Amnesty International also accused Israel Thursday of “committing genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war last year, saying its new report was a “wake-up call” for the world
“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the Genocide Convention of 1948,” Human Rights Watch said in its report.
Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas-led attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.
Although the report described the deprivation of water as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing their intent. It cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide.”
“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a press conference.
Human Rights Watch is the second major rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report that concluded Israel was committing genocide.
Both reports came just weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny the allegations.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
The 184-page Human Rights Watch report said the Israeli government stopped water being piped into Gaza and cut off electricity and restricted fuel which meant Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used.
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few liters of water a day in many areas, far below the 15-liter-threshold for survival, the group said. Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
The London-based human rights group said its findings were based on satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans as well as “dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials.”
Israel angrily dismissed the findings as “entirely false,” denouncing the report as “fabricated” and “based on lies.”
A State Department spokesman said the US disagreed with the report, saying "allegations of genocide are unfounded."
Amnesty’s Israel branch said it was not involved in the report and “does not accept” the allegation of genocide.
Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard accused Israel of treating the Palestinians in Gaza “as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.”
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” she said in a statement.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been fighting Israel in Gaza, welcomed the report as a “message to the international community... on the need to act to bring an end to this genocide.”
The group’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack which triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,580 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
Independent UN human rights experts have accused Israel of genocide several times, and South Africa brought a case against Israel to the UN’s top court in December 2023 accusing it of “violating the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza.” The case is still ongoing.
But Israeli officials have repeatedly and forcefully denied all such allegations, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
“The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” the Israeli foreign ministry said.
“Israel is defending itself... acting fully in accordance with international law.”
But Callamard insisted at a press conference in The Hague that “the existence of military objectives does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent.”
She said Amnesty had based its findings on the criteria set out in the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.
But an Israeli army spokesperson said the report’s findings “fail to account for the operational realities” it has faced.
“The (military) takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians during operations. These include providing advance warnings to civilians in combat zones whenever feasible and facilitating safe movement to designated areas.”
While Amnesty Israel rejected the accusation of genocide, it said it was “concerned that serious crimes are being committed in Gaza” and called for an investigation and an immediate halt to the war.
Amnesty’s 300-page report points to “direct deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructures where there was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives” as well as the blocking of aid deliveries, and the displacement of 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
Palestinians have been subjected to “malnutrition, hunger and diseases” and exposed to a “slow, calculated death,” Amnesty said.
The rights group, which is also due to publish a report on the crimes committed by Hamas, cited 15 air strikes in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and April 20, which killed 334 civilians, including 141 children, for which the group found “no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.”
The Amnesty report also referenced dozens of calls by Israeli officials and soldiers for the annihilation, destruction, burning or “erasure” of Gaza.
Such statements highlighted “systemic impunity” as well as “an environment that emboldens... such behavior.”
“Governments must stop pretending that they are powerless to terminate Israel’s occupation, to end apartheid and to stop the genocide in Gaza,” Callamard said.
“States that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit.”
