Israel committing genocide in Gaza, Amnesty International says

Published

8 months ago

December 5, 2024

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Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians during its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The human rights group said Israel sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by launching deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.

It said such actions met the legal threshold for the crime of genocide. It is the first time it has made such a determination during an active armed conflict.

In a report, Amnesty said Israel’s actions could not be justified by Hamas’ attack into Israel on 7 October last year which ignited the war, or on the presence of militants in civilian areas.

Amnesty said the US and other Israeli allies could be complicit in genocide and called on them to halt arms shipments.

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in the report.

Israel has consistently rejected any allegations of genocide.

It is challenging such allegations at the International Court of Justice and has rejected the International Criminal Court’s accusations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister committed war crimes in Gaza.

“The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Israel accused Hamas of carrying out a genocidal massacre in the attack that triggered the war and said it is defending itself in accordance with international law.

The idea Israel might be committing genocide sits heavily on the psyche of all Israelis

Genocide is the most serious crime under international law and has only been proven in a small number of cases.

The term “genocide” was first used in relation to the systematic murder of more than six million Jews during the Nazi holocaust, and was first recognised as a crime under international law in 1948.

Other examples of genocide include the Armenian massacre, Rwanda, Srebrenica and recently the mass killings of Yazidis by Islamic State.

China has been accused of genocide against the Uighurs, as has Myanmar for its treatment of the Rohingya people.

It is a complex legal concept but by definition genocide is the killing “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

This can include causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The law does not include political groups and so Israel’s desire to eliminate Hamas, for example, would not constitute an act of genocide.

To determine genocide, it must be demonstrated that there has been deliberate intent by the perpetrators which itself can be extremely hard to prove, especially so in the case of the Gaza War when access for independent investigators and journalists has been prevented.

The destruction of culture, or attempts to move a group, do not themselves constitute genocide.

Israel argues the Hamas attacks on 7 October were themselves an act of genocide and angrily rejects any comparison with their own actions in response.

The very idea Israel might be committing genocide sits very heavily on the psyche of all Israelis, a country that was founded off the back of the worst genocide in living memory.

Individual governments can make their own determinations of genocide, but the International Court of Justice is the globally recognised arbiter.

South Africa brought a case against Israel to the ICJ in late December 2023 which is still being heard. It can take many years for a case to be concluded.

Israel ‘has intended to commit genocide’

Amnesty accused Israel and the Israeli military of committing at least three of the five acts banned by the 1948 Geneva Convention, including killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of a protected group.

The acts were done with the intent required by the convention, according to Amnesty, which said it had reviewed over 100 statements from Israeli officials.

Ms Callamard said while Amnesty had not set out to prove genocide, after reviewing the evidence and statements collectively the only conclusion was “Israel is intending and has intended to commit genocide”.

She added: “The assertion that Israel’s war in Gaza aims solely to dismantle Hamas and not to physically destroy Palestinians as a national and ethnic group, that assertion simply does not stand up to scrutiny.”

Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023 and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Some 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with at least a third believed to be dead.

More than 44,500 people have been killed in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, but it has said more than half of those killed are women and children.

Amnesty urged the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate the alleged genocide.

World

Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire – including people trying to access food

Published

5 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire - including people trying to access food

Hamas has said it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.

The militant group said it was issuing a statement “in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm”.

It continued: “We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues.

“This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights – first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Hamas also condemned Mr Witkoff’s visit to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Friday as “nothing more than a premeditated staged show”.

Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited a centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Hamas said the trip was “designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.

Mr Witkoff said he spent “over five hours in Gaza”. In a post on X on Friday, he said: “The purpose of the visit was to give [President Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”

Elidalis Burges, a critical care nurse in Gaza, told Sky News she saw the US visit as a “PR stunt” and that the American officials were “just being shown a small portion of what is actually happening”.

“I think the visit to the GHF site was just a controlled visit dictated by the Israeli military,” she said. “If they really wanted people to see what is happening here, they would allow international journalists from around the world to enter.

“They would allow the leaders of the world to come here and see.”

Hamas releases hostage video

It comes as Hamas released a video showing Israeli man, Evyatar David, being held hostage in what appears to be a tunnel.

Mr David was taken from the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023.

His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video.

More than a dozen killed by Israeli fire

Gaza health officials have said 18 people, including eight who were trying to access food, were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.

Witness Yahia Youssef told Reuters news agency he helped carry three people wounded by gunshots and saw others lying on the ground near a food distribution centre.

In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at one of its facilities, GHF said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites”.

The US and Israel-backed GHF has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.

According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.

Dr Tom Adamkiewicz, who is working at a hospital in Gaza, has said Palestinian children, women and men are “being shot at, basically like rabbits”.

It is a “level of barbarity I don’t think the world has seen”, he told Sky News.

The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. Of those, they still hold around 50, with 20 believed to be alive, after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.

World

North Korea’s opened its doors to Russian tourists. So… how was their holiday?

Published

5 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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North Korea's opened its doors to Russian tourists. So... how was their holiday?

The world’s most secretive state is a mystery for billions of people – but not Anastasiya Samsonova.

She has returned from a week’s holiday in North Korea.

“We saw nothing terrible there, there is no danger there,” the 33-year-old HR manager tells me.

“Frankly speaking, we really liked it.”

She was part of a group of 15 Russian tourists who were the first foreign visitors to a new seaside resort, which was opened to great fanfare by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in June.

Her holiday snaps show a white sand beach, shimmering seas and high-rise hotels. But something’s missing – people.

There are rows of sun loungers, but not a soul sitting on them. A glittering banquet hall that’s devoid of diners.

That’s because, when it comes to international tourists, the Wonsan-Kalma resort is currently only open to Russians.

“The hotel was absolutely new,” Anastasiya enthuses, unfussed by the absence of others.

“Everything was done very beautifully, a good interior … very developed infrastructure.”

But why not Turkey? Or Thailand?

I gently suggest that people in Britain might be shocked at the idea of a summer break in a country better known for famines and forced labour than parasols and pina coladas.

“We were interested in seeing how people live there,” Anastasiya explains.

“There were a lot of prejudices about what you can and can’t do in North Korea, how you can behave. But actually, we felt absolutely free.”

Anastasiya is one of a growing number of Russians who are choosing to visit their reclusive neighbour as the two allies continue to forge closer ties following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, North Korean troops supplied military support in Russia’s Kursk region, and now there is economic cooperation too.

North Korean produce, including apples and beer, has started appearing on supermarket shelves in Russia’s far east.

And last month, Moscow launched direct passenger flights to Pyongyang for the first time in decades.

But can this hermit nation really become a holiday hotspot?

The Moscow office of the Vostok Intur travel agency believes so. The company runs twice-weekly tours there, and I’m being given the hard sell.

“North Korea is an amazing country, unlike any other in the world,” director Irina Kobeleva gushes, before listing some unusual highlights.

“It is a country where you will not see any advertising on the streets. And it is very clean – even the asphalt is washed.”

She shows me the brochures, which present a glossy paradise. There are images of towering monuments, pristine golf greens and immaculate ski slopes. But again, no people.

Ms Kobeleva insists the company’s tours are increasingly popular, with 400 bookings a month.

“Our tourists are mostly older people who want to return to the USSR,” she says, “because there is a feeling that the real North Korea is very similar to what was once in the Soviet Union.

“But at the same time, there is a huge growing demand among young people.”

Sure enough, while we’re chatting, two customers walk in to book trips. The first is Pavel, a young blogger who likes to “collect” countries. North Korea will be number 89.

“The country has opened its doors to us, so I’m taking this chance,” he tells me when I ask why he wants to go.

For pensioner Tatiana, the reason is sentimental.

“My husband wanted to go there, but now he’s gone. So I want his wish to come true,” she says.

It’ll certainly cost them. One week’s trip that takes in Pyongyang, a circus and the new beach resort, costs roughly £1,500 without flights.

At that price, I suspect most tourists will be content for this secretive state to remain hidden.

World

US manhunt for ‘dangerous’ murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

Published

5 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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US manhunt for 'dangerous' murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

A car has been found during the search for a man suspected of killing the parents, grandmother and uncle of a baby girl found abandoned in a US state.

Austin Robert Drummond, 28, is suspected of having murdered four relatives in Tennessee – James M Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, Cortney Rose, 38, and Braydon Williams, 15, who were identified on Wednesday.

Mr Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant found alive in a car seat in a front yard on Tuesday afternoon.

Police say Drummond then dropped off the baby and made people aware of the child, in an act of “compassion”.

However, officers added Drummond remains on the run and should be considered “armed and dangerous”.

Ms Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman.

No details have been given on how they were murdered.

Drummond dropped off the seven-month-old infant and brought attention to people nearby to come get the child, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a news conference.

The baby is safe and being cared for, according to Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the Lake and Dyer county sheriffs.

“While this was an extremely tragic and violent event… there was a sign of compassion, if you will,” Mr Rausch said.

“That tells us that there’s a possibility that Austin may have a sense that there is hope for him to be able to come in and have a conversation about what happened.”

Mr Rausch said he believes it was a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims and their family.

A relative of the victims posted on Facebook after the deaths, saying the suspect has “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids”, according to our US partner network NBC News. “We all trusted him,” the relative added.

The unoccupied car that police said Drummond had been driving was found on Friday in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles from where the bodies were found and some 40 miles from where the baby was left in a car seat in a front yard.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond. He is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons offences.

Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Drummond was convicted of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, according to public records. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to Tennessee Department of Correction records.

He was charged criminally for activities inside the prison, including attempted murder, after he completed the sentence that put him behind bars, District Attorney Mr Goodman said.

Drummond was out on bond on the other charges at the time of the killings, he added.