Israel slams Amnesty International as ‘fanatical’ after charity branded IDF treatment of Gaza as ‘subhuman’
Israel has slammed Amnesty International as “fanatical” after the charity branded the IDF’s treatment of Gaza as “subhuman”.
The London-based human rights organisation claims Israel is acting “brazenly, continuously and with total impunity” in its military campaign in Gaza.
The report, released earlier today, documents alleged deliberate attacks on civilians and infrastructure, drawing on satellite imagery, fieldwork and ground reports from Gaza.
“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity,” said Dr Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general.
The report details extensive documentation of alleged war crimes, including satellite imagery showing widespread destruction across Gaza.
Amnesty’s findings highlight what they describe as “direct deliberate attacks” on civilian infrastructure where there was no Hamas presence or military objectives.
The rights group documented 15 specific air strikes between October 7, 2023, and April 20, which killed 334 civilians, including 141 children.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 44,532 people have been killed since Israel’s military campaign began, with most victims being civilians.
The report notes that 13,300 children are among the dead.
Amnesty also points to Israel’s initial siege policy of “no electricity, no water, no gas” as evidence of systematic civilian targeting.
The organisation says 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict.
Israel has strongly rejected the genocide allegations, with its foreign ministry calling Amnesty’s report “fabricated” and “based on lies”.
The nation, founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has denounced such accusations as an “antisemitic blood libel”.
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The IDF defended its operations, stating the claims “fail to account for the operational realities” they face.
“The IDF takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians during operations,” the military said in a statement.
Israeli authorities emphasised their campaign was launched in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks, which killed 1,208 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel.
The IDF maintains it is “actively working to dismantle Hamas military infrastructure while adhering to international law”.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Amnesty’s report, titled “You feel like you are subhuman: Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”, cites dozens of statements by Israeli officials and soldiers.
These statements allegedly called for the “annihilation, destruction, burning or erasure of Gaza”, according to the rights group.
Dr Callamard said there was “absolutely no doubt” that Israel has military objectives, but argued this “does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent”.
The report claims Palestinians have been “subjected to malnutrition, hunger and diseases and exposed to a slow, calculated death”.
UN officials and other human rights groups have reported children starving to death in Gaza.
Desperate residents have resorted to eating leaves and animal food to survive, the report states.
Amnesty International has called for urgent international intervention to halt what it describes as an ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“Governments must stop pretending that they are powerless to terminate Israel’s occupation,” said Ms Callamard.
The organisation warned that states transferring arms to Israel risk becoming complicit in genocide under UN conventions.
Amnesty said it based its findings on criteria set out in the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.
The rights group announced it will also publish a separate report on crimes committed by Hamas.
The organisation emphasised that its conclusions were drawn from extensive documentation, including dehumanising statements by Israeli officials and satellite imagery.
Ms Callamard insisted the findings should serve as “a wake-up call to the international community”.