According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Israel is committing crimes in Gaza with the “specific intent” of eradicating the Palestinian people, conducting a “live-streamed genocide.”
Amnesty International has been instrumental in documenting, examining, and shedding light on Israeli alleged crimes perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza and, more generally, the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Its activity has been most critical to keeping the world’s attention focused on and calls for accountability.
“Recent events of the last 12 months – to say nothing of Israel’s live-streamed but ignored genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – have exposed how bad the world can get for so many when the most influential states abandon international law and ignore multilateral institutions, stated
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard.”
The report chronicles how Israeli troops in Gaza have breached the United Nations Genocide Convention by “causing serious bodily or mental harm to civilians” and “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction”.
Despite warnings from the international community and the International Court of Justice about the “devastating effect it would have on the civilian population,” Israel has repeatedly “denied, obstructed and failed to allow and facilitate” humanitarian access to Gaza and invaded the southern city of Rafah, according to the report.
Additionally, it described how Israeli soldiers have continued to “arbitrarily detain and, in some cases, forcibly disappear Palestinians” while Israeli airstrikes have regularly targeted people who were obeying evacuation instructions. “As Israel slaughtered thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, eradicating entire multigenerational families and demolishing homes, livelihoods, hospitals, and schools, states looked on helplessly.”
Callamard said that Israel and “its powerful allies, first among them the USA, claimed that or acted as if international law did not apply to them.”
Amnesty has furthermore accused Israel of perpetuating the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, citing a regime of domination and oppression encompassing discriminatory legislation, restrictions on movement, and denial of basic rights. These conclusions are informed by years of investigation throughout all zones under Israeli administration. Amnesty International has urged the international community, particularly states that export arms to Israel (e.g., the USA, Germany, and others), to suspend military assistance and comply with their duty to prevent genocide. The organisation emphasises that further arms transfers risk complicity in genocide.
