Israel has killed more than 51,300 people in Gaza since launching its attack on the occupied territory on 7th October 2023. Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been displaced, as the besieged Palestinian enclave has been reduced to ruins and rubble by the Israelis.
The violence inflicted in Gaza is widely being described as “genocide”, with South Africa having filed a case of genocide against the Israelis in the International Court of Justice in December 2023. But is Israel actually guilty of this horrific crime? To find out, let us first understand the term genocide.
Meaning of Genocide
The word genocide, devised in 1944 by a Polish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin, literally means “killing a nation”. It is derived from the Greek word genos (nation or race) and the Latin suffix cide (killing).
Recognition of Genocide as a Crime
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) first designated genocide as a crime in 1946. Two years later, it was recognized as a crime in the Genocide Convention, also known as Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Genocide Convention was signed on 9th December 1948 in Paris, and become effective in 1951. Today, there are 153 countries, including Israel, that have ratified the Genocide Convention.
Acts that Constitute Genocide
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as follows:
“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Therefore, there are two broad elements which are central to establishing genocide, as per the Genocide Convention:
- The mental element, which is the “intent” to destroy a group.
- The physical element, which constitutes the actual “acts” of destruction against the group.
The physical element is established through any one or more of the above five types of acts. While genocide is often committed against an entire group, such as a nation, ethnicity, or religious group, it can also be committed against a “part of the group” which is substantial and identifiable due to factors such as geography, according to the United Nations.
Genocide in Gaza
Various reputable organizations, think-tanks, and researchers have published their analysis of Israel’s attacks and activities in Gaza. One such organization is the University Network for Human Rights, which issued a report on 15th May 2024 titled Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions Since October 7, 2023. The report details many of the atrocities committed by the Israelis against the Palestinian people of Gaza. The report concludes:
“…Israel has committed the genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people.”
Let us understand each of these three physical acts that Israel is accused of committing which amount to genocide in the presence of genocidal intent.
1) “Killing Members of the Group”
Israelis have killed over 51,300 people in Gaza – the vast majority of whom were civilians, including a significant number of children and women – at the time of writing this article on 24th April 2025. Between 7th October 2023 and 1st May 2024, the Israelis killed at least, 34,568 people in Gaza, over 40% of whom were children, according to Genocide in Gaza report. In the first 200 days after 7th October 2023, Israel dropped an estimated 70,000 tons of explosives on the 2.17 million people of Gaza.
Also read: How You can Help the People of Gaza
Israelis have killed Gazans in their homes, schools, hospitals, refugee camps, and designated safe zones – at times destroying entire buildings filled with civilians. While many of those killed by the Israelis are indiscriminately massacred through air and ground attacks, others such as medical and aid workers are deliberately targeted in an attempt to annihilate the Gazan society. Journalists are among the professionals killed in considerable numbers by the Israelis in an attempt to cover up its atrocities in Gaza and spread misinformation about the situation there.
2) “Causing Serious Bodily or Mental Harm to Members of the Group”
Israelis have injured over 116,000 people in Gaza since the beginning of the attacks. Many of the severely injured do not have access to medical treatment due to the destruction of hospitals, killing of doctors and nurses, and shortage of fuel and medicines in the region. Thousands of children in Gaza have been forced to have their limbs amputated due to Israeli violence. The mental health issues widely prevalent among children in Gaza include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and severe depression, according to Genocide in Gaza report.
Many residents of Gaza have been brutally tortured, some of whom have succumbed to their injuries. Israeli soldiers have rounded up young men, including boys as young as 12-years-old, forcing them to strip naked, photographing them, then tying them up and abducting them to detention camps for more rounds of torture. The abducted women in Gaza have repeatedly been raped, including gang-raped, and subjected to other forms of sexual violence by Israeli soldiers.
3) “Deliberately Inflicting on the Group Conditions of Life Calculated to Bring About its Physical Destruction in Whole or in Part”
The Israelis have deprived the Gazans of food, water, medical care, and basic infrastructure. At least 1.1 million people suffered from “catastrophic hunger” in Gaza in the wake of Israel’s destruction and blockade of Gaza. In addition to blocking the entry of basic food supplies, the Israelis have destroyed farmland and crops, leading to severely dwindling food supplies in Gaza. In essence, Israel has been “using starvation as a method of warfare”, as articulated by the Human Rights Watch.
The Israelis have also resorted to attacking relief organizations operating in Gaza, such as World Central Kitchen, killing their workers and shelling their vehicles. As a result, some of the charities have often been forced to halt their relief efforts in Gaza. Israel’s blockade of Gaza and attacks on aid supplies have caused many Palestinians to die of starvation, leading to a major humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.
The majority of Gaza’s population has also been repeatedly displaced due to the constant bombing of homes and refugee camps by the Israelis. As early as January 2024, critical infrastructure worth $18.5 billion dollars was destroyed in Gaza, according to a joint report by the World Bank and United Nations (UN), literally rendering the region uninhabitable.
Israel’s Intent to Annihilate Gaza’s Population
As discussed earlier, the presence of the “intent” to destroy a particular group or sub-group is a requirement for a set of actions to qualify as genocide. Israel clearly has this intent as reinforced through its indiscriminate targeting of homes, schools, hospitals, and refugee camps in Gaza. UN experts have described the statements of Israeli government officials and public figures against Gaza as “discernibly genocidal and dehumanizing”. This is due to the Israelis having called for the “total destruction” and “erasure” of Gaza, as well as the need to “finish them all”.
Some of the genocidal statements of senior Israeli officials against the people of Gaza, extracted from Genocide of Gaza report, are as follows:
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed… We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” – Israeli Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant
“Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction.” – Israeli army’s Major General Ghassan Alian, responsible for the siege of Gaza
“I am proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did.” – Israeli Social Equality and Women’s Advancement Minister, May Golan
“The north of the Gaza Strip, more beautiful than ever. Everything is blown up and flattened, simply a pleasure for the eyes.” Israeli Heritage Minister, Amichai Eliyahu
Such inhumane statements – glorifying violence, celebrating bloodshed, and calling for the massacre of Palestinian people – clearly establish the intent of the Israelis to wipe out the entire population of Gaza.
Conclusion
Israel’s rhetoric and atrocities in Gaza prove that it has the clear intent to commit genocide of the Palestinian people living there. Moreover, Israel has committed three of the five physical acts, any one of which constitutes genocide on its own in the presence of such intent: killing members of a group; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Therefore, it is beyond doubt that Israelis have committed genocide in Gaza, killing innocent children, women, and men, and perpetrating one of the worst massacres in recent human history.
For a more comprehensive list of Israel’s crimes in Gaza, click here.
To download the complete Genocide in Gaza report, click here.
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