Two newly released Israeli human rights reports have concluded that Israel is perpetrating genocide in the Gaza Strip, offering stark and detailed documentation of the destruction of Palestinian life, infrastructure and society since the war began in October 2023.
One report, published by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), takes a forensic approach to Israel’s war on Gaza, detailing what it describes as the systematic dismantling of the territory’s health system. The other, by B’Tselem and starkly entitled Our Genocide, argues that Israel’s campaign should be understood as a coordinated, ideological project of group destruction, underpinned by decades of occupation, apartheid and impunity.
Together, these reports may amount to the most comprehensive accusation yet from within Israel that its government is carrying out one of the gravest crimes in international law.
Destruction of Conditions of Life
PHRI’s position paper, Destruction of Conditions of Life: A Health Analysis of the Gaza Genocide, lays out a chronology of what it calls a “deliberate and systematic dismantling” of Gaza’s health infrastructure. The report asserts that from the first weeks of Israel’s military campaign, hospitals were not only overwhelmed, but directly targeted, shelled and cut off from fuel and supplies. The paper states that over 1,800 healthcare workers have been killed or detained, contributing to what the authors call the “complete erasure” of Gaza’s medical system.
PHRI argues that these attacks go beyond collateral damage. They are presented as evidence that Israel’s military strategy seeks to destroy “conditions of life” for Palestinians in Gaza — a category of genocidal conduct under Article II(c) of the UN Genocide Convention. Citing the International Court of Justice’s warning in January 2024 about the collapse of Gaza’s health system, the report concludes that “the only reasonable inference” is that Israel’s actions are part of a coordinated campaign to bring about the group’s destruction.
The paper lays out evidence that, they say shows the Israeli Defence Force’s actions constitutes a “direct, cumulative, and foreseeable pattern of destruction renders Gaza incapable of supporting human life. The facts reflect not the incidental consequences of war, but a policy of extermination pursued through the systematic collapse of health, water, food, and shelter. The comprehensive reach of these measures support the conclusion that they are calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part. Under the jurisprudence of the ICJ and ICTY, the legal standard for Article II(c) is met. These conditions of life are deliberately designed to be unlivable. Their imposition is not accidental; it reflects the operational logic of a broader campaign of destruction.”
“This,” the report states, “constitutes genocide.”
Our Genocide
The second report, Our Genocide, released by B’Tselem, frames the assault not only in legal terms, but in ideological ones. Drawing on decades of its own documentation and a wide array of testimonies, B’Tselem presents Israel’s campaign as a culmination of a regime premised on Jewish supremacy and Palestinian dispossession. It cites mass displacement, starvation, economic ruin, cultural destruction, and the use of prisons as de facto torture camps as further evidence of a policy aimed at destroying the Palestinian people in Gaza “as such.”
The report does not limit its scope to Gaza. It describes how the same troops and command structures responsible for operations in Gaza have implemented similar patterns of violence in the West Bank and inside Israel, including increased demolitions, settler attacks, and arbitrary detentions. It warns that the dehumanisation of Palestinians – a hallmark of genocidal regimes – is becoming normalised across Israeli society, as impunity reigns and legal constraints are disregarded.
Perhaps most strikingly, B’Tselem claims that genocide is not only being carried out with intent, but with social legitimacy from Israeli citizens. Citing statements from Israeli officials and broad public support for the war, the report argues that the campaign enjoys ideological backing within Israel’s political, legal and cultural institutions.
As the report notes: “These voices articulated a worldview shared by decision-makers and a significant portion of Jewish-Israeli society, according to which all, or most, of Gaza’s residents are either directly responsible for the crimes of 7 October or at the very least support them. Accordingly, for many decision- makers, as well as soldiers and commanders on the ground, the aspiration to destroy the rule of Hamas and its military capabilities and to prevent future attacks like that of 7 October were translated into targeting the entire population of the Gaza Strip.”
Legal Gravity, Political Paralysis
Both reports centre the 1948 Genocide Convention, noting that Israel has violated at least three of the Convention’s five defined acts of genocide: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm; and (c) deliberately inflicting life-destroying conditions. PHRI adds that Israel has also interfered with births through famine and destruction of maternal care — a possible fourth violation.
Yet despite mounting evidence, the authors note, enforcement remains elusive. PHRI accuses the international community of failing to act on the binding obligations of the Genocide Convention, while B’Tselem warns that legal processes, such as those at the International Court of Justice, risk moving too slowly to prevent further catastrophe.
It is not without consequence that these findings come from Israeli civil society itself.
Both PHRI and B’Tselem have long been targeted by Israeli officials for documenting rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. That they now openly accuse their own government of genocide marks a dramatic shift in tone — one that speaks not only to the horrors of the last 22 months, but to a deeper reckoning with the moral trajectory of the Israeli state.
As B’Tselem concludes: “Recognising that genocide is taking place against part of a group or in a specific location is also a grave warning. It signals the potential expansion of similar patterns of violence to other segments of the group or to other areas.”
With more than 58,000 Palestinians reported killed, most of them civilians, and Gaza’s infrastructure in ruins, these reports stand as both indictment and appeal — a demand for accountability before what is left to destroy finally disappears.
Did you find this story interesting? Please support AOAV's work and donate.
Donate