Israeli rights groups accuse Israel of intentional harm in Gaza

At a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday, B'Tselem's executive director Yuli Novak said her organisation's report was \"one that we never imagined we would have to write\".

The 88-page document states, external: \"An examination of Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads us to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking co-ordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.\"

In its 65-page report, external, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said its health-focused legal analysis found that Israel had targeted Gaza's healthcare infrastructure \"in a manner that is both calculated and systematic\".

\"The evidence shows a deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza's health and life-sustaining systems - through targeted attacks on hospitals, obstruction of medical aid and evacuations, and the killing and detention of healthcare personnel,\" the report said.

Dr Guy Shalev, executive director of PHRI, said: \"Silence in the face of genocide is not an option. We want to stress: confronting genocide is not only the responsibility of legal and political institutions. Confronting it demands urgent action from the global health community.\"

The organisations found the \"horrific and criminal Hamas attack\" on Israel on 7 October 2023 was a triggering event that caused fear and collective trauma among Israelis.

However, in its response to the attack, they alleged, Israel's government had pursued a campaign based on the \"promotion of extremist ideologies and the dehumanisation of Palestinians in Gaza\".

They said this was a reference to language used from political and military leaders to soldiers fighting on the ground, which labelled all Palestinians in Gaza as being responsible.

PHRI concluded that the acts it identified were \"not incidental to war but part of a deliberate policy targeting Palestinians as a group\", and in a manner that fulfilled at least three acts defined in Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Israel is a signatory.

According to the source: BBC.