July 28, 2025
Rayhan Uddin
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) both published separate reports on Monday in which they accused Israel of genocidal crimes and incitement to genocide.
In its report, B’Tselem examined Israel’s policies in Gaza and statements made by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders on its goals in the enclave. It led the group to “the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip”.
The report includes statistical analysis, as well as personal testimonies and documentation of crimes and incitement.
“Nothing prepares you for the realisation that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us,” said Yuli Novak, the group’s executive director.
“But as Israelis and Palestinians who live here and witness the reality every day, we have a duty to speak the truth as clearly as possible: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.”
Novak said that the Hamas-led surprise attack on 7 October 2023, which killed around 1,200 Israelis, “created deep existential fear among Israelis”.
“The extremist, far-right messianic government is using that fear to promote an agenda of destruction and expulsion,” she said.
“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.”
B’Tselem warned that the patterns of Israel's “destruction and annihilation” was being replicated in the occupied West Bank, leading to a “real risk the genocide will spread beyond the Gaza Strip”.
Meanwhile, PHRI’s report presented a detailed legal analysis on Israel’s war on Gaza, focusing on the dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system.
It stated that Israel’s aggression meets the criteria for genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Israel is a signatory.
'Pattern of destruction'
PHRI found evidence of a “deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system and other vital systems necessary for the population’s survival”.
That included direct Israeli attacks on hospitals, the deliberate blocking of medical aid into the enclave and of medical evacuations out of the territory, as well as the killing and abduction of medical personnel.
“This is not incidental damage from war - it is a deliberate policy aimed at harming the Palestinian population as a group,” the report concluded.
Guy Shalev, PHRI's executive director, said: “As people who believe in the sanctity of life, we are obligated to speak the truth: this is genocide, and we must fight it.
“For 22 months, hospital after hospital has been attacked, patients have been denied life-saving treatment, and aid has been blocked. This is a clear and consistent pattern of destruction.”
Shalev said that as medical professionals, it was PHRI's duty to its colleagues in Gaza who are risking their lives to save others “under impossible conditions, to face the truth and do everything we can to protect them”.
Both groups strongly criticised the international community, which it accused of complicity in Israel's war on Gaza through either active support or inaction.
They called on global leaders to use all means under international law to stop Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
Leading human rights organisations have also reached the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide.
In December 2024, Amnesty International became the first major organisation to conclude that Israel had committed genocide during its war on Gaza, while Human Rights Watch concluded that "genocidal acts" had been committed.
Francesca Albanese, the UN's top expert on Palestine, authored two reports last year suggesting that genocide was taking place in Gaza.
Earlier this month, a renowned Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies called Israel's war on Gaza an "inescapable" case of genocide, joining a chorus of prominent Israeli and Jewish scholars coming to the same conclusion.
Omer Bartov, a professor at Brown University and a former Israeli army soldier, wrote in The New York Times that after deliberating and examining Israel's war, his "inescapable conclusion… [is] that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people".
"Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could," he wrote.
"But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognise one when I see one."
Bartov is considered one of the world’s leading scholars of the WWII Holocaust and an expert on genocide. One of his most well-known books is Anatomy of a Genocide.
At least 59,800 Palestinians - mainly women and children - have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023. At least 144,851 others have been wounded during that time.
In June, a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli air strikes, shelling, burning, and controlled demolitions had damaged or destroyed more than 90 percent of schools and university buildings across the Gaza Strip.
A study earlier this year found that 80 percent of Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure had been destroyed.
Israel's blockade on food and aid supplies entering Gaza has led to at least 147 deaths due to starvation, including 88 children. Local officials say 40,000 infants are at risk of imminent death.
Rayhan Uddin
B’Tselem
and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel publish reports accusing Israel of
genocidal crimes and incitement
Two major Israeli human rights
groups have stated that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip.
B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) both published separate reports on Monday in which they accused Israel of genocidal crimes and incitement to genocide.
In its report, B’Tselem examined Israel’s policies in Gaza and statements made by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders on its goals in the enclave. It led the group to “the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip”.
The report includes statistical analysis, as well as personal testimonies and documentation of crimes and incitement.
“Nothing prepares you for the realisation that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us,” said Yuli Novak, the group’s executive director.
“But as Israelis and Palestinians who live here and witness the reality every day, we have a duty to speak the truth as clearly as possible: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.”
Novak said that the Hamas-led surprise attack on 7 October 2023, which killed around 1,200 Israelis, “created deep existential fear among Israelis”.
“The extremist, far-right messianic government is using that fear to promote an agenda of destruction and expulsion,” she said.
“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.”
B’Tselem warned that the patterns of Israel's “destruction and annihilation” was being replicated in the occupied West Bank, leading to a “real risk the genocide will spread beyond the Gaza Strip”.
Meanwhile, PHRI’s report presented a detailed legal analysis on Israel’s war on Gaza, focusing on the dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system.
It stated that Israel’s aggression meets the criteria for genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Israel is a signatory.
'Pattern of destruction'
PHRI found evidence of a “deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system and other vital systems necessary for the population’s survival”.
That included direct Israeli attacks on hospitals, the deliberate blocking of medical aid into the enclave and of medical evacuations out of the territory, as well as the killing and abduction of medical personnel.
“This is not incidental damage from war - it is a deliberate policy aimed at harming the Palestinian population as a group,” the report concluded.
Guy Shalev, PHRI's executive director, said: “As people who believe in the sanctity of life, we are obligated to speak the truth: this is genocide, and we must fight it.
“For 22 months, hospital after hospital has been attacked, patients have been denied life-saving treatment, and aid has been blocked. This is a clear and consistent pattern of destruction.”
Shalev said that as medical professionals, it was PHRI's duty to its colleagues in Gaza who are risking their lives to save others “under impossible conditions, to face the truth and do everything we can to protect them”.
Both groups strongly criticised the international community, which it accused of complicity in Israel's war on Gaza through either active support or inaction.
They called on global leaders to use all means under international law to stop Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
Leading human rights organisations have also reached the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide.
In December 2024, Amnesty International became the first major organisation to conclude that Israel had committed genocide during its war on Gaza, while Human Rights Watch concluded that "genocidal acts" had been committed.
Francesca Albanese, the UN's top expert on Palestine, authored two reports last year suggesting that genocide was taking place in Gaza.
Earlier this month, a renowned Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies called Israel's war on Gaza an "inescapable" case of genocide, joining a chorus of prominent Israeli and Jewish scholars coming to the same conclusion.
Omer Bartov, a professor at Brown University and a former Israeli army soldier, wrote in The New York Times that after deliberating and examining Israel's war, his "inescapable conclusion… [is] that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people".
"Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could," he wrote.
"But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognise one when I see one."
Bartov is considered one of the world’s leading scholars of the WWII Holocaust and an expert on genocide. One of his most well-known books is Anatomy of a Genocide.
At least 59,800 Palestinians - mainly women and children - have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023. At least 144,851 others have been wounded during that time.
In June, a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli air strikes, shelling, burning, and controlled demolitions had damaged or destroyed more than 90 percent of schools and university buildings across the Gaza Strip.
A study earlier this year found that 80 percent of Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure had been destroyed.
Israel's blockade on food and aid supplies entering Gaza has led to at least 147 deaths due to starvation, including 88 children. Local officials say 40,000 infants are at risk of imminent death.
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