Amnesty International accused Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, while the Israeli army on Wednesday committed 12 more violations of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that came into force last week, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.
Amnesty says Israel committing genocide in Gaza
The rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, saying it seeks to deliberately destroy Palestinians by carrying out deadly attacks, destroying vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.
The rights group released a report on the Middle East on Thursday saying such actions could not be justified by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, or by the militants’ presence in civilian areas. Amnesty said the US and Israel’s other allies may be complicit in the genocide and called on them to stop supplying weapons. Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said in the report:
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”
Israel, which was founded after the Holocaust, categorically rejects the genocide charges as an anti-Semitic “blood libel.” It is challenging such accusations in the International Court of Justice and rejects charges by the International Criminal Court that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister committed war crimes in Gaza.
“The deplorable and fanatical organization 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.
Israel accused Hamas, which has vowed to destroy Israel, of genocidal slaughter in the attack that sparked the war and said it was defending itself under international law.
Amnesty says Palestinians face a slow, calculated death
Amnesty’s report adds an influential voice to the growing list of players accusing Israel of committing genocide, putting it on a par with some of the deadliest conflicts of the past 80 years, including Cambodia, Sudan and Rwanda.
Israel says it is at war with Hamas, not the people of Gaza. Key allies including the US and Germany have also opposed the genocide accusations. But Amnesty accused Israel of violating the 1951 Genocide Convention because its actions, it said, are aimed at physically destroying the Palestinian population of Gaza by subjecting them to a “slow, calculated death.”
Amnesty said it analysed the overall picture of Israel’s actions in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and early July. It said there was no threshold of victims to prove the international crime of genocide, which is defined by the United Nations as acts aimed at the total or partial destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
To establish intent, Amnesty said it analysed more than 100 statements by Israeli government and military officials and others since the war began that “dehumanised Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them.”
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages, including children and the elderly. About 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, at least a third of whom are presumed dead. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 44,500 people, according to Gaza health officials.
Lebanon reports 12 more Israeli violations to fragile ceasefire
The Israeli army on Wednesday committed 12 more violations of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect last week, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.
It said the Israeli violations were recorded in the areas of Tyre, Marjayoun and Bent Jbeil in southern Lebanon, as well as in Beirut. The violations included home demolitions, artillery shelling, overflights of military aircraft over Lebanese territory, shelling and incursions.
An Israeli drone struck a car in the town of Marjayoun in the Tyre region, and Israeli artillery shelled the Marjayoun plain at least three times in the past day, the news agency reported.
Israeli machine guns opened fire on neighbourhoods in the town of Bent Jbeil. The Israeli army also destroyed houses in the town of Khiyam and shelled Kfarkela, the news agency reported.
Israeli warplanes were also seen flying at low altitude over the capital Beirut and over southern parts of the country, Anadolu correspondent reported.
Lebanon has reported 129 ceasefire violations since an agreement to end 14 months of fighting between the Israeli army and Hezbollah took effect last week. Israeli attacks have killed at least 14 people and injured 13 others since last week, according to Anadolu calculations based on health ministry figures.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Israel is to withdraw its troops south of the actual Blue Line border in stages, while the Lebanese army will deploy its forces in southern Lebanon within a maximum of 60 days. The agreement will be monitored by the US and France, but details of the enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.
According to Lebanese health authorities, since October 2023, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 4,000 people and injured more than 16,500, while displacing more than 1 million others.
