The largest organization of experts dedicated to research and awareness of genocide globally adopted a resolution yesterday affirming that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal criteria for genocide.
Among the 500 members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, 86% supported the resolution which states that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza fit the legal definition of genocide as outlined in Article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).”
The resolution, which spans three pages, calls for an “immediate cessation of all actions amounting to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza,” including deliberate attacks on civilians, the killing of children, starvation, obstruction of humanitarian aid, deprivation of water and fuel, sexual and reproductive violence, and forced displacement. It also indicates that the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel constitutes international crimes.
Clear Statement
Melanie O’Brien, president of the association and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, specializing in genocide studies, remarked: “This is a clear statement from experts in the field that what is happening on the ground in Gaza is genocide.” She added, “There is no justification for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, even in self-defense.”
The Gazan government’s media office stated that the resolution “places a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take urgent action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold Israel’s military leaders accountable before the International Criminal Court in line with the 1948 Genocide Convention.”
Sergey Vasiliev, an international law professor at the Open University in the Netherlands and not a member of the association, noted that the resolution indicates “this legal assessment has become predominant in academic circles, particularly in the field of genocide studies.”
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported nine new deaths, including three children, attributed to starvation and malnutrition in the region over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of starvation-related deaths to 348, among them 127 children. It was noted that since the famine classification by the IPC was announced on August 22, there have been 70 fatalities, including 12 children.
Ongoing Airstrikes
In a related context, 41 Palestinians have died and many others have been injured since dawn yesterday due to continuous Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, with at least 98 Palestinians reported killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours.
Palestinian officials and witnesses noted that Israel deployed tanks into Gaza City and detonated explosive-laden vehicles in one of the city’s neighborhoods. Residents reported that Israeli forces sent older armored vehicles into the densely populated eastern part of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, subsequently remotely detonating them, which resulted in the destruction of several homes and forced more families to flee.
In leaflets dropped over Gaza City, the Israeli military urged residents to move south immediately, stating its intention to expand its offensive towards the western part of the city.