The UN judges that Israeli practices in Gaza amount to “genocide”

A new report suggests the genocidal nature of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. The acts perpetrated by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu for more than a year in the Palestinian enclave “correspond to the characteristics of a genocide” : this is what a Special UN Committee responsible for investigating Israeli practices affecting human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories affirmed on Thursday.

“Israel intentionally causes death”

The report, which will be presented in detail on Monday to the UN General Assembly in New York, highlights several decisions taken over the period from the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 until last July. “Through its siege of Gaza, its obstruction of humanitarian aid, its targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated appeals from the UN, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions Security Council, Israel intentionally causes death, starvation and serious injury”coldly notes the committee which judges that the “massive civilian casualties and conditions imposed on Palestinians there intentionally endanger their lives”.

Several Israeli practices are denounced: starvation as a method of war, collective punishments, vast bombing campaigns on civilian infrastructure and essential services. These decisions will have a lasting effect and will cause serious harm to future generations, notes the committee. Israeli forces used more than 25,000 tons of explosives in the Gaza Strip, “the equivalent of two nuclear bombs”twice the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, also highlights the report.

AI used to bomb indiscriminately

The investigation also focuses on the use of Artificial Intelligence in bombings and the share of civilian victims among the dead which exceeds 70%. “The Israeli military's use of AI-assisted targeting systems, with minimal human supervision, combined with heavy bombs, highlights Israel's disregard for its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to take adequate protective measures to avoid civilian deaths”the report says.

Worse, the committee is particularly concerned about new directives lowering the criteria for “rapidly generate tens of thousands of targets, as well as track targets to their homes, particularly at night when families shelter together”.