'Not a Side Effect of War': Israeli Human Rights Groups Say Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza
New Delhi: In a first, Tel Aviv-based human rights organisations, B'Tsalem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have released statements calling out Israel for committing the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. They have said that Israel has systematically and deliberately targeted Palestinians and that its western allies have the power to stop it.
In both their statements, the leading human rights groups have noted that Israel's policy towards Palestinians shifted on October 13, 2023, which marked the beginning of a military onslaught lasting more than 21 months and counting.
B'Tsalem stated that it has resulted in mass killing, both directly and through creating unlivable conditions, serious bodily or mental harm to an entire population, decimation of basic infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip, and forcible displacement on a huge scale, with ethnic cleansing added to the list of official war objectives.
"The mass arrests and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which have effectively become torture camps, and tearing apart the social fabric of Gaza, including the destruction of Palestinian educational and cultural institutions, compound it. The campaign is also an assault on Palestinian identity itself, through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)," it stated.
The group also highlighted the failure of the international community in stopping the atrocities, especially the leaders of the Western world, particularly the United States and Europe, who, it said, "share responsibility by providing support that enables Israel’s acts of destruction".
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
It sounds inconceivable. But it’s the truth.
Israel is taking deliberate, coordinated action to destroy the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Explicit statements by Israeli officials, combined with a consistent policy of destructive attacks… pic.twitter.com/tzFmTSfUEX
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) July 28, 2025
Meanwhile, Physicians for Human Rights' statement focused on the starvation and killing of children by the Israeli occupation. "Each day, dozens die of malnutrition. Ninety-two percent of infants aged six months to two years don’t get enough to eat. At least 85 children have already starved to death. Israel has displaced 9 in 10 Gazans, destroyed or damaged 92% of homes, and left over half a million children without schools or stability. It has wiped out essential health services – including dialysis, maternal care, cancer treatment, and diabetes management," it stated.
The organisation said that this was not temporary but a "strategy to eliminate the conditions needed for life". "Even if Israel stops the offensive today, the destruction it has inflicted guarantees that preventable deaths – from starvation, infection, and chronic illness – will continue for years. This is not collateral damage. This is not a side effect of war. It is the systematic creation of unlivable conditions. It is the denial of survivability. It is a genocide," it stated.
On October 13, 2023, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of 22 hospitals in #Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. That day marked the start of an unprecedented assault on Gaza’s health system.
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Over the following 22 months, Israel systematically targeted Gaza’s… pic.twitter.com/wvOx1FTwUW— Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) (@PHRIsrael) July 28, 2025
B'Tsalem further warned that this genocide will not remain confined to the Gaza Strip, and that the actions and underlying mindset driving it may be extended to other areas as well.
"The recognition that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the deep concern that it may expand to other areas where Palestinians live under Israeli rule, demand urgent and unequivocal action from both Israeli society and the international community," it said.
The groups have urged international community to fulfil its duty Ito stop the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza.
The death toll in Gaza now stands close to 60,000, as per the health ministry data, and the remaining population is on the verge of famine. Over the weekend, Israel announced a few measures to allow aid access, including a limited 10-hour daily "tactical pause" in certain areas of Gaza City.
However, there have also been reports Israeli attacks taking place where people were trying to collect aid.
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