Israeli human rights activists accuse their own state of genocide against Palestinians
29 July 2025 08:51
Two Israeli human rights organizations have accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, thus becoming the first major voices in Israeli society to make the harshest accusations against their own state. The organizations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel released their reports at a press conference in Jerusalem on Monday, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports citing Reuters.
The human rights activists said that Israel is carrying out
“coordinated, deliberate actions to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.”
According to them,
“The people of Gaza have been displaced, bombed and starved to death, completely stripped of their humanity and rights.”
– said B’Tselem Executive Director Julie Novak.
“Entire towns have been destroyed to the ground. Medical, educational, religious and cultural infrastructure is being systematically destroyed. 2 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in order to expel them from Gaza. And, of course, the mass starvation and killings are all a blatant attempt to destroy the population of Gaza,”
– the organization said in a statement.
It adds that the explicit statements of Israeli officials, combined with a consistent policy of devastating attacks and other extermination practices, prove beyond doubt that Israel’s target is the entire population of Gaza.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel focused on the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, calling Israel’s actions
“calculated and systematic”.
Government response
The Israeli government and military have categorically rejected the allegations as “baseless.”
Government spokesman David Menser said that Israel has no intention of genocide, as the country has sent 1.9 million tons of aid, mostly food, to the Palestinians.
The military emphasized that it adheres to international law and takes unprecedented measures to protect civilians.
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The war
The current conflict began after Hamas militants attacked Israeli settlements on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Israel often describes this attack as the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Since then, the Israeli operation has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health authorities. Much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble, and almost the entire population of more than two million people has been displaced.
Famine and executions
International attention to the situation of Palestinians in Gaza has intensified in recent weeks, with UN agencies reporting that the territory is running out of food. As of last week, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 100 people, 80 of them children, had died of starvation in Gaza.
Israel controls all deliveries to Gaza and claims to have allowed enough food in, accusing the UN of inefficient distribution. At the same time, the Israeli military is accused of shooting more than 800 people who came to the food distribution points.
Genocide
Accusations of genocide carry particular weight in Israel because of the origin of this concept in the work of Jewish legal scholars after the Nazi Holocaust. Israeli officials have previously called the use of this word against Israel defamatory and anti-Semitic.
Cracks are gradually appearing in Israeli society’s perception of the conflict. If earlier local media focused mainly on the fate of Israeli hostages, now images of starving children are beginning to make a stronger impression, although no dramatic changes in public opinion are expected.
In an editorial, Dani Dayan, the head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, acknowledged that although the genocide allegations are inaccurate, this does not mean that the suffering of civilians in Gaza should not be recognized. He emphasized that many men, women, and children not associated with terrorism are experiencing “devastation and loss.”
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