In a new report, its authors argue that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip match the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. The interviewee stresses that the legal meaning of the term differs significantly from its everyday use.
According to the speaker, in ordinary language genocide is often associated mainly with the deaths of tens or hundreds of thousands of people. In international law, however, the assessment includes not only acts such as killings, violence, and destruction, but also the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular group.
The investigation, the interview says, began two years ago. This text became the eighth report in a series of inquiries into events in Israel and Gaza after October 7, 2023.
The authors first examined the Hamas attack and, according to the interview, reached a clear conclusion that it amounted to war crimes. The same conclusion, the speaker says, followed from their analysis of hostage-taking and the treatment of hostages.
The researchers then studied Israeli operations in Gaza in detail. In subsequent reports, they analyzed the destruction of the healthcare system, the killings of doctors and nurses, the destruction of schools, the deaths of teachers and children, sexualized and gender-based violence, the destruction of homes, forced displacement, and the destruction of churches, mosques, museums, and libraries.
After assembling these episodes into a broader picture, the authors, according to the interview, moved to the central question. Their conclusion is that Israel bears responsibility for acts falling under four of the five categories of genocide listed in the Convention.