Israeli human rights organisation, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHRI) have asserted that Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amount to genocide, warning that the genocide will not be limited to the Strip, but may extend to other areas, reports the Middle East Monitor.
“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 us to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip” B’Tselem said in a report on Monday.
The rights watchdog added that the Israeli genocidal acts against the Palestinians include forced displacement and clear attempts at ethnic cleansing, whereas Israeli prisons have also been transformed into torture camps where thousands of Palestinians are detained without trial, amid gross human rights violations.
As per the MEM report, B’Tselem noted that deadly crimes are being committed against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem without any form of accountability, confirming a systematic attack on Palestinian identity through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps.
It also noted that Israel is also attempting to inflict significant damage to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), calling for the protection of the agency’s vital role in providing essential services to Palestinian refugees.
It also confirmed that it has documented hundreds of incidents of extreme and unprecedented violence against Palestinians in various areas.
“The extremist, far-right messianic government is using fear to promote an agenda of destruction and expulsion. The lives of all Palestinians, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, are being treated as worthless. They can be starved, killed, displaced – and the situation keeps getting worse. The world must stop the crimes Israel is committing now,” said B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak.
For its part, PHRI issued a report including a detailed legal-medical analysis of Israel’s ongoing military assault in Gaza.
The report concluded that the onslaught meets the criteria for genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Israel is a signatory.
PHRI called on health and humanitarian communities worldwide to act urgently in response to the humanitarian catastrophe, which demands immediate intervention and global solidarity.
B’Tselem and PHRI have harshly criticised the international community, which, whether through active support or inaction, is complicit in Israel’s attacks on Gaza. They called on world leaders to use every means available under international law to stop Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians.
