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.
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Gazans ‘eating grass and animal feed’
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.
Image: People mourn Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis
Image: The aftermath of an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Khan Younis. Pics: Reuters
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.
An eight-year-old boy killed in the US Catholic school shooting has been named – as his father branded the attacker a “coward”.
Fletcher Merkel was one of two children killed during mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolison Wednesday.
Eighteen other people were injured, including children aged between six and 15 and three adults in their 80s.
Police said Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman, opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the school’s church as children sat in pews.
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New details released of US school shooting
Dad says ‘Fletcher loved his family’
In a statement reported by Sky’s US partner network NBC News, Fletcher’s father Jesse Merkel blamed the “coward” killer for why the boy’s family can’t “hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming”.
He added: “Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking, and any sports that he was allowed to play.
“While the hole in our hearts and lives will never be filled, I hope that in time, our family can find healing.”
Mr Merkel said he prayed the family of the 10-year-old victim – who has not been identified – would also find peace.
“I’ve heard many stories accounting the swift and heroic actions of children and adults alike from inside the church,” he added.
“Without these people and their selfless actions, this could have been a tragedy of many magnitudes more. For these people, I am thankful.”
Image: Families and loved ones reunite at the scene after the shooting. Pic: Reuters
Mayor calls for assault weapon ban
It comes after Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey called for a statewide and federal ban on assault weapons, a day after the deadly school shooting.
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Minneapolis mayor urges assault weapons ban
“Thoughts and prayers are not going to cut it. It’s on all of us to see this through,” the mayor said at a news conference. “We need a statewide and a federal ban on assault weapons.
“We need a statewide and a federal ban on high-capacity magazines. There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload.
“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle gear. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people.”
“It is very clear that this shooter had the intention to terrorise those innocent children,” he added, before saying the killer “fantasised” about the plans of other mass shooting attackers and wanted to “obtain notoriety”.
Thomas Klemond, interim CEO of Minneapolis’s main trauma hospital Hennepin Healthcare, said at an earlier news conference that the hospital was treating nine patients injured in the shooting.
One child at the hospital was in a critical condition, he added.
Children’s Minnesota Hospital also said that three children remain in its care as of Thursday morning.
Police have released new details about the killer in the US Catholic school shooting – including that they “idolised” mass murderers and they wanted to “watch children suffer”.
Two children, aged eight and 10, were killed during mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Eighteen other people were injured, including children aged between six and 15 and three adults in their 80s.
Police said Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman, opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the school’s church as children sat in pews.
Image: Robin Westman
Almost 120 rifle rounds fired, police chief says
In a news conference on Thursday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the attacker fired 116 rifle rounds into the church.
“It is very clear that this shooter had the intention to terrorise those innocent children,” he added.
The police chief said the killer “fantasised” about the plans of other mass shooting attackers and wanted to “obtain notoriety”.
When asked about the attacker obtaining the firearms used legally, Mr O’Hara said that they did not have a criminal history or any diagnosed mental health disorders.
While they had potentially concerning social media posts, the police chief added that there was no evidence to suggest that Westman was legally barred from purchasing a firearm.
Image: People mourn outside the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Pic: Reuters
Suspect ‘wanted to watch children suffer’
Joe Thompson, acting US attorney for Minnesota, also said evidence recovered of the killer’s plans showed “pure indiscriminate hate” and that they “idolised some of the most notorious school shooters and mass murderers in our country’s history”.
“I won’t dignify the shooter’s words by repeating them,” Mr Thompson added. “They are horrific and vile, but in short, the shooter wanted to watch children suffer.”
Earlier, the mayor of Minneapolis called for a statewide and federal ban on assault weapons after the deadly attack, saying “thoughts and prayers are not going to cut it”.
“There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload,” he said.
“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle gear. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people.”
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6:34
Minneapolis mayor urges assault weapons ban
Thomas Klemond, interim CEO of Minneapolis’s main trauma hospital Hennepin Healthcare, said at a news conference earlier that the hospital was treating nine patients injured in the shooting.
One child at the hospital was in a critical condition, he added.
Children’s Minnesota Hospital also said that three children remain in its care as of Thursday morning.
In a post on Facebook, the hospital said “there are no words to describe the overwhelming pain many are feeling”, adding: “We feel that pain with you.
“To the entire Annunciation community, you have our deepest condolences. During this time of unimaginable grief and loss, we want you to know that we at Children’s Minnesota are with you.
“We will always be here to care for you. And in this moment, we hurt alongside you.”
The Russian president thinks he’s winning this war, and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that he’s using diplomacy to play for time while he carries on beating down the Ukrainians will to win.
And at the moment, no one is stopping him
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At least 14 killed in Kyiv attack
Ukraineis hitting back, particularly at Russia‘s oil installations, more of them going up in thick black smoke, after being hit by long-range Ukrainian drones.
It is taking a heavy toll on Putin’s ‘Achilles heel’, but on its own, analysts don’t expect it will be enough to persuade him to end this war.
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British Council building hit in Kyiv
The West can wring its hands in condemnation.
But it’s divided between Europe that wants a ceasefire and much more severe sanctions, and President Trump, who, it seems, does not – strangely always willing to sympathise with the Russians more than Ukraine.
He’s back to blaming Ukraine for starting the war, saying earlier in the week that Kyiv should not have got into a war it had no chance of winning.
It is a grotesque perversion of history. Ukraine, of course, had no choice but to fight to defend itself when it was invaded in an act of unprovoked aggression.
Every time the US president has condemned Russia for these kinds of attacks, he has never followed through and done nothing to punish them.
Image: Rescue workers carry an injured woman after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine. Pic: AP
More worryingly for the Ukrainians, the Russians are getting the upper hand in the drones war, taking Iranian technology and souping it up into faster-moving drones that the Ukrainians are having increasing difficulty bringing down.
They expect as many as a thousand drones a night coming their way by the winter, and many, many more innocents to die.
A war that began as one man’s mad idea has, in three and a half years, metastasised into a titanic struggle between east and west, fought increasingly with machines in a dystopian evolution of war.
If President Trump is not prepared to use his power to bring this war to an end, what will another three and a half years of his presidency bring?