Media release: Embassy of Israel…
During the October 7 massacre and ever since, Hamas has demonstrated its intention to assassinate Israeli civilians. This is Genocide!
The Israel Defense Forces issue warnings, open humanitarian corridors and facilitate aid
and food deliveries even under Hamas fire — measures that are incompatible with any claim of genocidal intent.
Under international law, declaring genocide requires the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The statement issued by around 120 IAGS “genocide scholars” (out of 500 members) distorts the legal definition of genocide, ignores the clear evidence of Israel’s humanitarian efforts and accuses the very victim of genocide – Israel.
This report ignores Hamas’ deliberate use of Palestinian civilians as shields, its strategy of embedding its fighters, weapons, and command centers in homes, schools, and hospitals and its widespread food stealing from the population. These assertions invert both fact and law. Such reckless claims cheapen the meaning of “genocide” and insult the memory of horrible genocides of the past.
The tragic loss of civilian life in Gaza is the direct result of Hamas’s tactics. Israel has repeatedly affirmed — including before the International Court of Justice — that it upholds international law and takes extraordinary precautions to protect civilians, even while combating a brutal terrorist group that openly declares its genocidal intent toward Israel.
Far from committing genocide, Israel’s actions in Gaza are directed solely at dismantling Hamas, the barbaric terrorist organization responsible for the 7 October brutal massacre of over 1200 Israelis, that uses 2 million Palestinians as human shields.
