Human Rights Watch: Israel is guilty of extermination and acts of genocide in Gaza
Israel is guilty of the crime of extermination and acts of genocide in Gaza, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has concluded in a new report published on Thursday.
The US-based human rights organisation found that Israel has inflicted conditions of life in Gaza calculated to destroy the enclave’s Palestinian population. This amounts to extermination, which is a crime against humanity, and acts of genocide.
Coming two weeks after fellow rights group Amnesty International similarly concluded that Israel is guilty of genocide, the Human Rights Watch report is the latest sign of a growing consensus around Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In November, the International Crimincal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of a range of war crimes and crimes against humanity over atrocities committed after Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.
On 14 November, days before the ICC issued its arrest warrants, a United Nations special committee report accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war and of prosecuting policies and practices in Gaza that may amount to a “possibility of genocide”. [Continue reading…]