UN experts on human rights stated Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. The statement comes as the nearly six-month-long Israeli onslaught in Gaza has killed at least 32,000 people and has put over a million Palestinians on the brink of famine.
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories, said she assesses that the Israeli crimes in Gaza amount to genocide. Albanese explained the “threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide . . . has been met.” She said the assessment means there should be an arms embargo on Israel.
Albanese pointed to three Israeli crimes that led her to label the brutal military operations a genocide. She explained Israel is “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, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group.”
Israeli forces have killed at least 13,000 Palestinian children, destroyed most of the infrastructure in the Strip, and slowed aid to a trickle causing rampant starvation in northern Gaza. The international watchdog group on food insecurity says the region of Gaza will officially enter famine within the coming months.
In a January ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that the Israeli crimes in Gaza, as well as statements made by leaders in Tel Aviv, indicate the campaign plausibly amounts to genocide. In the two months since the ICJ ruling, Israeli forces have continued their brutal rampage.
