Israel bombs refugee camp, killing 20, as rights group charges 'genocide'
At least 20 Palestinians were killed after Israel's military bombed a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza, setting tents on fire, as a new Amnesty International report charged genocide was taking place in the enclave.
A fire consumed tents at a camp overnight on Wednesday after Israel attacked Mawasi, on Gaza's western coastline near the border with Egypt, part of an area it designated humanitarian zone. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have sheltered there for months after Israel directed civilians to flee to the area.
Local medics said many killed in the strike were women and children. Israel's military said it targeted senior Hamas operatives. It did not identify them.
People carried bodies wrapped in blankets out of the smoldering shelters strewn with burned clothes, mattresses, and other refugees' belongings.
"We don't see anyone from the whole world standing by us or helping us in this situation," Abu Kamal Al-Assar, a witness at the site, told Reuters. "Let them stop this crazy war that's against us. Let them stop the war."
'Sufficient evidence' that Israel committed genocide
A new report released by Amnesty International found "sufficient evidence to believe that Israel’s conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide."
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For the report, titled "'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza," the group interviewed more than 200 Palestinian victims and witnesses and analyzed statements by Israeli officials and other evidence.
Israel denied the report's findings, calling Amnesty International a "deplorable and fanatical organization."
Israel launched its siege and invasion of Gaza after Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters overran Israel's border, killing around 1,200 people and taking hundreds hostage. More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
The Gaza war is of "unprecedented magnitude, scale and duration," including "relentless aerial and ground attacks" that "caused massive damage and flattened entire neighbourhoods and cities," Amnesty's report found. Israel's offensive has killed thousands of children and displaced 90% of the population.
The report said Israel had blocked essential humanitarian aid and "subjected hundreds, if not thousands," of people to torture and forced disappearance. Those factors, in the context of what it called "Israel’s unlawful occupation, and system of apartheid" in Gaza and other Palestinian territories, indicate Israel engaged in genocide, the orgnization concluded.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a large UK Jewish organization, rejected the charge.
"The constant demonization and delegitimization of Israel by Amnesty International is not only a wilful and shameful misreading of the Hamas-instigated events since October 2023, it also risks fuelling more hatred of Jews around the world," the group said.
The report comes after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and Ibrahim al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel and the U.S. are not member states of the court, meaning Netanyahu and Gallant could remain on the soil of both countries without fear of detention. The court, which does not maintain its own police force, relies on its members to enforce arrest warrants.
Netanyahu and Gallant, prosecutors said, committed war crimes through a "widespread and systemic attack" on Gaza. They leveraged "starvation as a method of warfare" and cut Palestinians from essential food, supplies, and medicine, the court said.
A Human Rights Watch report released in November reached a similar conclusion – Israel carried out a "massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza" that mounts to ethnic cleansing, it concluded.
Pope Francis said the same month that the international community should look into whether Israel has committed genocide, his firmest criticism yet of Israel conduct in the war.
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