Jerusalem, Dec 5 (EFE).- Israel on Thursday rebuked new Amnesty International research that concluded the state has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” an Israeli foreign ministry statement said.
It reiterated that it was Hamas that launched a “genocidal massacre” on Oct. 7, 2023, with the attack in which Gazan militants killed almost 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251 in Israeli territory.
“Since then, Israeli citizens have been subjected to daily attacks from seven different fronts,” the ministry alleged.
The seven fronts to which the Israeli authorities usually refer are Gaza and the West Bank, against the Palestinian militias; Lebanon, where despite having agreed to a ceasefire, Israel continues to attack Hezbollah; Syria, Iraq and Yemen, from where pro-Iranian militias occasionally fire rockets towards Israel; and Iran, with which Israel has experienced two major escalations culminating in an exchange of fire this year.
Amnesty on Thursday published a report entitled ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, which claims to have “sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip,” a crime difficult to prosecute because it requires proving “intent.”
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard warned that Israel has treated the Palestinians of Gaza as “a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.”
“Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can coexist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent,” Callamard added.
Israel, she said, is “fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting” on the Palestinians in Gaza.
In addition, it has imposed living conditions that generated “a deadly mixture of malnutrition, hunger, and diseases and exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death,” Amnesty stressed, noting that Israel subjected “hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza to incommunicado detention, torture, and other ill-treatment.”
Since the war in the devastated enclave began almost 14 months ago, more than 44,500 Palestinians have been killed (70 percent women and children) by Israeli attacks, while authorities estimate that around 11,000 are missing, probably bodies that remain among the rubble or dumped in open spaces that search teams are able to access.
In addition, for more than 60 days Israel has been carrying out a siege in northern Gaza, in the towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, which has left 3,700 dead and missing people and worsened the already acute humanitarian crisis affecting the area.
The military siege has forced the displacement of nearly 100,000 people from the besieged area, while fears are growing that Israel is preparing the ground to occupy northern Gaza in the future. EFE
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