In in-depth investigation, Amnesty International denounces genocide in Gaza
Amnesty International denounces genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a report based on in-depth investigations. The 300-page document accuses Israeli authorities of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention through murder, serious physical or mental harm and living conditions aimed at the physical destruction of this group. This report links these acts to the Hamas attacks in October 2023 and highlights systemic violence, accompanied by prolonged dehumanization. Amnesty calls on the international community to react to this genocide, which it describes as indisputable.
Amnesty International’s investigation
After months of investigations, collection of evidence and legal analyses, our teams published a landmark report, the conclusions of which demonstrate that the Israeli authorities are committing a crime of genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza.
The research of our teams, brought together in a report of nearly 300 pages entitled “’We has the impression of being subhuman’ – The genocide of Palestinians committed by Israel in Gaza”, reveal that the State of Israel, is subjecting Palestinians in Gaza to a permanent outbreak of violence and destruction following the deadly Hamas attacks in the south of its territory on October 7, 2023, with complete impunity.
Israeli authorities have committed and continue to commit acts prohibited by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, with the specific intent of physically destroying the Palestinian population of Gaza.
➡ They were particularly guilty of murder, serious attacks on the physical or mental integrity of people, and deliberate subjection of Palestinians in Gaza to living conditions intended to lead to their physical destruction. For more than a year, the Palestinian population of Gaza has been dehumanized and treated as a group of subhumans who do not deserve respect for their fundamental rights or their dignity.
Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International: “Our damning conclusions must sound like a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide, which must stop immediately.”
Our teams of researchers and experts have rigorously and methodically examined and analyzed a set of events occurring between October 2023 and July 2024, which by their recurrence, their simultaneity, their immediate effects or their cumulative consequences prove to constitute acts falling under the Genocide Convention.
Genocide, a term defined by international law
Determining whether there was genocide is a legal conclusion. Our experts focused on the legal framework of genocide in international law, as defined and criminalized by the Genocide Convention and taken up unchanged by the Rome Statute. They first verified that the Palestinians were indeed part of a protected group as defined in the Convention: namely a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. They then rigorously and methodically examined all the acts committed by Israeli forces from October 2023 to July 2024 in the Gaza Strip to verify whether they corresponded to the acts constituting genocide, as set out in the Convention. . Finally, they examined the different evidence for determining intent, one of the key criteria in the Genocide Convention’s definition.
Learn more: What is genocide?
Evidence of genocide in Gaza
Incessant bombing of densely populated areas, destruction of hospital structures, permanent cut of water and electricity, obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian aid, multiple forced displacements of the population…
These various attacks and actions committed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023 have been scrupulously examined.
➡ The conclusions are clear: what Gazans have suffered since the start of the offensive by the State of Israel corresponds to three acts qualifying as genocide according to the 1948 Convention.
Read more on the Amnesty International website
