Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, says Amnesty report

Amnesty International accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a report published on Thursday.

The London-based human rights group said it reached the conclusion after months of analysing incidents and statements of Israeli officials. Amnesty said the legal threshold for the crime had been met, in its first such determination during an active armed conflict.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

Amnesty's own branch in Israel distanced itself from the findings of its parent group. However, in a long statement, it said the killing and destruction in Gaza had reached "horrifying levels" and called for an investigation into possible crimes against humanity.

The United States disagrees with Amnesty International's conclusion that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

Gaza's Health Ministry says that Israel's military campaign since October last year has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians and injured many others.

Palestinian and UN officials say there are no safe areas left in Gaza, a tiny, densely populated and heavily built-up coastal territory. Most of Gaza's 2.3mn people have been internally displaced, some as many as 10 times.
Dozens more killed