UN committee: Israel war in Gaza ‘consistent with genocide’
Israel’s war in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, a special committee of the UN’s human rights office said, pointing to “mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians” since October 7 last year.
The committee said Israel’s siege, blocking of aid, and targeted attacks and killing of civilians, despite UN and ICJ orders, was “intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury”.
Israel’s warfare practices in Gaza “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide”, the committee said in the first use of the word by the UN in the context of the current war in Gaza. Israel, it said, was “using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population”.
Committee also calls on member states to refrain from abetting Israel’s violations of international law.
Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, said that while the report was unlikely to push the international community “to do anything practical or even just symbolic”, its findings will boost legal actions against Israel going forward.
“The international community doesn’t have any way to force the Israelis to stop,” Khouri said. However, “every one of these reports will go to the international tribunals, it is not wasted effort, but it won’t pay a dividend right away”.
Khouri said that the UN Security Council was prevented from taking any action by the US power of veto, but the UN General Assembly could adopt resolutions on a number of issues including possibly suspending Israel from the inter-governmental body.