WeeklySA_AdminDeath: Israel imposed conditions of life in Gaza that exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death
By Monk Nkomo
Israel’s creation of a deadly mixture of a life of hunger, malnutrition as well as the brutal military offensive that has killed nearly 42 000 Palestinians including 13,300 children and injured about 97 000 people, exposed those residents to a slow, calculated death.
These claims are contained in a damning report by Amnesty International, ‘’ You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’’, released this week. The report announced that its research had found that Israel had caused unprecedented destruction in Gaza at a level and speed never seen in any conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land, cultural and religious sites. It rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable. There was enough evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent in the area. The report examined in detail, Israel’s violations in Gaza over nine months between October 7, 2023 and July 2024. Amnesty International documented the genocidal acts of killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza by reviewing the results of investigations it conducted into 15 air strikes between October 7, 2023 and April 20, 2024 that killed at least 334 civilians including 141 children and wounded hundreds others.
Viewed in isolation, some of the acts investigated by Amnesty International constituted serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. ‘’But in looking at the broader picture of Israel’s military campaign and the cumulative impact of its policies and acts, genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion’’.
Many of the unlawful acts documented by Amnesty International were preceded by officials urging their implementation. The organization reviewed 102 statements that were issued by Israeli government and military officials and others between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024 and dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them.
Of these, Amnesty International identified 22 statements made by senior officials in charge of managing the offensive that appeared to call for, or justify, genocidal acts, providing direct evidence of genocidal intent. This language was frequently replicated, including by Israeli soldiers on the ground, as evidenced by audio-visual content verified by Amnesty International showing soldiers making calls to “erase” Gaza or to make it uninhabitable and celebrating the destruction of Palestinian homes, mosques, schools and universities.
After October 7, 2023, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza cutting off electricity, water and fuel. In the nine months reviewed for this report, Israel maintained a suffocating, unlawful blockade, tightly controlled access to energy sources, failed to facilitate meaningful humanitarian access within Gaza and obstructed the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid, particularly to areas north of Wadi Gaza. Israel exacerbated an already existing humanitarian crisis. This, combined with the extensive damage to Gaza’s homes, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and agricultural land and mass forced displacement, caused catastrophic levels of hunger and led to the spread of diseases at alarming rates. The impact was especially harsh on young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, with anticipated long-term consequences for their health.
The investigation found no evidence that any of the Israel air strikes were directed at a military objective. In one illustrative case, on April 20, 2024, an Israeli air strike destroyed the Abdelal family house in the Al -Jneinah neighbourhood in eastern Rafah, killing three generations of Palestinians, including 16 children while they were sleeping. The research found sufficient evidence to conclude that Israel had committed and was still continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza strip.
“Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
‘’The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience’’.
Governments, she added, must stop pretending they were powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law. States needed to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies.
The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued last month, offered real hope of long-overdue justice for victims. States must demonstrate their respect for the court’s decision and for universal international law principles by arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC. “We are calling on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to urgently consider adding genocide to the list of crimes it is investigating and for all States to use every legal avenue to bring perpetrators to justice. No one should be allowed to commit genocide and remain unpunished, ” Callamard said.
Amnesty International also called for all civilian hostages to be released unconditionally and for Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups responsible for the crimes committed on October 7, 2023, to be held to account. The organization also called on the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in crimes under international law.
The Amnesty International report noted that through its repeated evacuation orders, Israel had also displaced nearly 1,9 million Palestinians – 90 percent of Gaza’s population – into ever-shrinking , unsafe pockets of land under inhumane conditions. These multiple waves of forced displacements left many jobless and deeply traumatized.
Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid and unlawful military occupation in which these brutal acts had been committed, the research could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent was the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas. Callamard lashed out at governments that failed to act against Israel.
‘’Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now. “States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.”
The atrocity crimes committed on October 7, 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking, could never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The report documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel had unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.
Amnesty International’s report demonstrated that Israel had carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts included killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel had treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.
The research also revealed that, for months, Israel had persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice.
“Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent.” Before reaching its conclusion, Amnesty International examined Israel’s claims that its military lawfully targeted Hamas and other armed groups throughout Gaza, and that the resulting unprecedented destruction and denial of aid were the outcome of unlawful conduct by Hamas and other armed groups, such as locating fighters among the civilian population or the diversion of aid. ‘’The organization concluded these claims are not credible’’.
In their response, the Amnesty International branch in Israel distanced itself from the right’s group’s claims that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. They conceded however, that serious crimes were potentially taking place and they needed to be investigated.
The Jewish Members of the International NGO in Israel and abroad criticized the report for its ‘’ flawed methodology.’’
The US State Department’s deputy spokesman, Vedant Patel, said they disagreed with the conclusions of such a report and said they found the allegations of genocide in Gaza, unfounded.
ISRAEL, US, GERMANY REJECT REPORT
• Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza, claiming the Amnesty International report is “entirely false and based on lies”, insisting that it has a right to defend itself after the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers carried out their brutal attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1 200 people and taking 251 others hostage.
• “We have said previously and continue to find the allegations of genocide to be unfounded,” – US State Department
• Amnesty Israel and Jewish members of the international NGO, both in Israel and abroad, criticise the findings for bias and flawed methodology, questioning the evidence of genocidal intent behind Israel’s actions in Gaza. – Haaretz
• The German government today rejected Amnesty International’s accusation that Israel is committing “genocide” against Palestinians in its military campaign in Gaza.
Asked for a response to Amnesty’s report, German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters: “The question of genocide presupposes a clear intention to eradicate an ethnic group. I still do not recognise any such clear intention and therefore I cannot share the conclusions of the report.” – AFP
