Two major Israeli rights groups conclude war on Gaza is 'genocide' - War on Gaza
Both organisations are frequent critics of Israeli government policies, but the language in their reports issued on Monday was their most stark yet.
"Nothing prepares you for the realisation that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us," B'Tselem executive director Yuli Novak told a news conference unveiling the two reports.
"As Israelis and Palestinians who live here and witness the reality every day, we have a duty to speak the truth as clearly as possible," she said.
"Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians."
Israel's war in Gaza for the past 21 months has left much of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, in ruins, and has killed at least 59,821 civilians, most of them women and children.
All Gazans have been driven from their homes at least once since the start of the war, and UN agencies warn that residents face a growing threat of famine and malnutrition.
The International Court of Justice, in an interim ruling in early 2024 in a case lodged by South Africa, found it "plausible" that the Israeli offensive had violated the UN Genocide Convention.
The reports from B'Tselem -- one of Israel's best-known rights groups -- and Physicians for Human Rights Israel argue that the war's objectives go further.
B'Tselem's report cites statements from senior politicians to illustrate that Israel "is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip".
Physicians for Human Rights Israel's report documents what the group says is "the deliberate and systematic destruction of Gaza's healthcare system".
Follow us on:
Short link:
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al-Ahram Weekly
16 minutes ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Israeli fire kills at least 18 in Gaza, including starving aid-seekers - War on Gaza
Hospitals in Gaza reported the killing of more than a dozen people, eight of them food-seekers, by Israeli occupation army on Saturday as Palestinians endured severe risks in their search for food amid airdrops and restrictions on overland aid delivery. Near the US-Israeli so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution site, Yahia Youssef, who had come to seek aid Saturday morning, described a panicked scene now grimly familiar. After helping carry out three people wounded by gunshots, he said he looked around and saw many others lying on the ground bleeding. 'It's the same daily episode,' Youssef said. The episode came a day after U.S. officials visited one site and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called GHF's distribution 'an incredible feat.' International outrage has mounted as the group's efforts to deliver aid to hunger-stricken Gaza have been marred by violence and controversy. 'We weren't close to them (the troops) and there was no threat,' Abed Salah, a man in his 30s who was among the crowds close to the GHF site near Netzarim corridor, said. 'I escaped death miraculously.' The danger facing aid seekers in Gaza has compounded what international hunger experts this week called a 'worst-case scenario of famine' in the besieged enclave. Israel's nearly 22-month genocidal war has shattered security in the territory of some 2,3 million Palestinians and made it nearly impossible to deliver food safely to starving people. From May 27 to July 31, Israel killed 859 Palestinians in the vicinity of GHF sites, according to a United Nations report published Thursday. Hundreds more have been killed along the routes of food convoys. GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding. Israel's claimed it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, though on Friday said it was working to make the routes under its control safer. Health officials reported that Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 18 Palestinians on Saturday, including three whose bodies were transported from the vicinity of a distribution site to a central Gaza hospital along with 36 others who were wounded. Officials said 10 of Saturday's casualties were killed by strikes in central and southern Gaza. Nasser Hospital said it received the bodies of five people killed in two separate strikes on tents sheltering displaced people. The dead include two brothers and a relative, who were killed when a strike hit their tent close to a main thoroughfare in Khan Younis. The Gaza health ministry's ambulance and emergency service said an Israeli strike hit a family's house in an area between the towns of Zawaida and Deir al-Balah, killing two parents and their three children. Another strike hit a tent close to the gate of a closed prison where the displaced have sheltered in Khan Younis, killing a mother and her daughter, they said. The hospital said Israeli forces killed five other Palestinians who were among crowds awaiting aid near the newly constructed Morag corridor in Rafah and between Rafah and Khan Younis. Airdrops expand despite limited impact To circumvent restrictions on aid trucks crossing overland into Gaza, additional countries joined the Jordan-led coalition orchestrating parcels being dropped from the skies. Several European countries announced plans this week to join airdrop efforts, though most acknowledge the strategy is woefully insufficient 'If there is political will to allow airdrops, which are highly costly, insufficient & inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings,' Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote on X on Saturday. 'Let's go back to what works & let us do our job.' Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 60,332 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded over 147,643 others, according to the Health Ministry. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Egypt Independent
16 minutes ago
- Egypt Independent
A viable Palestinian state remains far off, despite growing international clamor
First France, then the United Kingdom, and now Canada. Three of the world's most powerful Western nations have added their economic and geopolitical clout to calls for a Palestinian state, an idea already endorsed by more than 140 other countries. The moves have many motives, from a sense of frustration with Israel, to domestic pressure, to outrage over the images of starving Palestinians. Whatever the reason, Palestinians have welcomed the announcements as a boost for their cause. The Israeli government has rejected the calls, describing them as tantamount to rewarding terrorism. US President Donald Trump meanwhile seems increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly over the starvation in Gaza that the Israeli leader denies, but has disturbed Trump. Trump wants regional peace, as well as the accolades – namely a Nobel Peace Prize – for making it happen. He wants Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, expanding the Abraham Accords he cemented between Israel and several other Arab states during his first term. But Riyadh has been firm that this cannot happen without an irreversible path to a Palestinian state. But the latest moves by US allies France, Britain and Canada – while in many ways largely symbolic – have left Washington increasingly isolated over its backing for Israel. Palestinian statehood could help bring an end to a war that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza since Hamas's brutal October 7 attack killed around 1,200 people in Israel almost two years ago, as well as bring home the hostages still being held in Gaza. But one of the toughest challenges is imagining what it looks like, because a modern Palestinian state has never existed before. When Israel was founded in the aftermath of World War II it quickly gained international recognition. That same period, for Palestinians, is remembered as al-Naqba, or 'the catastrophe' – the moment when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced from their homes. Since then, Israel has expanded, most significantly during the 'Six Day War' of 1967, when Israel turned the tables on a coalition of Arab states and gained East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian territory has meanwhile only shrunk and splintered. The closest to what a future Palestinian state may look like was hashed out in a peace process in the 1990s which came to be known as the Oslo Accords. Harrowing images of starving children have driven the moves by international powers, and alarmed the White House. UNRWA Roughly speaking, the Palestinian state envisaged in Oslo, agreed to by both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, would be based on Israel's 1967 borders. The broad outline of Oslo was to have some land trades, a little bit given in one place for the removal of an Israeli settlement, in a negotiated process. The historic handshake on the White House lawn by Israel's then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hosted by then-US president Bill Clinton remains one of the triumphs of modern diplomacy. Rabin's assassination by a far-right fanatic in 1995 robbed Israel of its peacemaker leader. And while the framework of Oslo lived on in negotiations and academia, there is little initiative now. What was on offer back then is no longer realistic. In recent years, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank have expanded massively, often with the encouragement of the Israeli government, threatening the chances of creating a contiguous Palestinian state in the region. Then there is the question of who would govern a future Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, is distrusted by many Palestinians who view it as weak or corrupt. Even without all these complications, Netanyahu won't accept a Palestinian state, which he has recently claimed would be 'a launch pad to annihilate Israel.' Some members of his cabinet are far more hard-line, not only refusing to countenance an independent state but wanting to annex the territory. These ministers propping up Netanyahu's government have said they would starve Palestinians in Gaza rather than feed them, and would collapse the coalition if he so much as suggested giving in to the growing international pressure on Israel. Netanyahu has shown no intention of backing down, and will wear whatever France, the UK, and any others force on him as a badge of honor. Without a partner in the Israeli government, recognition of a Palestinian state will fall flat, and could even entrench Netanyahu further. It would be a big price to pay if the outcome were Israel making the possibility of a Palestinian state all the more distant. But at the same time, with a growing number of angry ex-partners in the international community who are likely to increase their pressure on Trump to shift his position, it is Israel that may find itself disadvantaged, however strongly it protests.
See - Sada Elbalad
2 hours ago
- See - Sada Elbalad
Hundreds of Volunteers at the Abu El-Enein Foundation Participate in 11th Convoy to Gaza
Rana Atef As part of Egypt's ongoing humanitarian support to the Palestinian people, the Abu El-Enein Foundation for Social and Cultural Work continues its intensive work to launch the 11th relief convoy to Gaza. This effort falls under the alliance of the National Alliance for Civil and Developmental Work, with the participation of hundreds of volunteers who work hard. The foundation's warehouses are witnessing evolved activity, as volunteers work to pack, wrap, and sort the aid supplies according to a carefully planned system that ensures urgent humanitarian needs are delivered to those who need them most inside Gaza. The convoy includes trucks loaded with dry food packages and essential relief materials intended to meet the needs of Palestinian families affected by ongoing aggression and blockade. The foundation emphasized that this convoy is a continuation of its active participation in relief efforts since the beginning of the crisis, reaffirming its national and humanitarian commitment and its dedication to being at the forefront of Egyptian civil society efforts in supporting the Palestinian people. Active coordination for the convoy's launch is being conducted under the direct guidance and real-time follow-up of Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairman of the Foundation, MP Mohamed Abu El-Enein, along with Vice Chair of the Board, Somaya Abu El-Enein. All stages of the process are being closely reviewed to ensure the highest levels of efficiency, speed, and precision. It is worth noting that Egypt has sent more than 35,000 humanitarian aid trucks through the Rafah crossing since last October, carrying over 130,000 tons of food, medicine, and logistical support—making it one of the largest ongoing regional relief operations to date. The Abu El-Enein Foundation affirms that Convoy No. 11, launched by the National Civil and Developmental Alliance and with the Foundation's participation, represents a continuation of an integrated path of giving and solidarity that unites the state, its institutions, and civil society—embodying Egypt's genuine solidarity with the Palestinian people. read more Gold prices rise, 21 Karat at EGP 3685 NATO's Role in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict US Expresses 'Strong Opposition' to New Turkish Military Operation in Syria Shoukry Meets Director-General of FAO Lavrov: confrontation bet. nuclear powers must be avoided News Iran Summons French Ambassador over Foreign Minister Remarks News Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Escalation in West Bank News Greek PM: Athens Plays Key Role in Improving Energy Security in Region News One Person Injured in Explosion at Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters Arts & Culture "Jurassic World Rebirth" Gets Streaming Date News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia Business Egyptian Pound Undervalued by 30%, Says Goldman Sachs Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Arts & Culture South Korean Actress Kang Seo-ha Dies at 31 after Cancer Battle Arts & Culture Lebanese Media: Fayrouz Collapses after Death of Ziad Rahbani Sports Get to Know 2025 WWE Evolution Results
