B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights on Monday published a report accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, becoming the first major Israeli human rights organizations to join a list of international groups making the charge.

“An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,” reads a statement presenting the report. “In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. ”

A growing number of Israel’s international critics have accused it of genocide in its war against Hamas — some even in the days immediately following the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages and sparked the fighting.

Major human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have endorsed the charge as the death toll in Gaza has mounted. But this is the first time that leading Israeli human rights watchdogs have made the accusation.

Hamas’s attack on Israel sparked a shift in the country’s policy toward Palestinians in Gaza from “repression and control to destruction and annihilation,” B’Tselem said.

Israel has consistently and vehemently denied that it is committing genocide, including in an ongoing case at the International Court of Justice. The Israel Defense Forces says that it takes extensive measures not to harm civilians in Gaza, and accuses Hamas of using Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Government officials did not immediately respond to the report by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights.

Global pressure on Israel has intensified in recent days as reports of starvation in Gaza have spread. In response, Israel announced several measures to increase the flow of aid to the enclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed allegations that Israel is pursuing a deliberate policy of starving Gaza’s civilian population.

But the groups said the conclusion that Israel was carrying out a genocide was clear.

“The definition of genocide is a coordinated attack with the intent to destroy a group,” Yuli Novak, executive director of B’Tselem, said. “For the past 22 months, we have witnessed unprecedented destruction of civilians, deliberate starvation, and mass forced displacement. Gaza’s residents are displaced, bombed, and starved, stripped entirely of their humanity and rights.”

The Physicians for Human Rights-Israel report was a detailed analysis focusing on what it called the step-by-step dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems including electricity, clean water and access to food.

Its report said Israel has committed three of the acts of genocide defined by international law, including “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The Israeli rights groups said repeated statements by Israeli officials and the military endorsing the total destruction, starvation and permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, combined with policies on the ground, have demonstrated that Israel is intentionally trying to destroy Palestinian society.

Guy Shalev, director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said it was significant that Israeli groups were now leveling the accusation, noting that the Jewish-Israeli public often dismisses accusations of genocide as antisemitic or biased against Israel.

“Perhaps human rights groups based in Israel, and coming to this conclusion, is a way to confront that accusation and get people to acknowledge the reality,” he said.

Israel asserts that it is fighting an existential war and abides by international law. It has rejected genocide allegations as antisemitic.

The rights groups, while prominent and respected internationally, are considered in Israel to be on the political fringe, and their views are not representative of the vast majority of Israelis. But having the allegation of genocide come from Israeli voices shatters a taboo in a society that has been reticent to criticize Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Like other rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have not been allowed into Gaza during the war. Their reports are based on documents, eyewitnesses and consultations with legal experts.

Orly Noy, chair of B’Tselem’s executive board, called for more international pressure on Israel to stop its actions.

“This crime must be stopped immediately,” Noy said at a press conference in East Jerusalem. “The responsibility lies first and foremost with Israel, but also with the international community, which must use every means to stop the crimes that are still taking place just 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) from here.”

Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people in their October 7 attack, and took 251 hostage. Fifty are still being held in captivity. Since then, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says nearly 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught. Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459.

Israel and Hamas have engaged in successive rounds of negotiations over the course of the war, leading to two ceasefires and hostage releases, in November 2023 and January to March of this year. Negotiations over another truce and hostage release recently broke down.

In the wake of that impasse, some voices in the government have redoubled their calls on Israel to occupy the Strip and encourage its residents to emigrate, and re-establish settlements there. Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out resettling Gaza. (Times of Israel)

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