1. “Genocide” refers to the physical destruction of an entire group in whole or in part that has been targeted on the basis of its identity. This is not Israel’s objective in Gaza.
Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent, introduced the term genocide in 1944 to refer to events including the Nazis’ systematic extermination of Jews.
Lemkin explained the need for a new legal term to describe this horror, saying: “there has been no serious endeavor hitherto to prevent and punish the murder and destruction of millions…. there was not even an adequate name for such a phenomenon.”
The United Nations General Assembly recognized genocide as a crime under international law in 1946 and it was codified in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948.
The Convention defines genocide as the commission of grave harm against members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group – such as by killing, causing serious physical or mental harm, inflicting conditions that bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births or forcibly taking away children – with the intent to destroy the group as such.
Genocide means targeting members of a group because of their group identity and not something they are individually thought to have done.
Israel’s war is against Hamas: Israel is not seeking to destroy the Palestinian people or the Palestinian population of Gaza, which is what would need to happen in order to correctly apply the term “genocide.” Israel’s leaders have repeatedly asserted that their campaign in Gaza is solely against the terrorist organization Hamas. In fact, this type of military campaign is the exact opposite of reflecting an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian population.
2. Is Genocide Happening in Gaza? No. Israel is responding to a genocidal attack by Hamas
Since October 7, Israel’s objective in Gaza has been to destroy Hamas, a terrorist organization that carried out an unprecedented and brutal massacre against its people, including infants, children, elderly and disabled people.
A recent report concluded that Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war during and after the October 7 attack that Hamas terrorists, using widespread and systematic sexual violence across geographic locations, and against hostages in captivity.
The goal of Hamas is to wipe Israel and Jews off the map, and in the aftermath of the October 7 terror attack, its representatives reiterated that they will never stop pursuing it. That’s an example of genocidal intent.
While Hamas’s military capacity has been largely decimated by Israel, it still retains control over areas of Gaza and still continues to hold Israeli hostages.
Israel is fully justified in using military force to respond to Hamas’s October 7 attack (read AJC’s explainer on Israel, Hamas, and international law). Israel’s use of military force in Gaza in the face of such an ongoing threat is not evidence of genocide, but completely consistent with international law.
3. Israel’s actions reflect its desire to spare Palestinian civilians from harm, not to deliberately harm them
The IDF’s practices also disprove claims of genocidal intent, as the Israeli military has repeatedly relocated Palestinian civilians within Gaza in an effort to ensure they are out of harm’s way as it undertakes its legitimate military campaign to destroy Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.
In fact, since the start of the war, Israel has called for the temporary evacuation of t local populations in every part of the Gaza Strip where it deemed military action appropriate, and delays its ground operations in Gaza for weeks to allow civilians time to heed Israel’s warnings. It goes to great lengths to designate humanitarian corridors, or safe routes for Palestinian civilians to relocate from northern Gaza.
The IDF still endeavors to warn Gazans prior to attacks and has allowed humanitarian aid for civilians to be delivered under arrangements intended to prevent Hamas from diverting aid or controlling its distribution to reinforce its authority.
4. Hamas’ actions are designed to cause harm to Palestinian civilians and blame Israel
In the months that followed the October 7 attacks, Hamas fired thousands of missiles on Israeli towns and cities. Those missiles were fired from civilian neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, and from inside, next to, and underneath nominally civilian areas in Gaza like residential buildings, schools, mosques, and hospitals. Hamas’s actions transformed what were once protected civilian sites into legitimate military targets that Israeli forces are now working to dismantle.
Hamas puts civilians in harm’s way: While Israel goes to great lengths to avoid harming civilians as it targets Hamas’s weapons and operations centers in Gaza, Hamas typically proceeds to place Palestinian civilians directly in the path of the IDF’s targets. It has repeatedly called on Palestinian civilians to ignore Israel’s warnings about impending strikes and reportedly forced civilians to remain in the vicinity of military objectives, using them, like its hostages from Israel, as human shields.
Hamas’ actions are not only aimed at protecting its leaders, weapons, and property but also at vying for leverage in the public opinion war by inflating the number of civilian casualties.
Through its actions in Gaza, Hamas greatly increases the likelihood that military actions by Israel that are permissible in war and not prohibited by the law of war – let alone by the Genocide Convention – will nevertheless result in some harm to civilians. International law does not prohibit Israel from undertaking legitimate actions that will likely result in civilian harm unless the expected civilian harm will clearly exceed the anticipated military advantage from the attack.
While Israel takes many steps to minimize civilian harm resulting from its attacks against Hamas targets, as much as it can, it cannot eliminate it entirely. This is a horrible outcome of war, but it is not illegal, and it certainly is not genocide.
5. The “facts” of the genocide charge don’t add up
Those who claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza not only misunderstand the legal definition of genocide and what the laws of war permit; they also base the charge on unsubstantiated claims, such as a report issued by Amnesty International.
It is unquestionable that many civilians in Gaza have died and even more have suffered immensely since October 7. However, there are so many “unknowns” with an important bearing on Israel’s conduct in this war that it is impossible to say with certainty that it is acting wrongfully.
- The number of “innocents” vs. terrorists that have died: This is impossible to know given that the Ministry of Health in Gaza is under the control of and susceptible to influence by Hamas, and does not separate innocent civilians from fighters in its announced death tolls.
- The circumstances in which numerous innocents have been killed in Gaza: This includes whether they died because of attacks carried out by the IDF or because of intentional or unintentional harmful actions by Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups. A key example is the explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which the U.S. and other governments have determined was caused by a failed rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and not, as Hamas, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza, and many other sources claimed, by the IDF.
- The nature of the military objective of attacks carried out by the IDF in which Palestinian civilians have died: Given that it is not possible for independent assessments to be conducted into whether a Hamas leader, tunnel, and/or weapons cache was present at the site of any specific IDF attack in Gaza, which Hamas still largely controls.
While some of those who claim Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza are doing so for malign purposes – for example, justifying Hamas’ October 7 massacre by claiming Israel is ‘worse,’ many others have been deliberately misled. Their goal of ending the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza would be far better served by placing blame for that suffering where it lies – with Hamas – and supporting efforts to bring about its defeat so that Palestinian and Israeli civilians can have the peace and security they all deserve as quickly as possible.
Accusing Israel of “genocide” has been effective due to the emotional power of the word, and so it manipulates people who would be otherwise rational into embracing irrational claims that are provably wrong.
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