'You feel like you are subhuman': Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

Amnesty International concludes there is sufficient evidence that Israeli authorities have committed prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention in Gaza following the 7 October 2023 attacks. Based on extensive field research, witness interviews and analysis of visual, digital and official statements, this report finds that Israel’s conduct meets the legal threshold for genocide under international law, specifically acts of killing, causing serious harm and deliberately inflicting destructive living conditions.

Amnesty International has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israeli authorities committed, and continue to commit prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention.

Amnesty’s report analyses the Israeli authorities’ policies and military actions in the occupied Gaza Strip (Gaza) in the context of the military offensive they launched in the wake of the attacks on Israel carried out by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023. It assesses them within the framework of genocide under international law, finding that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide. 

The Genocide Convention was the first international treaty to explicitly define and criminalise genocide. It was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. The definition of genocide is provided for in Article II of the Genocide Convention, which reads: “…genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group; 

(b) Causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group; 

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; 

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” 

Through our research findings and legal analysis, we have found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel committed, during the nine months under review, prohibited acts under Article II (a), (b) and (c) of the Genocide Convention. We interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, and healthcare workers, conducted fieldwork and analysed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery. It also analysed statements by senior Israeli government and military. 

Israel must urgently end the commission of genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza; agree to and uphold a sustained ceasefire; reverse all policies and actions that have resulted in the rapid deterioration of conditions of life in Gaza; and ensure that the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza are urgently and duly met. 

The UK must take urgent and meaningful steps to pressure Israel into ending its genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza. As a first step, they must ensure that Israel agrees to a sustained ceasefire, and fully implements all provisional measures ordered by the ICJ since 26 January 2024. 

The UK must immediately suspend arms transfers to Israel and the provision of training and other military and security assistance and services.

The UK must act to ensure justice and accountability for any alleged crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, by exercising universal or other forms of extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction, pressuring Israel to allow entry into Gaza of members and staff of any international investigative or UN-mandated mechanism, and supporting the investigation of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC into crimes allegedly committed in Israel and the OPT, including through executing any ICC arrest warrants. 

The UK must oppose any attempts by Israel to establish a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in Gaza, alter its borders and demographic makeup, or shrink its territory. Displaced Palestinians must be allowed to return to their homes and communities. 

The UK must urge the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC to urgently add the crime of genocide by Israeli officials since 7 October 2023 to its ongoing investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine. 

The UK must press the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, and targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in crimes under international law, including those committed in the context of Israel’s ongoing offensive on Gaza.