Amnesty says Israel 'still committing genocide' in Gaza

JERUSALEM:

Amnesty International on Thursday claimed Israel was "still committing genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreed last month.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli foreign ministry did not respond to the allegations by early evening.

When faced with such allegations previously, the ministry has vehemently rejected them as "entirely false", "fabricated" and "based on lies".

The fragile, US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, after two years of war.

"The ceasefire risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal," said Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard.

"But while Israeli authorities and forces have reduced the scale of their attacks and allowed limited amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the world must not be fooled. Israel's genocide is not over."

The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".

In December 2024, human rights group Amnesty concluded that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza via three of those acts — including deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

In an update Thursday, Amnesty said: "Israel continues to severely restrict the entry of supplies and the restoration of services essential for the survival of the civilian population.

"Despite a reduction in scale of attacks, and some limited improvements, there has been no meaningful change in the conditions Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza and no evidence to indicate that Israel's intent has changed."