Key excerpt:
Amnesty International concludes based on the evidence gathered that the government of Israel committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza following October 7, 2023, through its policies, actions and omissions. The organization’s documentation found that the government of Israel committed acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention with specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, as such, who form a substantial part of the Palestinian population, which constitutes a group protected under the Genocide Convention.
Amnesty International’s report focused on three of the five acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention:
- Killing members of the group,
- Causing them serious mental and bodily harm, and
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
The report highlights how the government of Israel imposed conditions of life calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza through three patterns of events: the wide-scale damage and destruction of critical infrastructure and other objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, repeated waves of mass forced displacement in unsafe and inhumane conditions and obstruction of or restrictions on the entry and delivery of life-saving supplies, including humanitarian aid, and essential services in Gaza – all of which occurred simultaneously, for months without respite, compounding each other’s harmful effects.
Through an analysis of 15 air strikes and a review of analysis by other organizations that focused, amongst others on the Israeli military’s use of heavy weapons in densely populated urban areas, it also highlights how the Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza intentionally caused a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population.