaza's territory and push Palestinians out, reinforcing policies ofethnic cleansing and permanent displacement. Human Rights Watch reported that Israel's systematic forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza amounts towar crimes andcrimes against humanity.[285][286][41] South Africa and others criticised theGaza Strip evacuations as a key component of the genocide.[287] B'Tselem mentions statements by Israeli high-ranking officials that a "central objective of the war" was ethnic cleansing.[275]
On 6 October 2024, Israel designated northern Gaza as a combat zone and ordered the civilian population to evacuate.[288][289] Both Israeli military analysts and theAl Mezan Center for Human Rights alleged that this was the first stage of the "Generals' Plan", a policy proposed by the former Israeli generalGiora Eiland to force Palestinians out of Gaza.[290] TheUN Human Rights Office said that Israel may have caused the "destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza's northernmost governorate through death and displacement."[291]
Destruction of UNRWAel-Sheikh Radwan health centre, February 2024
Palestinian Red Crescent Personnel inspect a destroyed ambulance in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
In November 2023 inThe Lancet and in February 2024 inBMJ Global Health, multiple doctors detailed how the targeting of Gazan health infrastructure and medical personnel, coupled with rhetoric used by Israeli politicians, amounts to genocide.[293] Legal scholars have supported this assessment.[294][188]Gaza's healthcare system faced humanitarian crises as a result of Israel's assault: hospitals began shutting down by 23 October as they ran out of fuel.[295] When hospitals lost power, multiplepremature babies inNICUs died.[296][297][298] Israeli airstrikes have killed numerous medical staffers, and ambulances and health institutions have been destroyed.[299]Médecins Sans Frontières reported that scores of ambulances and medical facilities were damaged or destroyed,[300][301] and that its own staff were killed.[302][303] TheGaza Health Ministry said the healthcare system had "totally collapsed".[304] In April 2024, UN special rapporteur on the right to healthTlaleng Mofokeng said, "The destruction of healthcare facilities continues to catapult to proportions yet to be fully quantified."[243]
As of February 2025, at least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza are believed to be detained by Israel, with another 24 missing after being taken from Gaza hospitals. Al-Shifa hospital directorMohammed Abu Salmiya, detained for seven months and released without charges, detailed the abuses he faced and said that in Israeli prisons "no day passes without torture".[305]
Preventing births
In March 2025, a UN investigation concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza by systematically destroying its reproductive healthcare facilities while imposing a siege preventing necessary medications for deliveries, pregnancies, andneonatal care, causing "irreversible" harm to Palestinians' reproductive prospects in Gaza. The commission also found that Israeli forces intentionally destroyed Gaza's mainin-vitrofertility clinic, Al-Basma IVF Centre, which served 2,000 to 3,000 patients a month. Israel destroyed about 4,000embryos and 1,000 specimens ofsperm and unfertilisedeggs in the attack.[306][307] No evidence that the building was used for military purposes was found. The commission concluded that the destruction of the clinic "was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act".[308][309][310] UN experts reported that they had found that Israel had systematically destroyed women's health care facilities and used sexual violence as a war strategy, thereby carrying out genocidal acts against Palestinians.[309][310]
According to statistics from theGaza Ministry of Health reported byPhysicians for Human Rights, the birth rate in Gaza in May and June 2025 had fallen 41% from the same months in 2022. The ministry also reported an increase in infant mortality, miscarriages, and premature births in Gaza during this time.[311]
Destruction of cultural, religious and educational sites
Amnesty International notes that "while the destruction of historical, cultural and religious property or heritage is not considered a prohibited act under the Genocide Convention, the ICJ has established that such destruction can provide evidence of intent to physically destroy the group when carried out deliberately."[312] TheLemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has said that Israel's deliberate destruction of cemeteries in Gaza indicates genocidal intent because it enacts the "erasure of a people's...historical presence".[130]
Since 7 October 2023, the IDF has been accused of using excessive force against dozens of schools;[313][314] theft;[315] desecration and mutilation of deceased Palestinians;[161] and making no, or an inadequate, distinction between Hamas forces and civilians.[316] The targeting of cultural and educational sites have also been cited as genocidal acts, as has the use ofwhite phosphorus.[k][318]
On 18 April 2024, UN experts inGeneva condemned Israel for its "scholasticide" in Gaza, finding that it had destroyed more than 80% of schools and killed 5,000 students, 261 teachers, and dozens of professors.[48]
Amnesty International identified at least four instances in which there was "no imperative military necessity" for the deliberate destruction of Gazan cultural and religious sites:[319] the destruction of the Al-Mughraqa campus ofAl-Azhar University, the Al-Zahra campus ofIsraa University, the Al-Dhilal mosque and Bani Suheila cemetery in Khan Younis, and the Al-Istiqlal mosque in Khan Younis.[320] Amnesty International pointed to the attitudes and behaviour of Israeli soldiers involved in the demolitions of these sites in videos posted on social media as evidence that these actions demonstrated genocidal intent. Amnesty International also noted the overall volume of destruction of Gazan cultural, historical and religious sites, including Gaza's central archives.[321]
As of January 2025, Israel had destroyed 815 mosques and 19 cemeteries during the Gaza war.[322]
In June 2025, UN experts published a report saying Israel had committed the crime against humanity ofextermination for "killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites". According to the report, Israel has destroyed over 90% of educational buildings in Gaza.[323]
Serious bodily and mental harm, and sexual violence
Yamen was injured in his leg during his sixth displacement in Jabalia refugee camp, and he was forced to flee while wounded.
A Palestinian refugee carries his injured grandchildren from the Israeli bombing of Nuseirat Camp, Gaza Strip
The number of injured since 7 October 2023 due to Israeli military actions is greater than 170,000,[5][18] and Gaza has the most child amputees per capita worldwide.[42] In the same period over 1,040 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank.[324] Israel has been accused of indiscriminatemass detentions[325][326] while prisoners said they were threatened with mutilation,[327] death, arson, and rape,[328] and torturing Palestinians detained without charges.[329] By March 2024, an estimated 17,000 children were "wounded children, no surviving family" (WCNSF), a new medical term.[330][164]
In August 2024, the UN OHCHR reported receiving testimony from Palestinians imprisoned atSde Teiman detention camp about rape and sexual assault perpetrated on detainees.[3] The Lemkin Institute considers this and similar reports to be indicative of "Sexualized Violence During Genocide", or sexual violence being used to destroy a group.[331]
As of 25 August 2024, the UN estimates that most of Gaza's 2.2 million people are confined to roughly 15 square miles (39 km2), causing a critical lack of basic services, like clean water, and diseases spreading widely, such asHepatitis C.[332]
Amnesty International reported that the pattern of abuses inside Israeli prisons "underscores the systematic dehumanization and mental and physical abuse of Palestinians in Gaza and may also be taken into account with a view to inferring genocidal intent from pattern of conduct."[333] According to theIndependent International Commission of Inquiry, gender-based and sexual violence were committed "to dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part."[334] According to a UN committee, the Gaza war has resulted in disabilities for more than 21,000 children as of September 2025.[43]
Waste has accumulated near populated areas across Gaza, posing environmental and health risks.
Israel's bombing in Gaza causedsevere environmental devastation, destroying vegetation, water, sanitation, and waste infrastructure and contaminating air, soil, and water. The UN and environmental groups report damage consistent with "ecocide", citing massive debris, untreated sewage, and toxic pollution. These conditions have triggered disease outbreaks, respiratory illnesses, and long-term health risks.[335][4][336] Multiple commentators have argued that deliberate ecocide is a central component of Israel's genocide in Gaza.[337][338][339] Scholars have argued that the destruction of the environment sustaining a population including its water, land, and food systems constitutes a genocidal act, as it inflicts conditions of life calculated to destroy the group, in whole or in part.[l][341][342]
Targeting of specific professions
Educators
The killing of educators and destruction of educational infrastructure such as schools and universities has been recognised by scholars as a component of the Gaza genocide.[343][344] In support of its 2025 resolution declaring that Israel's policies and actions in Gaza had met the legal definition of genocide, the IAGS wrote, "Israel has destroyed schools, universities, libraries, museums, and archives, all of them essential to the continued existence of Palestinian collective well-being and identity".[24]
United Nations special rapporteurs and experts suggested there was "an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as 'scholasticide'". They said the attacks "present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society".[48]
In its filing with the ICJ charging Israel with the crime of genocide, South Africa cited the destruction of four universities and the killing of leading Palestinian academics ProfessorSufian Tayeh, president of the Islamic University; Ahmed Hamdi Abo Absa, dean of the software engineering department at the University of Palestine; Muhammad Eid Shabir, professor of immunology and virology and former president of the Islamic University of Gaza; andRefaat Alareer, poet and professor of comparative literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza.[51]
Researchers at Birzeit university called the killing of educators "deliberate and systematic", saying that "94 professors were targeted and killed by Israeli occupation".[345]
Journalists
Press freedom organisations and human rights groups have characterised the systematic killing of Palestinian journalists as a component of the genocide.[346]The International Federation of Journalists reported that 56 media professionals were killed in 2025 alone as part of the "genocidal war on Gaza".[347]
South Africa cited Palestinian journalists being "killed at a rate significantly higher than has occurred in any conflict in the past 100 years" as part of itsapplication accusing Israel of genocide.[51]
The IDF has been accused of directly targeting journalists and media organisations despite clear marking and protective measures. Al Jazeera reported that 278 journalists and 706 family members of Palestinian journalists have been killed during the "genocidal war" since October 2023.[348][349][page needed]
ABrown University study found that Israel had killed more journalists in Gaza since October 2023 than "the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined".[350][page needed][351]
TheCPJ observed that "Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented" and that there was a "pattern of journalists in Gaza reporting receiving threats, and subsequently, their family members being killed".[352][353]
In a case filed with theICC, theRSF accused the IDF of the targeted killing of seven journalists in Gaza between 22 October and 15 December 2023: Asem Al-Barsh, Bilal Jadallah, Montaser Al-Sawaf, Rushdi Al Siraj, Hassouna Salim, Sari Mansour, and Al Jazeera's Abudaqa. Targeting journalists is a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.[354]
ThePCHR alleges that this killing is to intimidate and deter journalists from coverage of current events.[349]
Medical workers
The systematic killing of Palestinian medical workers has been characterised as a central component of the genocide, sometimes termed "medicide" (the use of military force and state policy to systematically destroy a society's access to medical care).[355][356]
Physicians for Human Rights Israel said the killing and detention of over 1,800 healthcare workers, including senior specialists, is not incidental to war but a deliberate strategy to decimate medical capacity and render future recovery nearly impossible and that this met the criteria for genocide.[357]
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to HealthTlaleng Mofokeng called the assault on Gaza's medical sector "medicide" and a component of the ongoing genocide.[358][359]
Answers to the question "How would you define Israel's military campaign in Gaza?" among scholars specialized in Middle East studies in a January 31–February 19, 2025 survey.[360]
Genocide (46%)
Major war crimes akin to genocide (36%)
Major war crimes but not akin to genocide (9%)
Unjustified actions but not major war crimes (4%)
Justified actions under the right to self-[defence] (4%)
I don't know (2%)
"Note: Percentages may not always add to one hundred due to rounding."
There is a growing consensus among genocide and Holocaust scholars, international legal experts, human rights organisations, and governments that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide. Israel and its supporters deny the accusation.[361][362][360]
Relationship to Zionism, the Nakba, the broader Palestinian genocide accusation, and Israeli ideology
In May 2025,NRC wrote that leading scholars ingenocide studies are "surprisingly unanimous" that Israel is committing genocide.[378] Some scholars ofHolocaust studies, such asNorman J. W. Goda andJeffrey Herf, have said that Israel is not committing genocide.[379] Others, such as Israeli professorsRaz Segal andShira Klein [he], have argued that Israel's actions should be analysed as a case of genocide,[378][380][381] citing, among other things, attacks on infrastructure, food, and water as genocidal.[382]Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies atBrown University and anIsrael Defense Forces veteran, has said: "intent has been publicly expressed by numerous officials and leaders. But intent can also be derived from a pattern of operations on the ground, and this pattern became clear by May 2024".[383]Amos Goldberg andDaniel Blatman, historians of the Holocaust and genocide studies at theHebrew University of Jerusalem, noted that "most acts of genocide are perceived by their perpetrators as acts of self-defense against their victims" and the Gaza war "falls into this category."[384]
In December 2023, former International Criminal Court chief prosecutorLuis Moreno Ocampo toldAl Jazeera that the siege of Gaza was a form of genocide due to Israel's imposing conditions that would lead to the deaths of Palestinians.[386] In December, in correspondence published inThe Lancet, multiple specialists in international medicine and humanitarian aid reiterated warnings of the risk of genocide, while detailing how Israel's blocking of humanitarian support and aid were leading to unnecessary deaths, and how the death rate would continue to worsen. They called on signatories to the Genocide Convention to enforce a ceasefire on Israel.[387] Nimer Sultany argues that, by mid-2024, a growing consensus among legal scholars suggested that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.[388] Multiple public declarations from journals and academic organisations have warned of a potential genocide and declared opposition to an ongoing genocide.[143][389][390]
In January 2024, a number of prominent Israelis, represented by the human-rights lawyerMichael Sfard, sent Israel's attorney general and state prosecutor an open letter detailing examples of "the discourse of annihilation, expulsion and revenge".[391] The signatories said the Israeli judiciary was ignoring incitement to genocide in Gaza.[391] In January 2024, the American political scientist and international relations scholarJohn Mearsheimer wrote that, while he had believed during the first two months of the war that Israel was "guilty of serious war crimes", once the2023 Gaza war ceasefire ended, it "became clear" to him "that Israeli leaders were in fact seeking to physically destroy a substantial portion of Gaza's Palestinian population".[392]William Schabas, an expert ininternational criminal law,[393] said that South Africa's case was the strongest of all recent genocide cases at theInternational Court of Justice, citing the destruction of Gazan infrastructure and statements by Israeli politicians that Gazans are "human animals" and that Israel would deny them electricity, water, and medical care.[394][395][396]
On 26 January 2024, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling finding that the rights asserted inSouth Africa's filing were "plausible", and an order requiring that Israel take all measures in its power to prevent acts of genocide, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza.[52][397] Judge ad hocAharon Barak dissented from the majority's view that genocide-related rights were "plausible", writing that South Africa had not demonstrated genocidal intent on Israel's part.[398]
In October 2024, legal scholarConor Gearty called Israel genocidal, pointing to the continued attacks on schools and hospitals and the lack of internal investigations by Israeli authorities into potential crimes.[403] Some scholars, particularly those associated withThird World approaches to international law, have argued that the international community's failure to treat Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide and respond accordingly has harmed the principles of theinternational order and international law itself, and exposed the deficiencies of international governance.[404][405][406][page needed] Legal scholar José Manuel Barreto argues that "the Palestinian genocide has unveiled the deep colonial structure of the international legal order" and identifies events in Gaza with the history of genocides in the colonised world, which he says theWestphalian system has historically failed to prevent.[405]
In December 2024, Amnesty International published a report accusing Israel of committing genocide.[407][408][409] After the Amnesty report, Human Rights Watch also said Israel had committed "genocidal acts" and that Israeli officials statements may indicate genocidal intent.[410]
In April 2025, the barristerMichael Mansfield said there was "no question" that genocide was occurring.[411] In May 2025, Luigi Daniele, a lecturer atNottingham Law School, noted a link between the IDF's justification for its conduct in Gaza and theRapid Support Forces rationale in theSudanese civil war, saying it "reveals the emergence of a template to commit mass extermination and even genocide".[412] In May 2024 the legal scholar Nimer Sultany supportedForensic Architecture's assessment that Israel had weaponised international humanitarian law into "humanitarian violence".[413] This was supported in July by legal scholarNeve Gordon and the anthropologistNicola Perugini, who argued that Israel used "the law itself as a tool legitimizing genocide".[414]
In June 2025, Ambos and scholarStefanie Bock [de] wrote that it has become more difficult to deny genocidal intent.[415]
In July 2025, 1,300 professionals and academics in public health, health care, and the social sciences signed a letter acknowledging the Gaza genocide.[416] According to peace studies scholar Ernesto Verdeja, even by "the most inflexible interpretation of genocide, Gaza qualifies as genocidal".[417] In July 2025,Le Monde reported that legal experts remained divided on the question, with some agreeing that Israel was committing genocide and others viewing the charge as unsubstantiated.[64] Bartov wrote that the silence of many scholars of the Holocaust and Holocaust commemoration institutions and their disbelief that Israel could commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, or genocide threatensuniversalist interpretations of Holocaust studies and Holocaust commemoration and may lead to a decline in the relevance of Holocaust education.[418][419] Journalist Colin Jones interviewed lawyers affiliated with the US military and concluded that they see Gaza as a test case for what military conduct might be acceptable in a hypothetical war between the US and a peer power such as China.[420]
In August 2025, according to Mia Swart, a growing consensus was emerging "in international legal circles that Israel is committing genocide".[421]Craig Mokhiber, a retired UN human rights lawyer, wrote, "Never, in the modern era, have we seen such a clear-cut, article-by-article violation of the United Nations Genocide Convention, so broad a consensus in the identification of the crime".[422]
Other scholars
In March 2024, theMiddle East Studies Association condemned the "accelerating scale of genocidal violence being inflicted on the Palestinian population of Gaza", saying that Israel's conduct constitutedcultural genocide.[423] Surveys of 758 Middle East scholars by theBrookings Institution indicated a growing consensus that Israel's military campaign in Gaza was genocide.[424][425][360]
In 2025,John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at theModern War Institute at theUnited States Military Academy, argued that Israel had not demonstrated genocidal intent, based on what he called "evidence of what Israel is doing to preserve infrastructure, civilian life, to provide services".[426]
Robert Satloff of theWashington Institute for Near East Policy criticized the IAGS genocide resolution for its sourcing and for lacking independent research, noting that it passed with the support of "only one-fifth... of the organization’s membership", though he wrote that his "critique of the IAGS resolution should not be misread as endorsement of Israeli strategy and tactics in Gaza or indifference to the terrible human toll in this conflict".[427]
In its application, South Africa argued that Israel's actions "are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group".[51][433] South Africa requested that the ICJ issue aninterim order requiring Israel to "immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza".[51][433]
On 26 January 2024, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling finding that the rights asserted in South Africa's filing were "plausible" and issued an order requiring that Israel take all measures in its power to prevent acts of genocide, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza.[52][397] Later that year, South Africa asked the ICJ to order additional measures against Israel,[434] and in May, the court issued what some experts considered to be an ambiguous order but which was widely understood as requiring Israel to immediately halt itsoffensive in Rafah.[435] Israel rejected this interpretation and continued its offensive.[55]
The Israeli government spokesmanEylon Levy rejected the allegations "with disgust"[429] and accused South Africa of cooperating with Hamas,[428] calling South Africa's claims "blood libel".[436] On 2 January 2024, Israel decided to appear before the ICJ in response to South Africa's case, despite a history of ignoring international tribunals.[433] On 13 January, Netanyahu said, "No one will stop us. Not The Hague, not theAxis of Evil, no one."[437] Israeli officials accused the court of antisemitic bias.[438][439] Israel asserted that that it had taken all possible measures to safeguard civilians during its military campaign in Gaza.[440][441] Someleft-wing Israeli politicians, includingOfer Cassif, supported South Africa's case.[442]
International Court of Justice Vice PresidentJulia Sebutinde was one of the 17 judges ruling on provisional measures inSouth Africa's genocide case against Israel. She voted against all the provisional measures, and was the onlypermanent judge to vote against any of the measures.[443][444] In her dissenting opinion, Sebutinde wrote, "multiple concrete actions were taken by Israel to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid for the civilian population of Gaza."[445] She wasaccused of plagiarizing large parts of her dissenting opinion from pro-Israel sources,[446][447]Wikipedia, and theBBC. According to political scientistNorman Finkelstein, "at least 32 percent of Sebutinde's dissent was plagiarised", including from writings byDouglas Feith.[448]
In May 2024, Khan applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, saying he had reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.[449] The list of crimes did not include genocide, which is legally distinct fromextermination.[450] The warrants were issued in November 2024.[254]
As part of a December 2024 report accusing Israel of genocide, Amnesty International called on the ICC "to urgently consider the commission of the crime of genocide by Israeli officials since 7 October 2023 in the ongoing investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine".[451][452] Also in December 2024, the Israeli law professor Omer Shatz filed a complaint with the ICC naming eight Israeli political and media figures he believed were responsible for incitement to genocide.[453] On 1 October 2025, a complaint was filed with the ICC accusing Italian Prime MinisterGiorgia Meloni and other officials of genocide for their support of Israel.[454][455] The US and Israel have politically pressured and imposed sanctions on the ICC due to its positions during the war.[456]
In November 2023, theCenter for Constitutional Rights sued US PresidentJoe Biden, Secretary of StateAntony Blinken, and Secretary of DefenceLloyd Austin,[457][458][92] alleging that Israel's "mass killings", targeting of civilian infrastructure, and forced expulsions amount to genocide,[149][457] and that the US was capable of deterring Israel from committing these acts due to the countries' close relationship.[149] Afederal judge dismissed the case in January 2024, ruling that theUS Constitution prevented his court from determining foreign policy, but writing that "as the ICJ has found, it is plausible that Israel's conduct amounts to genocide".[459] The judge also commented that he would have preferred to have issued the injunction and urged Biden to rethink US policy.[460][461][457]
In February 2024, lawyers representing Palestinians in Germany filed a criminal complaint against politicians including ChancellorOlaf Scholz, Foreign MinisterAnnalena Baerbock, Economic MinisterRobert Habeck, and Finance MinisterChristian Lindner for "aiding and abetting" genocide in Gaza.[462][463] ThePublic Prosecutor General dismissed the complaint due to lack ofreasonable suspicion.[464] The lawyers filed a similar complaint against current and former German government members in September 2025.[464][465]
In March 2024, the Nicaraguan government initiated proceedings against Germany at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention concerning Germany's support for Israel in the Gaza war.[466][467] It soughtprovisional measures of protection, including resumption of suspended German funding of theUNRWA and cessation of military supplies to Israel.[467]
In March 2024, Birchgrove Legal referred Australian Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese, Foreign MinisterPenny Wong, Opposition LeaderPeter Dutton, and others to the ICC as accessories to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, citing the defunding of UNRWA, the provision of military aid, and "unequivocal political support" for Israel's actions during the Gaza war.[468][469][importance?]
In November 2025, the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office inTurkey issued arrest warrants for 37 Israeli suspects on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Officials named in the Turkish indictment included Netanyahu, security ministerItamar Ben-Gvir, defence ministerIsrael Katz (who had replaced Gallant), and IDF chief of staffEyal Zamir.[470]
All UN states that are signatories to the Genocide Convention are obliged "to employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible" and must not provide "means to enable or facilitate the commission of the crime".[471] Multiple scholars argue that the inaction of the international community to confirmed atrocities in Gaza expose the irrelevance and weakness of theResponsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine.[472][473][474] Many Western countries, especially the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, have supported Israel by offering diplomatic, military, and intelligence support.[475] Some journalists,[476][477] scholars,[478][479][480] commentators,[481] and UN officials,[482][483] say the actions of Western countries make themcomplicit in genocide.
TheIndependent International Commission of Inquiry on Palestine said, "States may be complicit in failing to prevent genocide if they do not act in compliance" with theInternational Court of Justice's orders or if they directly aid or assist in "the commission of genocide".[484] AUN Special Committee wrote, "Failing to act now... will tear apart the very foundation of the international rule of law we have collectively built to protect peace, security, and the well-being of all. Our inaction today is setting a perilous precedent for tomorrow."[22]
In March 2024, Australian Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese, Foreign MinisterPenny Wong, Opposition LeaderPeter Dutton, and others were referred to the ICC by Sydney-based firm Birchgrove Legal as accessories to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, citing the defunding ofUNRWA, the provision of military aid, and "unequivocal political support" for Israel's actions during the Gaza war.[468][469]
Abdelwahab El-Affendi, an academic in political science, has called the situation hypocritical: "yesterday's proponents of the 'responsibility to protect' doctrine are today's biggest supporters of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza."[485][486]
The United States has been a key provider of diplomatic and material support before and during the Gaza war.[493][494] It pays for around 15% of Israel's military budget and is its largest supplier of arms; it provided more than$22.8 billion to the war effort in its first year.[495] Both theBiden andTrump administrations have denied genocide in Gaza;[496]
USNational Security Council spokesmanJohn Kirby, described by Israeli media outletYnet as "an exceptionally accomplished Israeli advocate",[497] said "Israel's trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we're going to start using that word, fine, let's use it appropriately".[498]
On 13 November 2023, the New York-basedCenter for Constitutional Rights sued Biden for allegedly failing in his duties, defined under national and international laws, to prevent Israel committing genocide in Gaza in the Gaza war.[149][457] In a declaration in the lawsuit, genocide scholarWilliam Schabas said the US was "in breach of its obligation" under the1948 Genocide Convention and international law.[457][461] In January 2024 afederal judge dismissed the caseDefense for Children International – Palestine et al v. Biden et al, sayingthe Constitution prevents his court from determining foreign policy, which is reserved to the political branches of U.S. government, though he would have preferred to have issued the injunction and urged President Biden to rethink U.S. policy, writing "it is plausible that Israel's conduct amounts to genocide."[459]
From November 2023, presidentJoe Biden's support of Israel earned him the nickname "Genocide Joe".[499][498]
On 4 January 2024, the United States government acknowledged it was not conducting formal assessments of whether Israel was violating international humanitarian law.[500] In September 2024, it was reported that the Biden administration ignored or suppressed several memos from its own governmental departments describing human rights abuses taking place in Gaza.[501][502]
According to an August 2025 opinion poll, half of US voters believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and 60% oppose further military assistance.[503]
The European Union was accused of potential complicity after it did not suspend theEU-Israel Association Agreement. Secretary General of Amnesty InternationalAgnès Callamard said the EU was giving Israel a "green light" to continue its genocide and was at "risk of complicity in Israel's actions".[505][506]The Rights Forum [nl] said the decision was "shameless complicity in genocide".[507] In March 2024,Oxfam released a statement detailing its intention, alongside several other non-governmental organisations,[m] to sue Denmark to prevent arms sales to Israel, warning that by selling arms Denmark is "complicit in violations of international humanitarian law... and a plausible genocide".[508][509]
Protester holding a sign claiming theUK Labour Party leaderKeir Starmer (image blurred due to copyright) supports genocide
The British government issues licences for British companies to sell weapons to Israel (see alsoUK arms export).[510] On 12 December 2023Human Rights Watch said that selling weapons to Israel could make the UK complicit in war crimes. UK law says licences cannot be granted when there is a clear risk the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.[511]James Denselow ofSave the Children UK said, "By failing to push for a permanent end to the fighting or speak out against the weaponisation of aid,Rishi Sunak andhis government are complicit in the horror that is unfolding."[512] In December 2023, Scottish First MinisterHumza Yousaf condemned the UK's abstention from a draft UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying this would lead to the deaths of more children.[513]
In April 2024,Guy Goodwin-Gill, a professor of international law at Oxford University, voiced concern that —in light of the International Court of Justice’s finding that there is a serious risk of genocide — the United Kingdom exposed itself to responsibility if it continues exporting arms to Israel, since those weapons might be used in aggressive actions or in the commission of genocide.[514] The same month, hundreds of lawyers and legal academics published a legal opinion warning that the government risked complicity in genocide by continuing to arm Israel.[515][516]
On 2September 2024, Foreign SecretaryDavid Lammy announced he was suspending approximately 30 arms export licences to Israel after a government review concluded there was a high risk these exports were being used for severe violations of international humanitarian law.[517] At the time of the suspension, Israel had around 350 arms export licences in the UK.[518]
On 3September 2025, theScottish Government announced a ban on funding to "arms companies whose products or services are provided to countries where there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed", including Israel.[519] TheScottish Parliament also voted for a boycott of Israel and any companies providing it military support.[520]
In February 2026, noting that over 2000 UK nationals had served in the IDF during the genocide, the Public Interest Law Centre noted that the UK has a responsibility to investigate and prosecute where there is sufficient evidence.[521]
Lawsuit over export licences
The human rights groupsAl-Haq and Global Legal Action Network took legal action against the British government in December 2023, saying that the government risked violating the Genocide Convention by granting export licences for the sale of military equipment to Israel.[522]
In May 2025, a hearing began at theHigh Court of Justice to determine whether the UK had violated arms export control laws by continuing to supply Israel with components forF-35 fighter jets even after other licences were suspended. At the hearing, government lawyers argued that UK-made parts enter a global spares pool rather than being shipped directly to Israel, where it is "generally not possible to determine who the end user would be" and that suspending them "would have a critical impact on international peace and security, including NATO's defence and deterrence".[523][524]
On 30 June 2025, the court dismissed the claim, holding the "F-35 carve out" lawful; it added that some aspects of the challenge were "not for a domestic court to decide" and that the carve-out's "true nature" was that the UK would "not cease to participate in the F-35 Programme", even though some UK components would ultimately reach Israel.[525]
In October 2023, political analyst Lena Obermaier argued that Germany is complicit in Israel's war crimes against Gaza.[526] She detailed how most of Germany's most prominent news outlets have "been silent on Israeli genocidal policies". She also highlighted police suppression of pro-Palestine protests[527] as evidence of state complicity.[526] According toGermany's Federal Commissioner for the Fight against Antisemitism, accusing Israel of genocide is antisemitic.[528] Publicly accusing Israel of genocide can lead to arrest in Germany, even when the accusers are Jewish or Israeli.[529][530]
On 7 October 2025, Prime MinisterGiorgia Meloni said in an interview withRAI – Radiotelevisione italiana that a pro-Palestinian advocacy group had reported her, Defence MinisterGuido Crosetto, Foreign MinisterAntonio Tajani, andLeonardo directorRoberto Cingolani to the International Criminal Court for alleged complicity in the genocide.[531][532] The complaint, which was signed by 50 people, including law professors, lawyers, and several public figures, was filed on 1 October. It accused Meloni's government of complicity for supplying arms to Israel and urged the ICC to evaluate whether a formal investigation into the allegation could be initiated.[533] As of May 2025, Italy was the third-largest supplier of weaponry to Israel, representing around 1% of Israel's weaponry imports.[534][535] Despite the Italian government's claims that weaponry supplement to Israel had been interrupted,Leonardo, one of Italy's biggest arms companies, confirmed that the Italian government and Italian companies still export arms to Israel.[536] Francesca Albanese directly called Italy an accomplice in the Gaza genocide.[537]
Egypt has said that its closure of the Rafah crossing is done in opposition to Israeli plans to displace Palestinians.[538] Egypt rejected an Israeli proposal for Gaza to bereturned to Egypt for up to 15 years[544] and formally supported South Africa's genocide case against Israel.[545]
On 20June 2024, UN experts warned that continued arms transfers to Israel could amount to violations of international law and risk state and corporate complicity in potential genocide. They called for an immediate halt to all weapons transfers to Israel, including by such major arms manufacturers asBAE Systems,Boeing, Lockheed Martin, andCaterpillar. They also warned institutions investing in these companies, such asBank of America,BlackRock,Citigroup, andWells Fargo.[550]
In June 2025, a UN expert's report namedAlphabet,Amazon,Microsoft, andIBM as "central to Israel's surveillance apparatus and the ongoing Gaza destruction", andPalantir as a source of AI tools for the Israeli military.[551] The report also namedAllianz,Barclays, BlackRock, andBNP Paribas forunderwriting and purchasing Israeli government bonds, which the UN said are the main source of financing for Israel's military expenditures.[552]
Scholars, journalists, media analysts and human rights advocates have accused various media outlets ofcomplicity throughmedia imperialism.[553] Brazilian journalistBruno Lima Rocha Beaklini has accused Brazilian media outlets of supporting genocide against Palestinians.[478]
Several Western governments (notably the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany) reject calling Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide.[554][555][556] Belgium, Norway, and Canada have said they will abide by or await the ICJ's judgment rather than take a definitive stance.[557][558][559]
A large group of states, especially in theIslamic world, most of Africa, Latin America, and some European countries, explicitly describe Israel's actions as genocide and/or have joined or supported South Africa's ICJ case.[560] These include Ghana,[561] Turkey,[562] Malaysia,[563] Egypt,[564] Brazil,[565] Chile,[566] Colombia,[567] Spain,[568] Ireland,[569] and Slovenia.[570] On November 7, 2025, Turkey issued arrest warrants for genocide against Netanyahu and 36 colleagues.[571]
TheOrganisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), theArab League, and theAfrican Union have collectively endorsed the characterisation of Israel's actions as genocide and called for accountability and measures such as ending arms transfers.[572] In January 2025, theHague Group convened inBogotá with the aim to uphold international rulings on Gaza, end arms shipments to Israel and build a pathway to broader recognition of Palestinian statehood.[573]
Non-governmental organisations and intergovernmental organisations
In September 2025, theUN Human Rights Council'sIndependent International Commission of Inquiry issued a report concluding that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Commission found reasonable grounds to determine that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed, and continue to commit, four of the five genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.[21][591]
Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza has been a contentious topic in cultural discourse. Celebrities, athletes, public intellectuals, activists, cultural institutions and ordinary people have weighed in on the events in Gaza, as well as on the cultural and societal implications of viewing those events through the framework of genocide.[592]
Public opinion on Israel's actions in Gaza
Multiple surveys have found broad support among Jewish Israelis for the government's policies toward Gaza.[593][594][595] An August 2025 Accord Center poll found that 76% of Jewish Israelis agreed with the statement "there are no innocent people in Gaza".[596] A May 2025 survey found that 82% supported expelling Gazans, while 56% favoured also expelling Palestinians from Israel.[593] Another August 2025 poll found that 79% of Jewish Israelis were untroubled by reports of famine in Gaza.[594] According to theLemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, "the vast majority of Israelis agree with...[Israel's] plan and clearly will support anything to see it realized – fromapartheid to extermination."[597]
A September 2025AP-NORC poll found that the number of Americans who believe that Israel's military actions in Gaza have "gone too far" was increasing.[598] An October 2025Washington Post poll found that most American Jews believe Israel is committing war crimes and 39% believe it is committing genocide.[599] AQuinnipiac poll found that 50% of U.S. voters believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, including 77% of Democrats, while 64% of Republicans disagree. Additionally, 60% of voters oppose sending more U.S. military aid to Israel, with 37% sympathizing more with Palestinians and 36% with Israelis.[600]
Impact
Millions of people around the world protested Israel's actions, many of them explicitly calling for the recognition and cessation of genocide.[601]
British sociologistMartin Shaw has called the Gaza genocide "the genocide that changed the world" because of mass mobilisation against genocide. He also highlights some political victories by Israel, but "at huge cost toits global legitimacy and that of the West".[602] Israeli journalist and authorGideon Levy wrote an article inHaaretz insisting that the people of Gaza will never forget the massacres, bombardments, destruction, and trauma.[603]
Some scholars, particularly those associated withThird World approaches to international law, have argued that the international community's failure to treat Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide and respond accordingly has harmed the principles of theinternational order and international law and exposed the deficiencies of international governance.[404][405][406][page needed] José Manuel Barreto argues that "the Palestinian genocide has unveiled the deep colonial structure of the international legal order", placing the Gaza genocide in a long list of colonial genocides the international system has tolerated.[405] HistorianMark LeVine argues that Israel's actions have destroyed respect for international law and weakened the taboo against large-scale violence in response to perceived threats.[604] Dutch lawyer and professor of international lawAndré Nollkaemper [nl] has said that the United States' rejection of international law is a unique feature of the Gaza war.[605] The journalist Colin Jones interviewed lawyers affiliated with the US military and concluded that they see Gaza as a test case for what military conduct might be acceptable in a hypothetical war between the US and a peer power such as China.[420]
^This start date is the beginning of the war. Sources disagree on when the genocide started, seeBackground.
^Overall deaths since October 7th per theGaza Health Ministry,[5] which has been deemed reliable by independent organisations[6][7][8][9] and Israeli security officials.[10][11][12] The Ministry's public totals are aggregate and include both civilians and combatants.[9][13]
^A small number of these deaths (it is unclear exactly how many) were a result offriendly fire, including civilians killed by Israeli military fire while attempting to prevent their abduction by armed Palestinians and combatants killed as a result of theHannibal Directive.[83][84][85] There are up to 15 known civilian deaths from these causes: up to 13 in Be'eri, one from helicopter gunfire on a vehicle carrying a hostage,[86] and one in Kibbutz Alumim.[87] According toYnet, there was an "immense and complex quantity" of friendly-fire incidents on the part of IDF during the 7 October attack, accounting for a fifth of the 105 military deaths then recorded.[88]
^Hebrew:״הוריתי להטיל מצור מוחלט על רצועת עזה. לא יהיה חשמל, לא יהיה מזון, לא יהיה דלק הכל סגור. אנחנו נלחמים בחיות אדם ואנחנו נוהגים בהתאם״
^Per theGaza Health Ministry and Government Information Office by 3 January 2024, over 22,300 people had been confirmed dead.[172]
^47.4% were non-elderly men, 30.7% were children, 17.1% were non-elderly women, 3.0% were elderly men and 1.9% were elderly women.
^In the original Hebrew article the Haaretz reporter used the term "Extermination Zones" (שטחי ההשמדה,Shtachei Hashmada)[189] instead of the English version term "Kill Zone".
^Per the IPC manual, the starvation death rate does not necessarily have to be that high (does not have to be at least 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day) to declare catastrophic (level 5) food insecurity. However, it does need to be that high to declare famine.
^Some Israeli officials denied the plan had been adopted; however, an official familiar with the situation stated that some aspects of the plan were already in progress.[246]
^Article II of theGenocide Convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed withintent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" through acts such as(a) murder,(b) inflicting serious bodily or mental harm,(c) inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group,(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births, and(e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.[340]
^abAmnesty International report 2024, p. 13: "This report focuses on the Israeli authorities' policies and actions in Gaza as part of the military offensive they launched in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 while situating them within the broader context of Israel's unlawful occupation, and system of apartheid against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. It assesses allegations of violations and crimes under international law by Israel in Gaza within the framework of genocide under international law, concluding that there is sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide."
^Médecins Sans Frontières 2025: "Our decision to describe what's happening in Gaza as a 'genocide' is based on nearly two years of extensive, firsthand information from our teams, who are witnessing massive levels of death and destruction by Israeli forces, a campaign of ethnic cleansing and the almost total dismantling of the health care system."
^B'Tselem 2025, p. 86: "The review presented in this report leaves no room for doubt: since October 2023, the Israeli regime has been responsible for carrying out genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Killing tens of thousands of people; causing bodily or mental harm to hundreds of thousands more; destroying homes and civilian infrastructure on a massive scale; starvation, displacement, and denying humanitarian aid—all this is being perpetrated systematically, as part of a coordinated attack aimed at annihilating all facets of life in the Gaza Strip."
Sultany 2024, p. 4 : "Although legal scholars and commentators were slow to recognize the severity and urgency of the situation, this article sought to show that there is an emerging consensus that Israel's actions in Gaza are not another instance of armed conflict but instead amount to genocide"
Swart 2025, p. 3: "South Africa's actions led to an ever-growing consensus in international legal circles that Israel is committing genocide"
Lederman 2025, p. 1: "Roughly since mid-2024, there seems to have emerged a broad agreement among genocide scholars—at least those who have expressed their views on the matter—that this is indeed the case ... What followed seems to be a similar broad agreement emerging among legal scholars that this is indeed a genocide, and even those who are still hesitating find the genocide charges much more convincing."
Shaw 2025b, p. 3: "By the end of 2024, when Amnesty International published a comprehensively evidenced and legally argued case,17 the consensus that Israel was committing genocide was becoming overwhelming"
Gessen 2024: "Trachtenberg testified to a consensus opinion among historians of genocide that what is happening in Gaza can indeed be called a genocide, largely because the intent to cause death on a massive scale has been so clear in the statements of Israeli officials"
Bouranova 2024: "The opposition is political, as there is consensus amongst the international human rights legal community, many other legal and political experts, including many Holocaust scholars, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza."
"Genocide Emergency: Gaza 11 July 2025".Genocide Watch. 14 July 2025. Archived fromthe original on 31 August 2025. Retrieved8 September 2025.Israel has engaged in all of the processes of genocide described in Genocide Watch's powerful model of the genocidal process, the Ten Stages of genocide: classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, extermination, and denial.
Albanese 2024a, p. 1: "By analysing the patterns of violence and Israeli policies in its onslaught on Gaza, the present report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating that Israel has committed genocide has been met"
Dumper & Badran 2024, p. 2: "In this context we should not overlook the latest turning point in the history of Palestine—the attack by Hamas on 7th October 2023 on Israeli settlements adjacent to Gaza and the subsequent genocidal war that the state of Israel has carried out in the Gaza Strip."
International Federation for Human Rights 2024: "One year ago, the FIDH International Board, its governing body elected by all its member organisations, recognised, after extensive debate and examination, that Israel was carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza"
^Jamaluddine et al. 2025: "We estimated 64,260 deaths (95% CI 55 298–78 525) due to traumatic injury during the study period, suggesting the Palestinian MoH under-reported mortality by 41%. ... Our findings underestimate the full impact of the military operation in Gaza, as they do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation."
^abcUN 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."
Nebehay 2011: "A panel of five independent U.N. rights experts [said] the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in 'flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.'"
"Hamas hardliner Yahya Sinwar elected as Gaza leader".BBC News. 13 February 2017.Archived from the original on 22 October 2023. Retrieved15 October 2023.Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade around Gaza aimed at preventing attacks by militants there, though the measure has been condemned by rights groups as a form of collective punishment.
^Ackerman, Seth (4 January 2024)."There was an Iron Wall in Gaza".Jacobin.Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved8 January 2024.The unemployment rate soared to "probably the highest in the world", four-fifths of the population were forced to rely on humanitarian assistance, three-quarters became dependent on food aid, more than half faced "acute food insecurity", one in ten children were stunted by malnutrition, and over 96 percent of potable water became unsafe for human consumption.
^"Hamas leader Haniyeh: Battle 'will spread to West Bank, Jerusalem'".Arab News.Associated Press andReuters. 8 October 2023.Archived from the original on 18 October 2023.The leader of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, said Saturday's assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, violence at Al-Aqsa and increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians, and growth of settlements.
^Bergman, Ronen; Zitun, Yoav (10 January 2024)."hahor'a: lemanoa mimchavlim lechzor le'eza tavivkel mechir, gam am yesh itam hatofim"ההוראה: למנוע ממחבלים לחזור לעזה 'בכל מחיר', גם אם יש איתם חטופים [The instructions: prevent terrorists from returning to Gaza "at all costs" even if there are hostages with them].Ynet (in Hebrew).Archived from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved12 January 2024.haha'arkot hen ki beshtach shvin yishuvi ha'otef lirtzu'a nehargu ke'elef mechavlim vemistananim. le brur beshlav ze kma mehachatofim nehargu beshel hifalet hapkuda hazu.ההערכות הן כי בשטח שבין יישובי העוטף לרצועה נהרגו כאלף מחבלים ומסתננים. לא ברור בשלב זה כמה מהחטופים נהרגו בשל הפעלת הפקודה הזו. [It is estimated that about a thousand terrorists and infiltrators were killed in the area between the settlements of the encirclement and the Strip. It is not clear at this stage how many of the hostages were killed as a result of the operation of this order.]
^Bergman, Ronen; Zitun, Yoav (12 January 2024)."hashe'ot ha'roshonot shel hashevet hischura"השעות הראשונות של השבת השחורה [The first hours of Black Saturday].Yedioth Ahronoth (in Hebrew).Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved19 January 2024.hora'ot lefetuch bash al rakvi mechavlim shadheru le'eza, gam am yesh hashesh shish behem hatofim—me'in garsa mechodshet le "nohel haniva'al"הוראות לפתוח באש על רכבי מחבלים שדהרו לעזה, גם אם יש חשש שיש בהם חטופים—מעין גרסה מחודשת ל"נוהל חניבעל" [orders to open fire on terrorist vehicles that were racing to Gaza, even if there were concerns that they contained hostages—a kind of renewed version of the "Hannibal Procedure"]
^Zitun, Yoav (12 December 2023)."One-fifth of troop fatalities in Gaza due to friendly fire or accidents, IDF reports".Ynet.Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved15 December 2023.Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF believes that beyond the operational investigations of the events, it would not be morally sound to investigate these incidents due to the immense and complex quantity of them that took place in the kibbutzim and southern Israeli communities due to the challenging situations the soldiers were in at the time.
^B'Tselem 2021: "A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime. Israeli apartheid, which promotes the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians, was not born in one day or of a single speech. It is a process that has gradually grown more institutionalized and explicit, with mechanisms introduced over time in law and practice to promote Jewish supremacy. These accumulated measures, their pervasiveness in legislation and political practice, and the public and judicial support they receive—all form the basis for our conclusion that the bar for labeling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met."
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.'
^Borger, Julian (11 January 2024)."ICJ case against Israel could finally empower the genocide convention".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077. Retrieved22 January 2026.In 2007, the court [ICJ] ruled that Serbia had failed to prevent the 1995 genocide at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a case of a victim taking an alleged perpetrator to court, but it has never yet held a state responsible for the commission of genocide.
^"Legal concepts and questions".Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.Archived from the original on 8 August 2024. "There is no minimum number of victims, but the part of the group targeted must be significant enough that its destruction would impact the group as a whole."
^Stanton, Gregory H (25 May 2025)."Israel's Twelve Tactics of Denial".Genocide Watch. Retrieved23 September 2025.Many who have not read the Genocide Convention think genocide can only be proven if the intent is to destroy a whole people. But the Convention clearly states that intent to destroy part of a people is enough to prove genocide.
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 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.""
^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."
^"Widescale destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza".Museums Association. 30 January 2024. Archived fromthe original on 18 August 2025. Retrieved29 September 2025.The destruction of cultural heritage, which Palestinians have accused Israel of targeting deliberately, was cited as evidence in South Africa's case to the UN International Court of Justice that the state is committing acts of genocide in Gaza.
^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"
^Lederman 2025, p. 2: "The case of Gaza...shows us again why the meaning of intent in the Genocide Convention should be reinterpreted...to include the foreseeable consequences of a given policy when its meaning is the genocidal destruction of a group or a severe harm to it as a group—a knowledge-based rather than purpose-based concept of genocide. Such a concept points to...moving away from the focus on obscure mental states of individual perpetrators to the collective process that leads to genocide."
^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."
Murphy 2025: "U.N. experts said in a report on Tuesday that Israel committed the crime against humanity of 'extermination' by killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, part of a 'concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life.'"
Bayoumi 2025: "...today it is Israel's acts of extermination and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, funded and enabled at every turn by a complicit west..."
Nashed 2025:"'The fact that the claims made by the RSF in Sudan resemble the claims Israel is making in Gaza … reveals the emergence of a template to commit mass extermination and even genocide,' said Luigi Daniele, a senior lecturer on IHL at Nottingham Law School."
^"Video shows Gaza civilian shot and killed in group waving white flag".NBC News. 24 January 2024. Archived fromthe original on 26 September 2025. Retrieved21 November 2025.... video of a group of unarmed civilians waving a white flag in a designated Khan Younis "safe zone" being fired on, apparently by Israeli troops positioned nearby. One of the men was fatally wounded in the incident.
^abc"Mass graves in Gaza show victims' hands were tied, says UN rights office".UN News.United Nations. 23 April 2024. Archived fromthe original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved21 November 2025.A total of 283 bodies were recovered at Nasser Hospital ... 'Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes' ... 'Reports suggest that there were 30 Palestinian bodies buried in two graves in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City ... There are reports that the hands of some of these bodies were also tied'
^abcdeKhatib, McKee & Yusuf 2024: "Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population's inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip. In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375,259, this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip."
^Abraham 2024: "the sources ['six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination'] explained that a major reason for the unprecedented death toll from Israel's current bombardment is the fact that the army has systematically attacked targets in their private homes, alongside their families — in part because it was easier from an intelligence standpoint to mark family houses using automated systems."
^Bloxham 2025, pp. 23–24: "When considering the total 'excess mortality,' we need to add the Palestinians who have died because of the blockade in combination with the IDF's destruction of health and sanitation and food infrastructure. As public health experts noted, in many wars, 'most deaths' are 'due to the indirect [sic] impacts of war: malnutrition, communicable disease, exacerbations of noncommunicable disease, [and] maternal and infant disorders.'117 'Indirect' would be the wrong word for this conflict given the nature of Israeli policies, including the systematic obstruction of supplies into Gaza."
^"USA Letter".Gaza Healthcare Letters. 2 October 2024. Archived fromthe original on 9 October 2024. Retrieved21 October 2024.
^Stamatopoulou-Robbins 2024: "In addition to killing people directly through traumatic injuries, wars cause "indirect deaths" by destroying, damaging, or causing deterioration of economic, social, psychological and health conditions. Most expansively, this report describes the causal pathways that can be expected to lead to far larger numbers of indirect deaths. These deaths result from diseases and other population-level health effects that stem from war's destruction of public infrastructure and livelihood sources, reduced access to water and sanitation, environmental damage, and other such factors. This report builds on a foundation of previous Costs of War research for its framework and methodology in covering the most significant chains of impact, or causal pathways, to indirect war deaths in Gaza and the West Bank. Unlike in combat, these deaths do not necessarily occur immediately or in the close aftermath of the battles which many observers focus on. While it will take years to assess the full extent of these population-level health effects, they will inevitably lead to far higher numbers of deaths than direct violence."
^"Appendix to letter of October 2, 2024 re: American physicians observations from the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023"(PDF).Gaza Healthcare Letters. 2 October 2024. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 7 October 2024. Retrieved17 October 2024.These are the most conservative estimates of the death toll that can be made with the given available data as of September 30, 2024. It is highly likely that the real number of deaths in Gaza from this conflict is far higher than this most conservative estimate. Without an immediate ceasefire the death toll will only continue to mount, especially among young children.
^Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water (Report).Human Rights Watch. 19 December 2024.Archived from the original on 9 February 2025. Retrieved20 January 2025.Israeli authorities' and forces' actions to deprive the population of Gaza of access to water amount to acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Specifically, their actions amount to deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Genocidal intent may also be inferred from Israeli authorities' and forces' continued actions to deprive Palestinians in Gaza of water, despite clear data and warnings from the United Nations since October and orders from the International Court of Justice calling for the provision of water since January, alongside Israeli authorities' statements, and therefore these acts may amount to the crime of genocide.
^Independent International Commission of Inquiry 2025, p. 39: "175. The Commission finds that the ISF intentionally attacked and destroyed the Basma IVF clinic which was the main fertility centre in Gaza. The ISF destroyed all of the reproductive material that was stored for the future conception of Palestinians. The Commission did not find any evidence that this IVF clinic was a legitimate military target at the time that it was attacked by the ISF. The Commission concludes that the destruction of the Basma IVF clinic was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act under the Rome Statute and Genocide Convention. The Commission also concludes that this was done with the intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, in whole or in part, and that this is the only inference that could reasonably be drawn from the acts in question"
^Independent International Commission of Inquiry 2025, p. 1: "The Commission also examines the sharp increase in sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by members of the Israeli Security Forces and settlers online and in person across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. It also examines how sexual and gender-based violence has taken different forms when committed against male and female members of the Palestinian community in order to dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part."
^Abuawad, Ahlam; Griffiths, Mark; Edwards, Graham; Eftekhari, Adan; El-Ebweini, Mohammed; Al-Najar, Husam; Butmeh, Abeer; Abu Dayyeh, Rasha; Al-Shewy, Mohamed; Aker, Amira (4 November 2024). "From Ecocide to Genocide: A Call to Action for Scientists Globally to Address the Destruction in Gaza".SSRN5021472.
^abcBouranova 2024: "The opposition is political, as there is consensus amongst the international human rights legal community, many other legal and political experts, including many Holocaust scholars, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza."
^"Four Facts about Israel's Genocide".Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention. 18 May 2025. Archived fromthe original on 21 June 2025. Retrieved23 September 2025.Israel's genocide against Palestinians involves the planned and entirely intentional murder and forced displacement of all Palestinians from their ancestral homes across historical Palestine using all available means. It has been going on since Israel's founding, but sped up significantly first after Netanyahu assumed power in 2022 and again after October 7, 2023
^abDonoghue 2024, 5:10 ("The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide, and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court.");Order,S. Afr., No. 192 (ICJ 26 January 2024), ¶ 54 ("In the Court's view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible. This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel's compliance with the latter's obligations under the Convention.").
^Mokhiber, Craig (March 2025). "Law on trial: Gaza and the future of the international legal order".Dialectical Anthropology.49 (1):121–144.doi:10.1007/s10624-025-09764-0.
Wintour 2024: "a directive widely seen to have instructed Israel to completely stop its military offensive"
Clayton 2024a: "It was widely viewed as an unambiguous statement: The top United Nations court ordered Israel to immediately halt its military assault on Rafah—a dramatic intervention that left the nation and its chief ally, the U.S., increasingly isolated on the world stage."
^abKolter, Max (20 September 2025)."Waffenexporte: Merz, Scholz und Co. wegen Beihilfe strafbar?" [Weapons exports: Are Merz, Scholz and Co. liable to prosecution for aiding and abetting?].Legal Tribune Online [de] (in German). Archived fromthe original on 18 December 2025. Retrieved10 November 2025.In der Vergangenheit reagierte man in Karlsruhe auf derlei PR-Aktionen gelassen. Bereits Anfang 2024 hatte es eine Strafanzeige gegen Mitglieder der Ampel-Regierung wegen der Unterstützung Israels u.a. durch Waffenlieferungen gegeben. Man entschied sich gegen Ermittlungen – kein Anfangsverdacht. Dass sich an dieser Haltung etwas ändert, kann man sich kaum vorstellen. [In the past, officials in Karlsruhe reacted calmly to suchPR activities. There had already been a criminal complaint in early 2024 against members of thetraffic light coalition because of support of Israel through weapons deliveries, among other reasons. The officials decided against investigations – noreasonable suspicion. It's hard to imagine that this stance is going to change.]
^Moses 2024, pp. 211–215: "The absence of a clear, sustained, and powerful invocation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in response to Israel's vicious assault on Gaza reveals the fundamental weaknesses of the doctrine... We are now over three months into a military assault that many experts have labelled as a genocide (Government of South Africa Citation 2023) and the R2P has played no significant role in debates over how to respond."
^Ayyash 2023: "For genocide to happen, two critical elements are needed: the infrastructural and material capabilities to commit the genocide and the ability to conceal the genocide by calling it something other than what it is. TheWest is participating in both of these critical elements... In terms of material capabilities, theUnited States empire has sent, not one, but twoaircraft carriers to the region, and has made it abundantly clear in word and deed that if any state or group attempts to enter the picture and aidPalestinians in their desperate attempt to survive Israel's genocidal operation, that the US will intervene with its full force. Years of US and Westernaid and support to Israel have allowed Israel to develop the infrastructural capabilities to carry out a genocide... In terms of concealment, political, media, social and culturalinstitutions are fully mobilised in the West to hide and conceal this act of genocide, presenting it as a righteous violence of avictimisedJewish people everywhere inthe world. Those expressing support for Palestine in the West are being threatened withjob loss (and are actuallylosing their jobs), possiblecriminal charges and bans, and other punitive measures andharassment campaigns."
^"In Gaza, Biden administration complicit: Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention".Al Jazeera. Archived fromthe original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved16 February 2024.None of the Biden Administration's tactics to deny genocide and avoid accountability will withstand the test of time. President Biden and key administration officials are on a path to be remembered as the principal enablers of one of the worst genocides in the 21st century
^Joyce, Martel & Pahuja 2025, p. 1: "The US has bombed Iranian nuclear sites and continues to support the Israeli genocide in Gaza by supplying of weapons and providing diplomatic cover (as does the UK and Germany)"
^Médecins Sans Frontières 2024c, p. 5: "Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza. While we don't have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable."
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Faddoul, Alix; Shannon, Geordan; Asghar, Khudejha; Boukari, Yamina; Smith, James; Neilson, Amy (January 2024). "The health dimensions of violence in Palestine: a call to prevent genocide".The Lancet.403 (10421):25–26.doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02751-4.PMID38128558.S2CID266357297.
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Moses, Jeremy (14 March 2024). "Gaza and the Political and Moral Failure of the Responsibility to Protect".Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.18 (2):211–215.doi:10.1080/17502977.2024.2304987.ISSN1750-2977.
Repo, Jemima (25 November 2024). "Genocide and the destruction of the means of social reproduction in Gaza".European Journal of Politics and Gender.8 (2):492–499.doi:10.1332/25151088Y2024D000000061.
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Sherwani, Maryam; Stewart, Richard; Samad, Lubna (10 March 2025). "The Disproportionate Surgical Burden Borne by Children in Regions of Armed Conflict".World Journal of Surgery.49 (7):1840–1845.doi:10.1002/wjs.12560.PMID40133763.
Swart, Mia (5 August 2025). "South Africa v Israel: South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice".The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and Policy Studies.114 (5):687–689.doi:10.1080/00358533.2025.2542794.
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