Israel’s foreign ministry called the Amnesty International investigation a “fabrication” [Getty]
Amnesty International’s Israel branch has criticised an investigation by its parent group that accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, saying that the result was “predetermined”
Amnesty Israel issued a statement, carried by the Times of Israel, where it questioned Amnesty International’s “operative findings”. This was despite data and analysis in the investigation to back up its findings.
Amnesty Israel however acknowledged that the “scale of killing and destruction carried out by Israel in Gaza has reached horrific proportions”.
However they said that they do not believe Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip meets “the definition of genocide as strictly laid out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.
Israel’s foreign ministry has decried the investigation, calling it “entirely false” on Thursday.
“The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The investigation contained evidence concluding that Israel was obstructing aid, violating international laws and indiscriminately targeting civilians. It also detailed many cases of Israeli officials making dehumanising statements and threats about Palestinians in the enclave.
The Israeli foreign ministry asserted that it was Hamas that was “genocidal” due to its surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
“Israel is defending itself… acting fully in accordance with international law”, the statement continued.
Amnesty report
The 300-page report urged the international community to take immediate action to stop the war on the enclave, which has decimated entire neighbourhoods and sparked catastrophic levels of hunger and disease.
Many of Israel’s strikes in the Strip had no military objective, Amnesty found, citing as an example investigations into 15 airstrikes carried out between 7 October 2023 and 20 April 2024, which killed at least 334 civilians, including 141 children.
Some airstrikes killed off several generations of the same family, such as an Israeli attack on 20 April 2024 which ended the lives of three generations of the Abdelal family in eastern Rafah.
Amnesty also found that attacks were “conducted in ways designed to cause a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population”.
“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them”, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International said in a statement about the investigation.
Callamard insisted that the findings in the report must result in an end to the war on the enclave and serve as a wake-up call to the international community.
Callamard called the international community’s efforts to end the war a “shameful failure”, highlighting that calls for a ceasefire were delayed while countries continued to transfer arms to Israel.
“Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law” she said.
On Thursday, Israel’s extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called for Israel to stop fuel supplies from entering Gaza until Israeli captives held by Hamas are released.
“We have to stop their fuel for a few months, I believe they will fall to their knees and say ‘take the hostages and bring fuel,'” he was quoted as saying by Israel’s Army Radio.
Amnesty has reiterated calls for the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in crimes under international law.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 44,580 Palestinians and wounded 105,739 since 7 October 2023.
