The world's leading genocide scholars' association has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president has said.
"Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined in international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) said in a statement.
The three-page resolution calls on Israel to "immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including deliberate attacks against and killing of civilians including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel and other items essential to the survival of the population; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population."
The IAGS is the world's largest association of genocide scholars and includes a number of Holocaust experts. Out of its 500 members, 28 per cent took part in the vote while 86 per cent of those who voted supported the resolution.
In Gaza, the decision was welcomed. "This prestigious scholarly stance reinforces the documented evidence and facts presented before international courts," said Ismail Al Thawabta, director of the Gaza government media office.
The resolution "places a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take urgent action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the leaders of the occupation accountable," he said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry called it “an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard.” It said the determination was “entirely based on Hamas’ campaign of lies”.
Since its founding in 1994, the genocide scholars' association has passed nine resolutions recognising historic or ongoing episodes as genocides.
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October, 2023, after fighters from Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in control of the territory, attacked Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages.
Since then, Israel's military action has killed 63,000 people, damaged or destroyed most buildings in the territory and forced nearly all its residents to flee their homes at least once. A global hunger monitor relied on by the UN says parts of the territory are now suffering a man-made famine, which Israel also denies.
More than 250 media outlets in more than 70 countries staged a front page protest on Monday, highlighting the deaths of scores of journalists in Israeli attacks in Gaza, the Reporters Without Borders media freedom group said.
"At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed," the group's general director Thibaut Bruttin said in a statement.
The protest was staged one week after five journalists - some working for Al Jazeera, Associated Press and Reuters - were killed in Israeli strikes on the Nasser Hospital in Gaza's Khan Younis city. Earlier in August, six journalists were killed in another Israeli air strike outside the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
