"Our genocide": Two Israeli NGOs accuse the Netanyahu government for the first time

BarcelonaTwo of Israel's leading human rights NGOs, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, published two reports on Monday concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, in accordance with established international law. This is the first time these Israeli entities have reached this conclusion after nearly 22 months of indiscriminate bombing in the Palestinian Strip. if a widespread famine had been caused, and consequently, it is the first time, too, that they have called for international action against the Israeli government to stop it.

The B'Tselem report, which is titled "Our genocide", concludes that Israel's response to the Palestinian attacks of October 7 has resulted in "massive and indiscriminate bombardment of urban centers" and "starvation of more than two million people as a method of war" against Palestinians. It notes that the Israeli army's actions in the Strip have caused "a massacre through direct attacks and have also led to catastrophic living conditions that continue to increase a massive death toll, grave physical and mental harm to the entire population of the Strip, and large-scale destruction of infrastructure and that of Palestinians." The document also highlights "mass arrests and abuses in Israeli prisons, which have become torture camps for thousands of Palestinians held without charge," as well as "massive forced displacement, including an attempt at ethical cleansing that has become a declared objective of war, and an attack on the identity of refugees and attempts to undermine UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestinian refugees]."

B'Tselem also cites statements by senior Israeli officials regarding the nature of the attack on Gaza, which "expressed a genocidal intent," as South Africa complained to the UN International Court of Justice in December 2023. All of this leads to the conclusion that Israel is intentionally destroying Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip... and committing genocide against Palestinians." The investigation is based on dozens of interviews and reports from international organizations and experts, UN agencies, and press publications. Among the witnesses are as surprising as that of a woman who saw her two children and her husband crushed by a tank, a father who saw his son burned alive, or a paramedic who had to abandon a woman and a baby when his ambulance was bombed and, when he returned the next day, the child was still alive. The report recalls that Israel has caused "the worst orphan crisis in modern history," with some 40,000 children who have lost one or both of their children. parents, and that 41% of families have taken care of a child that is not theirs.

The report by Physicians for Human Rights, entitled "A health analysis of the genocide in Gaza", points out that "the evidence shows a systematic and deliberate dismantling of the healthcare system and vital services through targeted attacks on hospitals, the blocking of medical aid and evacuations, and the murder and detention of medical personnel." Palestinians as a group." The entity calls on "international organizations and states to fulfill their duty under Article I of the Genocide Convention to stop this genocide."

Israeli organizations have ended up recognizing the genocide in Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and Human Rights Watch. Numerous Israeli jurists and experts on the crime of genocide have also previously spoken out in the same sense, including Amos Goldberg, Itamar Raz, and historian Lee Mordechai. the ocean"

On the ground, the "humanitarian pauses" to which Israel had committed Following growing international criticism of the hunger crisis in Gaza, aid is not changing the situation in the Strip, international organizations denounce. According to the UN, Israel has allowed the entry of 100 trucks with aid, but they warn that this amount is completely insufficient in the face of "the catastrophic health crisis." Under normal conditions, 500 trucks entered the Strip daily. This Monday, another baby died of malnutrition, bringing the number of victims attributable to hunger to 147, according to Gaza health authorities. The majority, 88, are infants.

The situation is so desperate and so evident that US President Donald Trump himself has been forced to react. "People are starving, and that can't be faked," he said this Monday during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland. The US president has announced food shipments to the Strip and assured that "distribution centers" will be set up in Gaza "without fences or wire fences around them" so that people can access them on foot. "Now they can't, they see the food 30 meters away, they see it, it's all there, but nobody goes looking for it because there are fences that prevent them. It's crazy what's happening," he stated. He also indicated that he will work with other countries such as the United Kingdom to send more humanitarian aid and food to the Strip.

"We will set up food centers in collaboration with very good people. We will provide funding, we just raised trillions of dollars, we have a lot of money, and we will invest some in food," he said. "But I want to make sure they get the food," Trump clarified when asked what he would say to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when speaking about the situation in Gaza. Trump explained that he has been speaking with Netanyahu in recent days about "various plans" and "alternatives" to free the hostages remaining in the Strip. "We must galvanize other nations as well to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza," he added.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to deny that Israel is causing famine in the Strip, as has been clearly attested by all international organizations with a presence in the enclave: "There is no hunger policy in Gaza, nor is there hunger in Gaza," he proclaimed.

Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, welcomed Israel's decision to allow more aid into Gaza as "a step in the right direction," but made it clear that it was "just a drop in the ocean." "We need an enormous amount of aid on a much larger scale than we have been able to distribute so far." Fletcher recalled that international law prohibits restricting civilian access to humanitarian aid. The UN has 6,000 trucks prepared near the Egyptian border in Gaza and claims they have the capacity to feed the entire population of the enclave for six months.

The Hamas government warned this afternoon that the Israeli blockade has prevented the entry of infant formula for 150 days, which "threatens the lives of more than 40,000 children under one year old," and noted that at least two children have died in specialized hospitals in Gaza. Armed violence has not stopped either: Israeli forces have fired on crowds waiting to eat at two food distribution points, killing nine people, 63 of them Palestinians. These pauses, lasting ten hours a day (from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and limited to some areas in central and northern Gaza, should facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid within the Strip, according to a commitment from Tel Aviv, which also said it would open humanitarian corridors to facilitate the arrival of food and medicine. There had been Israeli attacks on humanitarian areas.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has returned to his threatening tone in an interview with Israeli media outlet Ynet"If Hamas doesn't release the hostages, the gates of hell will open in Gaza." Katz acknowledged that the war in Gaza "is a complex one, beyond anything we've done so far," and asserted that drastic decisions will soon have to be made.