Amnesty says Israel ‘still committing genocide’ in Gaza, despite truce

JERUSALEM: Amnesty International on Thursday claimed Israel was “still committing genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreed last month.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli foreign ministry did not respond to the allegations by early evening.

When faced with such allegations previously, the ministry has vehemently rejected them as “entirely false”, “fabricated” and “based on lies”.

The fragile, US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, after two years of war.

“The ceasefire risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal,” said Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard.

“But while Israeli authorities and forces have reduced the scale of their attacks and allowed limited amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over.”

The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.

In December 2024, human rights group Amnesty concluded that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza via three of those acts – including deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘live-streamed genocide’ against Gaza Palestinians

In an update Thursday, Amnesty said: “Israel continues to severely restrict the entry of supplies and the restoration of services essential for the survival of the civilian population.

“Despite a reduction in scale of attacks, and some limited improvements, there has been no meaningful change in the conditions Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza and no evidence to indicate that Israel’s intent has changed.”

Following Amnesty’s findings in December, Israel’s foreign ministry called the London-based group a “deplorable and fanatical organisation”.

“Israel is defending itself… acting fully in accordance with international law,” it said.

‘Pattern of conduct’

Gaza has been devastated by the war triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Callamard said: “Israel’s pattern of conduct in Gaza, including the deliberate, unlawful denial of lifesaving aid to Palestinians, many of whom are injured, malnourished and at risk of serious disease, continues to threaten their survival.”

In September 2025, the independent international Commission of Inquiry set up by the United Nations concluded that “genocide is occurring in Gaza” – something Israel vehemently denied.

The probe concluded that Israeli authorities and forces had since October 2023 committed “four of the five genocidal acts” listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention.

These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births and forcibly transferring children out of the group.

The International Court of Justice last year ordered Israel “to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide” in Gaza.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,799 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

The ministry says that since the ceasefire came into effect, 352 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.