Gaza genocide

The Gaza genocide is the ongoing, intentional, and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip carried out by Israel during its invasion of the territory in the Gaza war. The genocidal acts include extermination,starvation, the infliction of serious bodily and mental harm and preventing births. Other acts include blockade, destroying civilian infrastructure, systematically destroying healthcare facilities, killing healthcare workers and aid-seekers, causing mass forced displacement, committing sexual violence, and destroying educational, religious, and cultural sites and facilities. The genocide has been recognised by a United Nations special committee and commission of inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars,human rights groups, and genocide studies and international law scholars, amongst other experts.

Gaza genocide
Part of the Gaza war, the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Photographs of the Gaza genocide Top: Destruction in northern Gaza, February 2025 Middle left: A destroyed ambulance of the Palestinian Red Crescent, January 2024 Middle right: Gazans receiving treatment on the floor at the overcrowded emergency ward of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, October 2023 Bottom left: A destroyed mosque, February 2025 Bottom right: Children collecting food aid, August 2024
Location	Gaza Strip
Date	7 October 2023 (2023-10-07) – present
Target	Palestinians
Attack type	Genocide, mass murder, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, bombardment, targeted killings, starvation, torture, rape and sexual violence, attacks on healthcare, preventing births
Deaths	65,000–335,500+
Injured	At least 165,600
Perpetrators	Israel Potential complicity includes: United States Germany Various companies
Motive	Retaliation for the October 7 attacks Anti-Palestinianism Zionism Greater Israel
Litigation	South Africa v. Israel Nicaragua v. Germany

By August 2025, the Gaza Health Ministry had reported that at least 60,138 people in Gaza had been killed – 1 out of every 37 people – averaging 91 deaths per day. Most of the victims are civilians, of whom at least 50% are women and children. Compared to other recent global conflicts, the numbers of known deaths of journalists, humanitarian and health workers, and children are among the highest. Thousands more uncounted dead bodies are thought to be under the rubble of destroyed buildings. A study in The Lancet estimated 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injuries by June 2024, while noting a larger potential death toll when "indirect" deaths are included. As of May 2025, traumatic injury deaths were estimated at 93,000, representing 4–5% of Gaza's prewar population. The number of injured is greater than 150,000. Gaza has the most child amputees per capita in the world; the Gaza war has caused disabilities for more than 21,000 children.

An enforced Israeli blockade has heavily contributed to ongoing starvation and confirmed famine. Projections show 100% of the population is experiencing "high levels of acute food insecurity", with about 641,000 people experiencing catastrophic levels as of August 2025. Early in the conflict, Israel cut off Gaza's water and electricity, but later partially returned the former. As at May 2024, 84% of its health centres have been destroyed or damaged. Israel has also destroyed numerous cultural heritage sites, including all of Gaza's 12 universities and 80% of its schools. Over 1.9 million Palestinians – 85% of Gaza's population – have been forcibly displaced.

The government of South Africa has instituted proceedings, South Africa v. Israel, against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging a violation of the Genocide Convention. The Israeli government has denied South Africa's allegations and has argued that Israel is defending itself. In an initial ruling, the ICJ held that South Africa was entitled to bring its case, while Palestinians were recognised to have a right to protection from genocide. The court ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts of genocide, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to allow basic humanitarian service, aid, and supplies into Gaza. The court later ordered Israel to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza and to halt the Rafah offensive. Israel did not comply with the court's orders, instead continuing the Rafah offensive by displacing the city's inhabitants and razing thousands of buildings.

Background

A September 2023 United Nations map of Gaza, showing its border barrier and checkpoints into Israel and Egypt and Israel's Maritime Exclusion Zone, illustrating the geographic scope of the preexisting blockade and the physical constraints on movement and access.

There is debate about when the genocide started. Some scholars say the Gaza genocide is merely the latest stage of a "slow-motion genocide" of Palestinians that began with the founding of Israel in 1948 and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and had been largely realized by 2023.^{[page needed]} According to B'Tselem, the Gaza genocide has occurred in the 75-year context of Israel's settler colonialism and Jewish supremacy targeting the Palestinian people.

Since 2007 the Gaza Strip has been governed by Hamas, an Islamist militant group, while the West Bank remained under the control of the Palestinian Authority. After Hamas took over, Israel imposed a blockade of the Gaza Strip, citing security concerns; international rights groups have called the blockade a form of collective punishment.UNRWA reported that, due to the blockade, 81% of Gazans were living below the poverty level in 2023, with 63% food insecure and dependent on international assistance. Since 2007, Israel and Hamas (and other Palestinian militias in Gaza) have engaged in conflict, including four wars in 2008–2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021.

On 7 October 2023 Hamas led an attack into Israel from Gaza, resulting in at least 1,139 deaths, most of them civilians. During this attack, Palestinian militant groups abducted 251 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip.Israel responded with a highly destructivebombing campaign followed by an invasion of the Gaza Strip on 27 October. Some scholars argued that there was genocide against Palestinians before the 7 October attacks, but the Israeli military campaign in Gaza has been characterised as genocidal by South Africa and other supporters of the genocide argument. B'Tselem considers the 7 October attack a triggering event, after which Israel's government policy changed "from oppression and control to destruction and annihilation" of the Palestinians.

Hamas officials said the attack was a response to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza, Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, and the detainment of thousands of Palestinians, many without charges, whom Hamas sought to release by taking Israeli hostages. Numerous commentators have identified Israeli occupation as a cause of the war. Several human rights organisations, including Amnesty International,B'Tselem, and Human Rights Watch, have likened the Israeli occupation to apartheid; Israel's supporters dispute this characterisation. An advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice published in July 2024 affirmed the occupation as illegal and said it violated the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

During the first 48 hours of Israel's retaliatory attack, IDF chief Herzi Halevi reported that the IDF attacked 1,000 targets. According to his wife, he told her that "Gaza will be destroyed". Reportedly, Netanyahu subsequently ordered that 5,000 targets be attacked, even though the IDF had not identified 5,000 enemy targets. Artificial intelligence was used to generate a list of targets, in many cases based on faulty or outdated intelligence. About 10,000 Palestinians were killed in a month, including many entire families. Shmuel Lederman called this "as criminal as it gets".^{[page needed]} This "front-loaded violence" makes it harder to argue that the genocide began later.^{[page needed][page needed]}

On 13 October 2023 the historian Raz Segal said Israel was committing a "textbook case of genocide". He was one of the first scholars to do so.^{[page needed]} Others argue that the war was initially legitimate and the genocide started later, in 2024 or 2025.^{[page needed][page needed]} In September 2024, the UN's "Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories" wrote, "The developments in this report lead the Special Committee to conclude that the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide."

Definitions of genocide and legal challenges

The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, including killing, causing harm, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children. The International Court of Justice has never held a state liable for genocide. The legal threshold for genocidal intent remains a major barrier to prosecution.

The original definition coined by Raphael Lemkin was broader than that used by the Genocide Convention and included cultural and social destruction. In contrast, orthodox scholarly definitions emphasise actions targeting a group's physical survival. No minimum number of victims or intended victims is required for a genocide ruling. In the Rohingya genocide case, several states contended that the ICJ should "adopt a balanced approach that recognizes the special gravity of the crime of genocide, without rendering the threshold for inferring genocidal intent so difficult to meet so as to make findings of genocide near-impossible."

Genocidal intent and incitement

Palestinian men carry bodies of family members who were killed in the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip

Experts have identified genocidal intent and incitement as contributing to the ongoing eradication of the Gazan people. Amnesty International said Israel's actions establish a "pattern of conduct" demonstrating genocidal intent, and concluded that genocidal intent is the "only one reasonable inference that can be drawn from the evidence presented". As part of Defense for Children International – Palestine et al v. Biden et al, historian Barry Trachtenberg said there is a consensus among genocide historians that the situation in Gaza is a genocide, mainly because Israeli officials' statements make this clear. He urged action to stop the genocide.

In an open letter published in October 2023, scholars wrote that Israeli officials' statements since 7 October indicate intent to commit genocide. Professor Omer Bartov interprets statements by Netanyahu on 7 October that Israel would "exact a huge price from the enemy" and turn Hamas hideouts "into rubble" as genocidal intent. The scholar Mark Levene, the Israeli historian Raz Segal and the legal scholar Luigi Daniele said rhetoric that was genocidal or that encouraged ethnic cleansing had increased under successive Netanyahu governments. Segal, Daniele, Shmuel Lederman, Melanie O'Brien and Iva Vukusic point to previous comments by current and former Knesset members and ministers as evidence of genocidal intent. News outlets have also highlighted the genocidal nature of comments. Segal compared the targeting of children to the Rohingya genocide case.

In March 2024 Francesca Albanese published a report to UNHRC that concluded Israel was committing genocide. She said intent can be inferred from "the totality of conduct targeting the totality of Palestinians, in the totality of the occupied Palestinian territory". Israel rejected the report. Albanese later accused Israel of "carrying out a systematic campaign of forced displacement, destruction, and genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank". Albanese and Amos Goldberg have said the aim of building a Greater Israel is a factor.

Professor Maryam Jamshidi cites Israel's stated goal to destroy the political, administrative and civilian arms of Hamas, as well as the "intellectual, cultural, and religious leadership of Gaza", as signs of genocidal intent. Targeting civilian organisations controlled by Hamas, rather than its military wing, is illegal under international law. Jamshidi also says that "the long-standing pattern of Israeli conduct towards Palestinians", the high number of civilian deaths during the war, the widespread devastation of Gaza the abundance of recorded atrocities, as well as UN reports supporting a finding of genocide, increase the likelihood that the ICJ will rule in South Africa's favour.

Professor John B. Quigley says the living conditions the war has inflicted on Gaza could be used as proof of genocidal intent in the absence of direct evidence, as they are so destructive Israel should have known they would result in the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza. Melanie O'Brien and Iva Vukusic also suggest that Israel's war conduct, including depriving Palestinians of their basic needs show intent.

Genocidal acts

Clockwise from top:

• A newborn baby killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike
• Palestinians injured by an Israeli airstrike in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
• Video interviews conducted with several survivors of October 2023 Israeli airstrikes
• An injured child receives treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip

Direct killings

UN experts and human rights organisations have characterised Israel's actions against Gaza as extermination, which is a crime against humanity that involves "the act of killing on a large scale". During the first two months of bombing, Israel dropped 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip. Many of these were unguided "dumb bombs" dropped in densely populated areas, obliterating entire neighbourhoods. Since 7 October 2023 the IDF has been accused of extrajudicial killing of unarmed Palestinian detainees and healthcare personnel. Israeli soldiers have summarily executed Palestinian civilians, often in front of their families. They have killed Palestinians waving white flags. In April 2024, mass graves were found containing corpses with their hands tied, including women and the elderly. Doctors have identified numerous Palestinian children with single gunshot wounds to the head and chest, consistent with intentional targeting by Israeli forces.

The UN and many news outlets have estimated that about 70% of Palestinians killed in Gaza are women and children, with at least 20,000 Palestinians having been killed in Gaza by December 2023. By 14 January 2024, over 23,900 had been confirmed killed. By 10 May, deaths had topped 35,000, a third of them unidentified, with over 10,000 more estimated to be buried under the rubble. Within the first three weeks, the Israeli assault killed more children in Gaza than were killed worldwide across all conflict zones in any year since 2019. Over 52,000 people had been wounded by December 2023, and by May 2024 this had risen to over 77,700.

+972 Magazine and Local Call reported that the IDF decided early in the war to authorise killing up to 15 to 20 civilians per low-ranking militant, while for a senior militant killing more than 100 civilians was authorised. An intelligence officer said that Israel was not interested in killing Palestinian operatives in a military context only, but preferred to bomb them in their family homes, saying "It's much easier to bomb a family's home" where they are easier to target. Another intelligence officer said that in targeting junior militants, Israel used only dumb bombs, which can destroy entire buildings, to not "waste expensive bombs on unimportant people".

In March 2024 Haaretz reported that some Israeli commanders had set up "kill zones" in which soldiers were commanded to kill anyone on sight, even if they were unarmed. In June 2024 the Associated Press found that Israel's campaign in Gaza was killing entire bloodlines of Palestinians to a "degree never seen before". According to testimony given to the Israeli Knesset, Israeli soldiers driving armoured bulldozers have been ordered to "run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds".

The proportion of women and children among the dead has been disputed. As at 7 May 2024, total deaths quoted by the UN are 34,735, of which 24,686 are fully identified: 52% women and children, 8% elderly of all genders, and 40% men. In November 2024 the UN published an analysis covering only victims verified by at least three independent sources between November 2023 and April 2024. It found that 70% of the 8,119 verified fatalities were women and children. As of 31 August 2024, per the Gaza Ministry of Health, the number of fatalities had risen to 40,691, 34,344 identified by name: 17,652 (51%) women and children, 2,955 (9%) elderly of all genders, and 13,737 (40%) men. In November 2024, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that 1,410 Gazan families had been completely erased from the civil registry as a result of Israeli bombings. Data collection has become increasingly difficult for the Gaza Health Ministry due to the destruction of infrastructure. The ministry has had to supplement its usual reporting based on hospital dead with other sources of information, including reports by the media and first responders as well as families and widows, who must formally register their husbands' deaths to qualify for government assistance. Professor Mike Spagat found an urgent need for a transparent methodology to reconcile its top-line death numbers – 34,535 as of 30 April – with its detailed breakdowns summing to 24,653 on the same date. The ministry's figures for the total number killed have also been contested by Israeli authorities, but have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and the World Health Organization.

A 2025 paper on the Gaza war estimated 64,260 deaths from traumatic injury between October 2023 and 30 June 2024, and likely exceeding 70,000 by October 2024, with 59.1% being women, children and the elderly. It concluded that the GHM undercounted trauma-related deaths by 41% in its report, and also noted that its findings "underestimate the full impact of the military operation in Gaza, as they do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation." A comparable estimate for traumatic injury deaths would be around 80,000 for January 2025, while it is 93,000 (77,000 to 109,000) for May 2025, which represents 4–5% of Gaza's prewar population. A February study in The Lancet estimated that life expectancy in the Gaza Strip between October 2023 and September 2024 decreased by 34.9 years, excluding indirect deaths. The study also used census and registration data to assess the reliability of the Gaza Health Ministry's death count, and found no substantial errors.

In May 2025 Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed that Israel was targeting Hamas's civilian workers, saying, "We're eliminating ministers, bureaucrats, money handlers – everyone who holds up Hamas's civilian rule."

Starting in June 2025, IDF soldiers said they were ordered to shoot at crowds of Palestinians near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, killing over 1,000 people. Amnesty International alleged Israel was trying to restrict aid to starve and inflict genocide upon the Palestinians.

As reported by the Gaza government media office in August 2025, a minimum of 18,885 children have been killed since October 2023. According to classified Israeli figures, 83% of the dead are civilians, exceeding the civilian death rate of any global conflict except the Rwandan genocide, the Siege of Mariupol, and the Siege of Srebrenica.

Indirect deaths

Mother cries for her 4-year-old daughter, who died due to malnutrition and lack of treatment

Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee, and Salim Yusuf published an estimate of the number of deaths that the conflict may indirectly cause in the coming months and years. Indirect Palestinian deaths from disease are expected to be much higher due to the intensity of the conflict, destruction of healthcare infrastructure, lack of food, water, shelter, and safe places for civilians to flee, and reduction in UNRWA funding. They estimated that the total conflict-related deaths in Gaza will likely be three to 15 times higher than the reported death toll. By multiplying the reported deaths by five, they argued that "186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza". Spagat wrote that their estimate "lacks a solid foundation and is implausible", but it was "fair to call attention to the fact that not all of the deaths are going to be direct violent ones", and has called the death toll in Gaza "staggeringly high".Donald Bloxham also notes that most deaths have been "indirect deaths" in various wars and that the "systematic obstruction of supplies into Gaza" is an Israeli policy, which makes calling these deaths "indirect" incorrect.

According to an October 2024 letter by American healthcare workers who had served in Gaza since 7 October 2023, the most conservative estimate was that at least 62,413 people in Gaza had died from starvation, most of them young children, and at least 5,000 people had died from lack of access to care for chronic diseases. The indirect death estimates in two studies reviewed by The Economist implied that the life expectancy in Gaza has fallen by 35 years, rivaling the Rwandan genocide in absolute terms.

Starvation and blockade

Clockwise from top:

• 4-year-old Palestinian girl, died due to malnutrition and lack of treatment
• Displaced Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
• Displaced Palestinians receive food from charitable Tekiya during Ramadan in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip

In February 2024 Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both released statements declaring Israel had failed to comply with the ICJ's 26 January ruling to prevent genocide by blocking aid from entering Gaza. A Refugees International report found that Israel had "consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza". The historian Melanie Tanielian argues that starvation and blockade should be foregrounded as methods of genocide alongside mass bombing. In an April report, B'Tselem called the unfolding famine "the product of a deliberate and conscious Israeli policy".

In October 2023 the World Food Program warned of Gaza's dwindling food supply, and in December, alongside the UN, it reported that more than half of Gaza's population was "starving", fewer than one in ten were eating every day, and 48% were suffering "extreme hunger". Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki referred to "Israel's deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against the people it occupied"; an Israeli official called the charge "blood-libellous" and "delusional". In December 2023 Human Rights Watch found that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war by deliberately denying access to food and water. In January 2024, UN experts accused Israel of "destroying Gaza's food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people". In February 2024 Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich personally blocked US-funded shipments of flour from entering Gaza, in violation of promises Israel had made to the US government.

In early 2024 the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri said that Israel is "culpable" of genocide because "Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian" and because Israel was denying food to Palestinians by halting humanitarian aid and "intentionally" destroying

small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza ... We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts. Israel is not just targeting civilians, it is trying to damn the future of the Palestinian people by harming their children.

After the ICJ ruling, the number of aid trucks Israel allowed into Gaza dropped by 40%. In the ICJ's March reaffirmation of provisional measures, the court highlighted the "unprecedented levels of food insecurity experienced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over recent weeks, as well as the increasing risks of epidemics", acknowledging that since the Court's January order there had been a "lack of Israeli compliance" resulting in "the catastrophic living conditions" deteriorating further.

In March 2024, 12 Israeli human rights organisations signed an open letter accusing Israel of failing to abide by the ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid. In April the UN special rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng said Israel was "killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments", adding, "They are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine" and accusing Israel of "genocide".

In October 2024 Israel had reportedly adopted a modified version of the Generals' Plan. The proposed plan included orders for all residents of northern Gaza to leave within a week; a full siege on water, food, and fuel; and then the arrest or killing of all who remained. By mid-October 2024 Israel had ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza and prevented the entry of humanitarian aid for almost two weeks. According to Stephen Devereux, avoidable deaths due to starvation as a result of Israeli policies "almost certainly constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity".

On 21 November 2024 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant, asserting that the two "bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare".

Israel lifted restrictions on aid into Gaza in January–February 2025 during the first stage of the January ceasefire. But on 2 March, Israel announced that all humanitarian aid would be blocked indefinitely unless Hamas agreed to alter the terms of the ceasefire deal, which Hamas refused to do. Within four days, food supplies in Gaza had rapidly depleted while the price of food had more than doubled. Aid agencies such as Oxfam and UNICEF warned of mass starvation if the aid freeze continued. Oxfam policy lead Bushra Khalidi predicted "the total collapse of systems that sustain life". Lawyer Salah Abdel-Ati said Israel's actions were illegal under the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits the destruction or withholding of essentials such as food in combat zones.

In May 2025, after blocking the import of all food, medicine, and fuel for two and a half months, Netanyahu announced that Israel would allow "minimal humanitarian aid" into Gaza due to international pressure. Israel has proposed using private companies to distribute aid to the south of Gaza only. The plan is backed by the US, which has created the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to deliver aid without "Hamas stealing, looting or leveraging this assistance for its own ends". The United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher criticised the plan, saying it "forces further displacement" and "makes aid conditional on political and military aims". Numerous Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while approaching GHF aid distribution points.

In August 2025, it was reported that Israel planned to surge aid to other parts of Gaza while cutting off all aid to Gaza City to force residents to evacuate while Israel takes over the city. As at August 2025, projections show the entire population is experiencing "high levels of acute food insecurity", with about 641,000 people experiencing catastrophic levels. The IPC confirmed famine is taking place in the Gaza Governorate.

Deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure

Clockwise from top:

• An aerial view showing destruction in Rafah after Israeli forces withdrawal and as the ceasefire took hold, Gaza Strip
• Damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023.
• Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City

Mark Levene and Elyse Semerdjian locate the mass destruction of infrastructure within Israel's Dahiya doctrine, implemented against Gaza since 2006, with Levene calling it urbicide and a tool of genocide. In October 2024 Forensic Architecture concluded, "Israel's military campaign in Gaza is organised, systematic, and intended to destroy conditions of life and life-sustaining infrastructure".The Guardian reported in July 2025 that "about 70% of the structures in Gaza are either completely destroyed or severely damaged". Israel is reportedly paying contractors up to 5,000 shekels per building demolished.

In a December 2024 report, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing acts of genocide in Gaza by targeting water and sanitation infrastructure and depriving Palestinians of adequate access to water. The report alleges that Israel intentionally damaged solar panels powering treatment plants, a reservoir, and warehouses, while blocking repair materials and fuel for generators, cutting electricity supplies, and attacking workers. Over the winter, at least 15 children died of hypothermia, due to Israel's destruction of housing and power facilities. In May, Netanyahu said "we are destroying more and more homes, and Gazans have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip."

In July 2025 the BBC reported that Israel had engaged in controlled demolitions of civilian infrastructure, potentially in violation of the Geneva Convention. The BBC reported an IDF spokesperson saying, "Hamas and other terrorist organizations conceal military assets in densely populated civilian areas. The IDF identifies and destroys terrorist infrastructure located, among other places, within buildings in these areas."

Forced displacement

Clockwise from top:

• Return of displaced people via Al-Rasheed Street after ceasefire, January 2025, Gaza Strip
• An aerial photo of displaced Palestinians waiting in northern Nuseirat to return to their homes in Gaza
• An aerial view of Al-Mawasi area where displaced Palestinians live in tents, Gaza Strip

On 6 October 2024 Israel designated northern Gaza as a combat zone and ordered the civilian population to evacuate. Both Israeli military analysts and the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights alleged that this was the first stage of the "Generals' Plan", a policy proposed by the former Israeli general Giora Eiland to force Palestinians out of Gaza.

Human Rights Watch reports that Israel's systematic forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since October 2023, Israel's evacuation orders have displaced 1.9 million people – nearly Gaza's entire population – through unclear, inconsistent directives, often issued amid bombings, leaving civilians with no safe routes or destinations. Humanitarian zones were repeatedly attacked, while Israel blocked aid, leading to starvation, destroyed infrastructure, and uninhabitable conditions. Senior Israeli officials openly declared intentions to reduce Gaza's territory and push Palestinians out, reinforcing policies of ethnic cleansing and permanent displacement. The UN Human Rights Office said that Israel may be causing the "destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza's northernmost governorate through death and displacement." South Africa and others have criticised the Gaza Strip evacuations as a key component of the genocide. B'Tselem mentions statements by Israeli high-ranking officials that a "central objective of the war" was ethnic cleansing.

Attacks on healthcare and preventing births

Top to bottom:

• Destruction of UNRWA el-Sheikh Radwan health center, February 2024
• Palestinian Red Crescent Personnel inspect a destroyed ambulance in Deir el-Balah , Gaza Strip

In November 2023 in The Lancet and in February 2024 in BMJ Global Health, multiple doctors detailed how the targeting of Gazan health infrastructure and medical personnel coupled with Israeli politicians' rhetoric amounts to genocide. Legal scholars have supported this assessment.Gaza's healthcare system faced humanitarian crises as a result of Israel's assault: hospitals began shutting down by 23 October as they ran out of fuel. When hospitals lost power, multiple premature babies in NICUs died. Israeli airstrikes have killed numerous medical staffers, and ambulances and health institutions have been destroyed.Médecins Sans Frontières reported that scores of ambulances and medical facilities were damaged or destroyed, and that its own staff were killed. The Gaza Health Ministry said the healthcare system had "totally collapsed". In April 2024 UN special rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng said, "The destruction of healthcare facilities continues to catapult to proportions yet to be fully quantified."

As at February 2025 at least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza are believed to be detained by Israel, with another 24 missing after being taken from Gaza hospitals. Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia, detained for seven months and released without charges, detailed the abuses he faced and said that in Israeli prisons "no day passes without torture".

In March 2025 a UN investigation concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza by systematically destroying its reproductive healthcare facilities while imposing a siege preventing necessary medications for deliveries, pregnancies, and neonatal care, causing "irreversible" harm to Palestinians' reproductive prospects in Gaza. The commission also found that Israeli forces intentionally destroyed Al-Basma IVF Centre, Gaza's main in-vitro fertility clinic, which served 2,000 to 3,000 patients a month. Israel destroyed about 4,000 embryos and 1,000 specimens of sperm and unfertilised eggs in the attack. No evidence that the building was used for military purposes was found. The commission concluded that the destruction of the clinic "was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act".

Also in March 2025, UN experts reported that they had found that Israel had systematically destroyed women's health care facilities and used sexual violence as a war strategy, thereby carrying out genocidal acts against Palestinians.

Destruction of cultural, religious and educational sites

Clockwise from top:

• A mosque in Gaza destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, 20 February 2025.
• The wreckage of the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center
• A mosque in Khan Younis, 8 October 2023

Amnesty International notes that "while the destruction of historical, cultural and religious property or heritage is not considered a prohibited act under the Genocide Convention, the ICJ has established that such destruction can provide evidence of intent to physically destroy the group when carried out deliberately." The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention states that Israel's deliberate destruction of cemeteries in Gaza is indicative of genocidal intent because it enacts the "erasure of a people’s...historical presence."

Since 7 October 2023 the IDF has been accused of using excessive force against dozens of schools; theft; desecration and mutilation of deceased Palestinians; and making no, or an inadequate, distinction between Hamas forces and civilians. The targeting of cultural and educational sites have also been cited as genocidal acts, as has the use of white phosphorus.

On 18 April 2024, UN experts in Geneva condemned Israel for its "scholasticide" in Gaza, finding that it had destroyed more than 80% of schools and killed 5,000 students, 261 teachers, and dozens of professors.

Amnesty identified at least four instances in which there was "no imperative military necessity" for the deliberate destruction of Gazan cultural and religious sites: the destruction of the Al-Mughraqa campus of Al-Azhar University, the Al-Zahra campus of Israa University, the Al-Dhilal mosque and Bani Suheila cemetery in Khan Younis, and the Al-Istiqlal mosque in Khan Younis. Amnesty pointed to the attitudes and behaviour of Israeli soldiers involved in the demolitions of these sites in videos posted on social media as evidence that these actions demonstrated genocidal intent. Amnesty also noted the overall volume of destruction of Gazan cultural, historical and religious sites, including Gaza's central archives.

As of January 2025, Israel had destroyed 815 mosques and 19 cemeteries during the Gaza war.

In June 2025, UN experts published a report saying Israel had committed the crime against humanity of extermination for "killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites". According to the report, Israel has destroyed over 90% of educational buildings in Gaza.

Serious bodily and mental harm, and sexual violence

Top to bottom:

• Yamen was injured in his leg during his sixth displacement in Jabalia refugee camp, and he was forced to flee while wounded.
• A Palestinian refugee carries his injured grandchildren from the Israeli bombing of Nuseirat Camp, Gaza Strip

The number of injured since 7 October 2023 due to Israeli military actions is greater than 150,000, and Gaza has the most child amputees per capita worldwide. Israel has been accused of indiscriminate mass detentions and has been documented making threats of mutilation, death, arson, and rape, and torturing Palestinians detained without charges. By March 2024, an estimated 17,000 children were "wounded children, no surviving family" (WCNSF), a new medical term.

In August 2024, the UN OHCHR reported receiving testimony from Palestinians imprisoned at Sde Teiman detention camp about rape and sexual assault perpetrated on detainees. The Lemkin Institute considers this and similar reports to be indicative of "Sexualized Violence During Genocide", or sexual violence being used to destroy a group.

As of 25 August 2024, the UN estimates that most of Gaza's 2.2 million people are confined to roughly 15 square miles (39 km²), causing a critical lack of basic services, like clean water, and diseases spreading widely, such as Hepatitis C.

Amnesty reported that the pattern of abuses inside Israeli prisons "underscores the systematic dehumanization and mental and physical abuse of Palestinians in Gaza and may also be taken into account with a view to inferring genocidal intent from pattern of conduct." According to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, gender-based and sexual violence were committed "to dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part." According to a UN committee, the Gaza war has resulted in disabilities for more than 21,000 children as of September 2025.

Academic and legal discourse

There is a growing consensus among genocide and Holocaust scholars, international legal experts, human rights organisations, and governments that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide, although Israel and its supporters, including the US, deny the accusation. In May 2025, NRC wrote that leading scholars in genocide studies are "surprisingly unanimous" that Israel is committing genocide.

On 31 August 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), the world's biggest academic association of genocide scholars, passed a resolution saying that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Some scholars of Holocaust studies have defended Israeli violence and maintain that the charge of genocide is rooted in antisemitism. Others, primarily those who reject the uniqueness of the Holocaust, have argued that Israel's actions should be analysed as a case of genocide, along with other genocides in history.^{[page needed][page needed]}Amos Goldberg has accused mainstream Holocaust studies of abandoning universal human rights and becoming an "enabling factor" of the genocide. In May 2025, Uğur Ümit Üngör said, "the gap between Holocaust historians and their colleagues who view genocides in a broader context was shrinking".

Other academics also called Israel's attacks on infrastructure, food, and water genocidal. Shmuel Lederman has called Israel's actions genocidal violence, and says the situation in Gaza is part of a long and ongoing history of oppression and settler-colonialism.Amos Goldberg, Daniel Blatman and Enzo Traverso have said Israel's actions in Gaza exhibit all the elements of genocide, citing explicit intent by high-ranking officials, widespread incitement, and pervasive dehumanisation of Palestinians in Israeli society.

Scholars such as Professor Victoria Sanford, Barry Trachtenberg, John Cox and Didier Fassin have made similarities between statements Israeli government officials and ministers made and those made during the genocides in Guatemala, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, northern Iraq, and Myanmar, and the Herero and Nama genocide. Luigi Daniele, a lecturer at Nottingham Law School, noted a link between the IDF's justification for its conduct in Gaza and the Rapid Support Forces rationale in the Sudanese civil war, saying it "reveals the emergence of a template to commit mass extermination and even genocide".

The historian Ilan Pappé said, "What we see now are massacres which are part of the genocidal impulse, namely to kill people in order to downsize the number of people living in Gaza." The historian Yoav Di-Capua charted a history of increasing genocidal ideology among Hardal. The Israeli historian Benny Morris contended that Israel was not committing genocide, but that this was possible in future unless certain steps were taken.

On 26 January 2024 the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling finding that the rights asserted in South Africa's filing were "plausible" and issued an order requiring that Israel take all measures in its power to prevent acts of genocide, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza. Some Israeli politicians supported South Africa's actions, including Ofer Cassif.

Answers to the question "How would you define Israel's military campaign in Gaza?" among Middle East scholars in a January–February 2025 survey

1. Genocide (46.0%)
2. Major war crimes akin to genocide (36.0%)
3. Major war crimes but not akin to genocide (9.00%)
4. Unjustified actions but not major war crimes (4.00%)
5. Justified actions under the right to self-defense (4.00%)
6. I don't know (2.00%)

In March 2024 the Middle East Studies Association condemned the "accelerating scale of genocidal violence being inflicted on the Palestinian population of Gaza", saying that Israel's conduct constituted cultural genocide. Surveys of 758 Middle East scholars by the Brookings Institution indicated a growing consensus that Israel's military campaign in Gaza was genocide.

A June 2024 report by the University Network for Human Rights and Boston University School of Law found that "Israel has committed genocidal acts". In May and July 2024 the scholars Nimer Sultany, Neve Gordon, and Nicola Perugini supported Forensic Architecture's assessment that Israel had weaponised international humanitarian law into "humanitarian violence".

In December 2024 Amnesty International published a report accusing Israel of committing genocide". The law professor Adil Ahmad Haque said that Amnesty "correctly applies existing law" based on "its extensive factual findings". Following the Amnesty report, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of "genocidal acts" in Gaza, but it did not say definitively whether genocidal intent existed.

Legal proceedings

International Court of Justice application

Stances of states:

  South Africa

  Countries that have supported South Africa's case

  Countries that have opposed South Africa's case

  Israel

South Africa has instituted proceedings at the International Court of Justice pursuant to the Genocide Convention, accusing Israel of committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa compared Israel's actions to apartheid. Several international organisations and other nations supported South Africa's suit.

In an application filed in December 2023, South Africa argued that Israel's actions "are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group". South Africa requested that the ICJ issue a legal order on an interim basis requiring Israel to "immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza"..

On 26 January 2024 the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling finding that the rights asserted in South Africa's filing were "plausible" and issued an order requiring that Israel take all measures in its power to prevent acts of genocide, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza. Later that year, South Africa asked the ICJ to order additional measures against Israel because Gazans are facing mass starvation, and in May, the court issued what some experts considered to be an ambiguous order but which was widely understood as requiring Israel to immediately halt its offensive in Rafah. Israel rejected this interpretation and continued its offensive.

The Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy rejected the allegations "with disgust" and accused South Africa of cooperating with Hamas, calling South Africa's claims "blood libel". On 2 January 2024 Israel decided to appear before the ICJ in response to South Africa's case, despite a history of ignoring international tribunals. On 13 January Netanyahu said, "No one will stop us. Not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil, no one." Israeli officials called the court antisemitic. Israel's position is that "while unfortunate, the mass killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians is necessary, unavoidable, and justifiable self-defense." South Africa's actions found support from some Israeli politicians, including Ofer Cassif.

International Criminal Court

In May 2024 Khan applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, saying he had reasonable grounds to believe they bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza strip. The list of crimes did not include genocide, which is legally distinct from extermination. The warrants were issued in November 2024.

As part of a December 2024 report accusing Israel of genocide, Amnesty International called on the ICC "to urgently consider the commission of the crime of genocide by Israeli officials since 7 October 2023 in the ongoing investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine". Also in December 2024, the Israeli law professor Omer Shatz filed a complaint with the ICC naming eight Israeli political and media figures he believed were responsible for incitement to genocide. The International Criminal Court faces political pressure and sanctions for its decisions during the Gaza War, particularly from Israel and the US.

US Center for Constitutional Rights lawsuit

In November 2023, the Center for Constitutional Rights sued US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. The suit alleges that Israel's "mass killings", targeting of civilian infrastructure, and forced expulsions amount to genocide, writing that the United States is capable of deterring Israel from committing these acts due to the close relationship between the countries.

A federal judge dismissed the case in January 2024, ruling the US Constitution prevented his court from determining foreign policy, but writing that "as the ICJ has found, it is plausible that Israel's conduct amounts to genocide". The judge also commented that he would have preferred to have issued the injunction and urged Biden to rethink US policy.

German lawsuit

In February 2024, lawyers representing Palestinians in Germany filed a criminal complaint against politicians including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Economic Minister Robert Habeck, and Finance Minister Christian Lindner for "aiding and abetting" genocide in Gaza.

Nicaragua v. Germany

In March 2024 Nicaragua initiated proceedings against Germany at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention concerning Germany's support for Israel in the Gaza war. It sought provisional measures of protection, including resumption of suspended German funding of the UNRWA and cessation of military supplies to Israel.

Australian legal proceedings

In March 2024 Birchgrove Legal referred Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, and others to the ICC as accessories to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, citing the defunding of UNRWA, the provision of military aid, and "unequivocal political support" for Israel's actions during the Gaza war.

Responsibility of third states and other entities

All UN states that are signatories to the Genocide Convention are obliged "to employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible" and must not provide "means to enable or facilitate the commission of the crime". Multiple scholars argue that the inaction of the international community to confirmed atrocities in Gaza expose the irrelevance and weakness of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Palestine said, "States may be complicit in failing to prevent genocide if they do not act in compliance" with the International Court of Justice's orders or if they directly aid or assist in "the commission of genocide". Other journalists and scholars have written that the actions of the US and other Western countries implicitly give permission for genocide. In January 2024 the former UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said that the US and UK are complicit in genocide against Gaza. In March Oxfam released a statement detailing its intention, alongside several other NGOs, to sue Denmark to prevent arms sales to Israel, warning that by selling arms Denmark is "complicit in violations of international humanitarian law ... and a plausible genocide".

Navi Pillay, the chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, has said that states that provide weapons to Israel, including the US, are complicit in genocide. A UN Special Committee wrote, "Failing to act now ... will tear apart the very foundation of the international rule of law we have collectively built to protect peace, security, and the well-being of all. Our inaction today is setting a perilous precedent for tomorrow.

United States

Pro-Palestine rally in Austin, Texas, United States, 2023

In November 2023, critics of President Joe Biden nicknamed him "Genocide Joe" for his support for Israel. In response, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, "Israel's trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat." In November 2023 the Center for Constitutional Rights sued Biden for allegedly failing in his duty under national and international laws to prevent Israel from committing genocide in Gaza.

Angie Nixon, a member of the Democratic Party and the Florida House of Representatives, sponsored a resolution calling for "de-escalation" and a ceasefire. The resolution was rejected by a vote of 104 to 2, but there was controversy during the legislative debate. Nixon said: "We are at 10,000 dead Palestinians. How many will be enough?" Republican State Representative Michelle Salzman replied, "All of them." Some commentators called Salzman's remark a call for genocide. Nixon and the Florida chapter of the Council on American–Islamic Relations called for Salzman to be censured or resign. The executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), Ahmad Abuznaid, said, "There is a bipartisan effort to dehumanize the Palestinian people".

Max Miller a member of the Republican Party and a US representative, said in October 2023 that Palestine is "about to get eviscerated ... to turn that into a parking lot". He previously called on the Biden administration "to get out of Israel's way and to let Israel do what it needs to do best" and said there should be "no rules of engagement" during Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Miller also questioned the accuracy of the Gaza Health Ministry's claim that 10,000 people had been killed in Gaza. In December 2023 Michele Bachmann said "it's time that Gaza ends".

A 26 February 2024 vigil outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. with a sign accusing the United States of supporting genocide.

On 31 January 2024 the Republican US representative Brian Mast said that Palestinian babies are "terrorists" who should be killed, that more infrastructure in Gaza must be destroyed, and "It would be better if you kill all the terrorists and kill everyone who are supporters." When asked about the deaths of Palestinian children, the Republican US representative Andy Ogles said: "I think we should kill 'em all ... Hamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 20 years. It's time to pay the piper." Supporters of Palestine, including the American Muslim Advisory Council, denounced his comments as a call for genocide. In February 2024 the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention said the Biden administration was complicit in genocide in Gaza: "President Biden and key administration officials are on a path to be remembered as the principal enablers of one of the worst genocides in the 21st century."Ali Harb wrote, "US weapons have continued to flow to Israel to arm a military carrying out a suspected genocide in Gaza." In February 2024, after the US vetoed a UN ceasefire resolution, Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez said, "They are accomplices of this genocide of Israel against Palestine." Karen Wells et al. also point to the $14.3 billion as evidence of US complicity in Israel's "genocidal war". Research in 2024 showed that Israel's military relies heavily on fuel imports from the US for its operations in Gaza. Francesca Albanese said the United States' provision of fuel to Israel after the ICJ's provisional ruling was "a breach of the Genocide Convention".

In March 2024 the then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, said that Biden "dumped Israel" due to being overly influenced by pro-Palestinian protests, that he supported Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza, that Israel had to "finish the problem", and that the Biden administration "got soft", which some commentators viewed as a call to continue and "double down" on genocidal acts. Trump's campaign also said that, if elected, he would bar Gaza residents from entering the US.

The Republican US representative Tim Walberg said that Palestinian civilians should have nuclear weapons used against them to "get it over quick". On 22 July 2025, in response to a tweet by ABC News about the rising numbers of Palestinians dying of starvation, the Republican US representative Randy Fine said: "Release the hostages. Until then, starve away." He also called the reports of starvation "Muslim terror propaganda".

The Democratic US representative Rashida Tlaib accused Biden of supporting "the genocide of the Palestinian people". The Republican US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sponsored a resolution to censure Tlaib.Craig Mokhiber of the UN High Commission for Human Rights resigned, criticising the organisation for its response to the Gaza war. He later said Israel's actions in Gaza are a "classic case of textbook genocide".

In a March 2025 op-ed in Newsweek calling for an arms embargo on Israel, the Democratic US representative Bonnie Watson Coleman wrote that the US is not "merely witnessing a genocide in Gaza" but is complicit.

Human Rights Watch announced in August 2025 that US military personnel who assist Israeli forces in committing war crimes may be prosecuted for their actions. In September 2025 the US senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley said that Israel was operating under a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and that the United States was complicit in that plan.

In August 2025 President Donald Trump said that no genocide is taking place.

United Kingdom

Protester holding a sign claiming the UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer (image blurred due to copyright) supports genocide

The British government does not give weapons to Israel directly but rather issues licences for British companies to sell them. On 12 December 2023 Human Rights Watch said that selling weapons to Israel could make the UK complicit in war crimes. UK law says that licences cannot be granted when there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.James Denselow of Save the Children UK said, "By failing to push for a permanent end to the fighting or speak out against the weaponisation of aid, Rishi Sunak and his government are complicit in the horror that is unfolding." In December 2023 Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf condemned the UK's abstention from a draft UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying this would lead to the deaths of more children.

In April 2024 Guy Goodwin-Gill said: "There is a serious risk of genocide, as the International Court of Justice has found. If the UK, with that knowledge in mind, carries on exporting arms to Israel, there is a risk that those arms will be used in the conduct of aggressive activities and in the conduct of genocide." The same month, hundreds of lawyers and legal academics published a legal opinion warning that the government risked complicity in genocide by continuing to arm Israel.

On 2 September 2024 Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that he was suspending approximately 30 arms export licences to Israel after a government review concluded that there was a high risk that these exports were being used for severe violations of international humanitarian law. At the time of the suspension, Israel had around 350 arms export licences in the UK.

On 3 September 2025 the Scottish Government announced a ban on funding to "arms companies whose products or services are provided to countries where there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed", including Israel. The Scottish Parliament also voted for a boycott of Israel and any companies providing it military support.

Lawsuit over export licences

The human rights groups Al-Haq and Global Legal Action Network took legal action against the British government in December 2023, saying that the government risked violating the Genocide Convention by granting export licences for the sale of military equipment to Israel.

In May 2025 a hearing began at the High Court of Justice to determine whether the UK had violated arms export control laws by continuing to supply Israel with components for F-35 jets even after other licences were suspended. Government lawyers said the components were not being supplied directly to Israel and that withholding them could threaten international security.

Germany

Demonstration in Frankfurt, where demonstrators are holding a banner that reads: "Stop the criminalisation of Palestinian resistance and solidarity"

In October 2023 the political analyst Lena Obermaier argued that Germany is complicit in Israel's war crimes against Gaza. She detailed how most of Germany's most prominent news outlets have "been silent on Israeli genocidal policies". She also highlighted police suppression of pro-Palestine protests as evidence of state complicity. According to Germany's Federal Commissioner for the Fight against Antisemitism, accusing Israel of genocide is antisemitic. Publicly accusing Israel of genocide can lead to arrest in Germany, even when the accusers are Jewish or Israeli. In February 2024 a criminal complaint was filed in German courts accusing various senior politicians of complicity in genocide. In March, Nicaragua sued Germany for complicity at the ICJ.

European Union

The European Union was accused of potential complicity after it did not suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnès Callamard said the EU was giving Israel a "green light" to continue its genocide and was at "risk of complicity in Israel's actions".The Rights Forum [nl] said the decision was "shameless complicity in genocide".

Egypt

Egypt has been accused of complicity in genocide for its enforcement of the blockade on Gaza and refusal to open the Rafah Border Crossing. In April 2025 Cage and five other African advocacy organisations filed a complaint with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Egypt is not permitted to turn people away at its borders if doing so would expose them to life-threatening conditions or collective punishment, as this would violate its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture. Egypt was also accused of complicity with Israel for its crackdown on the Global March to Gaza.

Egypt has said that its closure of the Rafah crossing is done in opposition to Israeli plans to displace Palestinians. Egypt rejected an Israeli proposal that Gaza be returned to Egypt for up to 15 years and formally supported South Africa's genocide case against Israel.

Private sector and media

Multiple corporations have been accused of profiting from the Gaza genocide. Executives from Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and RTX Corporation have described the war in Gaza as a source of increased profits.

On 20 June 2024, UN experts warned that continued arms transfers to Israel could amount to violations of international law and risk state and corporate complicity in potential genocide. They called for an immediate halt to all weapons transfers to Israel, including by such major arms manufacturers as BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Caterpillar. They also warned institutions investing in these companies, such as Bank of America, BlackRock, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo.

In June 2025 a UN expert's report named Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM as "central to Israel's surveillance apparatus and the ongoing Gaza destruction", and Palantir as a source of AI tools for the Israeli military. The report also named Allianz, Barclays, BlackRock, and BNP Paribas for underwriting and purchasing Israeli government bonds, which the UN said are the main source of financing for Israel's military expenditures. Scholars, journalists, media analysts, and human rights advocates have accused various media outlets, mainly western, of complicity through media imperialism.

Statements by political organisations and governments

World leaders and governments

Positions of national governments on whether Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza war

  Agree

  Disagree

  Unclear

  Defer to the ruling in the ICJ case South Africa v. Israel

  No data

Several Western governments (notably the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany), reject calling Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide, often arguing that courts must make that determination.^{[citation needed]} Belgium, Norway, and Canada have said they will abide by or await the ICJ’s judgment rather than take a definitive stance.

A large group of states, especially in the Islamic world, parts of Africa, Latin America, and some European countries, explicitly describe Israel’s actions as genocide and/or have joined or supported South Africa’s ICJ case. These include Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab League, and the African Union have collectively endorsed the characterization of Israel’s actions as genocide and called for accountability and measures such as ending arms transfers.

NGOs and intergovernmental organisations

After Israel started its military operation against Hamas, both Genocide Watch and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention issued statements warning of the imminent risk of genocide. In December 2023 the Lemkin Institute said that it viewed Israel's continuing actions as genocide. In December 2024 Genocide Watch said that Israel was conducting genocide against the Palestinian people.

In November 2023 Defence for Children International (DCI) accused the US of complicity in Israel's "crime of genocide". In March 2024 DCI addressed the famine affecting Gaza: "The starvation of children is a hallmark of genocide and a deliberate political choice by Israel, backed by the Biden administration." Three Palestinian rights groups, Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC) urging it to investigate Israel for apartheid and genocide and issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. The Arab Parliament wrote that Israel "aims to destroy the identity of an entire people".

In December 2023 the International Federation for Human Rights said Israel's actions in Gaza constituted an unfolding genocide. In February 2024, ahead of the Rafah offensive, Amnesty International head Agnes Callamard wrote: "Amnesty is reiterating that Palestinians in Gaza are at grave risk of genocide. The international community has an obligation to act to prevent genocide." In March 2024 Callamard said the international community "must uphold their obligations under the Genocide Convention and take concrete measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza today". In October 2024 Medical Aid for Palestinians released a statement calling for the protection of Palestinians, saying, "Gaza is being erased in front of our eyes."Oxfam and 37 other humanitarian organisations warned that Israel was failing to comply with the Genocide Convention as it wiped Northern Gaza "off the map". Oxfam added that it was "impossible not to believe" that Israel's aim was the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented evidence of executions committed by the IDF.Jewish Voice for Peace said: "The Israeli government has declared a genocidal war on the people of Gaza. As an organization that works for a future where Palestinians and Israelis and all people live in equality and freedom, we call on all people of conscience to stop imminent genocide of Palestinians."

In December 2024 Amnesty International issued a report declaring that Israel had "committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip". The report asserted that in multiple instances Israeli forces and authorities had committed three of five acts prohibited under the United Nations' Genocide Convention: "killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction" with the "specific intent to destroy Palestinians". In its 2025 State of the World's Human Rights report, Amnesty called Israel's actions a "live-streamed genocide" and criticised the complicity of Israel's allies, chiefly the United States, which it said "claimed that or acted as if international law did not apply to" it by "willfully ignoring" the orders and proceedings of the ICC and ICJ.

The law professor and senior fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Orde Kittrie claimed that Amnesty had altered or otherwise made up a new definition of genocide, while the law professor Amichai Cohen and the human-rights scholar Yuval Shany called the report an "attempt to move the normative goalposts regarding these evidentiary standards". Other experts defended the report, telling TheJournal.ie that Amnesty was using the term consistently with international law. The genocide scholar A. Dirk Moses called the accusation against Amnesty International "vexatious". Amnesty International's Israeli branch rejected the report and a "group of Jewish employees, in Israel and in several branches around the world" said that its authors "reached a predetermined conclusion". A minority of Amnesty Israel members said that "according to the available information, it can be determined that Israel is committing or has committed genocide in Gaza". In January 2025 Amnesty International suspended its Israeli branch for two years, in part because of disagreements about research and findings Amnesty published.

On 10 December 2024 the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights announced that it had been investigating the question of genocide in Gaza and concluded that there was a "legally sound argument that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza".

A December 2024 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) report said its "firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza." In July 2025, MSF said that Israel was committing genocide. They argue that statements by senior Israeli officials demonstrate genocidal intent, writing the "only reasonable inference is that the intention is to erase the Palestinian people from Gaza."

In May 2025, during Israel's total blockade of Gaza, NIOD director Martijn Eickhoff told NOS, "If an entire population is denied access to food, that is potentially genocidal."

On 28 July 2025 the Israeli human rights groups B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel released reports calling Israel's campaign in Gaza a genocide. The B'Tselem report also claimed that European and US leaders were enabling the genocide.

United Nations

In November 2023 a group of UN special rapporteurs wrote, "We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide." UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Pedro Arrojo said that based on the Rome Statute, which counts "deprivation of access to food or medicine, among others" as a form of extermination, "even if there is no clear intention, the data show that the war is heading towards genocide". A group of UN human rights experts said there was "evidence of increasing genocidal incitement" against Palestinians.

In response to a January 2024 Times of Israel report that the Israeli government was in talks with the Congolese government to take Palestinian refugees from Gaza, the UN special rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal said, "Forcible transfer of Gazan population is an act of genocide."

In May 2024 UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Reem Alsalem said that Palestinian women "are experiencing a full-blown genocide. They are being exterminated. There are few places in the world where we've seen something like this." The UNHCR Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, said that Israel's destruction of Gaza "constitutes an act of genocide as well because the purpose of that destruction, exceeding 70 to 80 per cent across Gaza, is to make the place uninhabitable".

In October 2024 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report that accused the Israeli military of "the crime against humanity of extermination" for killing health workers and targeting health facilities.

On 8 November 2024 the United Nations human rights office condemned many violations of international law that "could amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly even 'genocide'", calling on third states to prevent "atrocity crimes". On 14 November 2024 the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices concluded that they are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.

In February 2025 UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri said that Israel is committing a genocide and is working to "slow down its genocide through a starvation campaign", concluding that the United States and Germany were complicit in the ensuing famine.

In May 2025 twenty UN independent experts and four working groups issued a statement accusing Israel of genocide and criticising the debate over the genocide terminology:

While States debate terminology – is it or is it not genocide? – Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza, through attacks by land, air and sea, displacing and massacring the surviving population with impunity ... States must act swiftly to end the unfolding genocide, dismantle apartheid, and secure a future in which Palestinians and Israelis coexist in freedom and dignity.

Also in May 2025, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Tom Fletcher urged world leaders to act decisively to prevent genocide in Gaza. The US has vetoed UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions on Gaza six times, remaining the sole opponent while all 14 other members backed the calls.

In September 2025 the UN Human Rights Council's Independent International Commission of Inquiry issued a report concluding that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Commission found reasonable grounds to determine that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed, and continue to commit, four of the five genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

The Commission further determined that genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference from the totality of evidence, and that Israeli political and military leaders have incited the commission of genocide. The Commission has characterised its findings as the most authoritative UN determination to date on the Gaza war. Israeli officials, the US State Department, and the US-and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) condemned the report. Netanyahu denied its core findings on starvation, while the GHF called the report a collection of "falsehoods" that "rewards bad actors and undermines" humanitarian efforts.

Cultural discourse

Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza has been a contentious topic in cultural discourse, with celebrities, athletes, public intellectuals, activists, cultural institutions and ordinary people weighing in on the events in Gaza, as well as on the cultural and societal implications of viewing those events through the framework of genocide.

Legacy

Millions of people around the world protested Israel's actions, many of them explicitly calling for the recognition and cessation of genocide.^{[page needed]}

The Britsh sociologist Martin Shaw has called the Gaza genocide "the genocide that changed the world" because of mass mobilisation against genocide. He also highlights some political victories by Israel, but "at huge cost to its global legitimacy and that of the West". Some scholars, particularly those associated with Third World approaches to international law, have argued that the international community's failure to treat Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide and respond accordingly has harmed the principles of the international order and international law and exposed the deficiencies of international governance.^{[page needed]} José Manuel Barreto argues that "the Palestinian genocide has unveiled the deep colonial structure of the international legal order", placing the Gaza genocide in a long list of colonial genocides the international system has tolerated. The journalist Colin Jones interviewed lawyers affiliated with the US military and concluded that they see Gaza as a test case for what military conduct might be acceptable in a hypothetical future war between the US and a peer power such as China. Mark LeVine argues that Israel's actions have destroyed respect for international law and weakened the taboo against resorting to large-scale violence in response to perceived threats to the state.

See also

• List of genocides
• Gaza–Israel conflict
• Casualties of the Gaza war
• Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
• Timeline of the Gaza war
• Allegations of genocide in the October 7 attacks
• Effect of the Gaza war on children in the Gaza Strip
• Palestinians as animals in Israeli discourse
• Gaza Strip mass graves
• Human rights violations against Palestinians by Israel
• Israeli war crimes in the Gaza war
• Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany

Footnotes

1. Per the Gaza Health Ministry and Government Information Office, which has previously been deemed reliable by prominent and independent organisations.
2. Amnesty International,Médecins Sans Frontières,B'Tselem,Physicians for Human Rights–Israel,International Federation for Human Rights.
3. Average of 77,000 to 109,000.
4. As of January 2025, a comparable estimate for traumatic injury deaths would be around 80,000.
5. It is unclear how many of the deaths were a result of friendly fire or of the Hannibal Directive. As for the civilian deaths, there are up to 15 known deaths of civilians from these causes: up to 13 in Be'eri, 1 from helicopter gunfire on a vehicle carrying a hostage, and 1 in Kibbutz Alumim. An Ynet article stated that there was an "immense and complex quantity" of friendly-fire incidents on the part of IDF during the 7 October attack.
6. Per the Gaza Health Ministry and Government Information Office by 3 January 2024, over 22,300 people had been confirmed dead.
7. Some Israeli officials denied the plan had been adopted; however, an official familiar with the situation stated that some aspects of the plan were already in progress.
8. In vitro fertilisation
9. The use of white phosphorus against military targets located among civilians is contrary to Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, of which Israel is not a signatory.
10. • Amnesty International
    • Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke
    • Al-Haq

References

1. Sultany 2024, pp. 2–3.
2. Levene 2024, p. 5.
3. Albanese 2024, p. 4.
4. Albanese 2024b, p. 20–22.
5. Goldberg 2024, p. 9.
6. • Sultany 2024, p. 23
   • Cordall 2024
   • Cage 2025
   • "Amnesty International concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza". Amnesty International. 5 December 2024. Archived from the original on 6 December 2024. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
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8. Independent International Commission of Inquiry 2025, pp. 1, 37, 39.
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15. • Murphy 2025: "U.N. experts said in a report on Tuesday that Israel committed the crime against humanity of 'extermination' by killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, part of a 'concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life.'"
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    • Bayoumi 2025: "...today it is Israel’s acts of extermination and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, funded and enabled at every turn by a complicit west..."
    • Nashed 2025: "'The fact that the claims made by the RSF in Sudan resemble the claims Israel is making in Gaza … reveals the emergence of a template to commit mass extermination and even genocide,' said Luigi Daniele, a senior lecturer on IHL at Nottingham Law School."
16. "Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission finds". OHCHR. 16 September 2025. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
17. Pieris, Mohan (19 November 2024). A genocide is unfolding before our eyes: History will not forgive our inaction, UN Special Committee warns General Assembly 4th Committee report (Speech). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Archived from the original on 14 April 2025. Retrieved 9 April 2025. Our report leaves no room for ambiguity. A genocide is unfolding before our eyes. Failing to act now – failing to put an end to this atrocity crime – will tear apart the very foundation of the international rule of law we have collectively built to protect peace, security, and the well-being of all. Our inaction today is setting a perilous precedent for tomorrow. Think about it.
18. "Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission finds". OHCHR. 16 September 2025. Archived from the original on 16 September 2025. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
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21. Amnesty International report 2024, p. 13: "This report focuses on the Israeli authorities' policies and actions in Gaza as part of the military offensive they launched in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 while situating them within the broader context of Israel's unlawful occupation, and system of apartheid against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. It assesses allegations of violations and crimes under international law by Israel in Gaza within the framework of genocide under international law, concluding that there is sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide."
22. Médecins Sans Frontières 2025: "Our decision to describe what’s happening in Gaza as a 'genocide' is based on nearly two years of extensive, firsthand information from our teams, who are witnessing massive levels of death and destruction by Israeli forces, a campaign of ethnic cleansing and the almost total dismantling of the health care system."
23. B'Tselem 2025, p. 86: "The review presented in this report leaves no room for doubt: since October 2023, the Israeli regime has been responsible for carrying out genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Killing tens of thousands of people; causing bodily or mental harm to hundreds of thousands more; destroying homes and civilian infrastructure on a massive scale; starvation, displacement, and denying humanitarian aid – all this is being perpetrated systematically, as part of a coordinated attack aimed at annihilating all facets of life in the Gaza Strip."
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27. • Albanese 2024, p. 1: "By analysing the patterns of violence and Israeli policies in its onslaught on Gaza, the present report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating that Israel has committed genocide has been met"
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35. Jamaluddine et al. 2025: "We estimated 64,260 deaths (95% CI 55 298–78 525) due to traumatic injury during the study period, suggesting the Palestinian MoH under-reported mortality by 41%. ... Our findings underestimate the full impact of the military operation in Gaza, as they do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation."
36. Bloxham 2025, pp. 23–24: "When considering the total 'excess mortality,' we need to add the Palestinians who have died because of the blockade in combination with the IDF's destruction of health and sanitation and food infrastructure. As public health experts noted, in many wars, 'most deaths' are 'due to the indirect [sic] impacts of war: malnutrition, communicable disease, exacerbations of noncommunicable disease, [and] maternal and infant disorders.'117 'Indirect' would be the wrong word for this conflict given the nature of Israeli policies, including the systematic obstruction of supplies into Gaza."
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