The president of the world’s top genocide scholars’ association said Monday that the group has passed a resolution declaring Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.
Some 86% of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution, which declares "Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)."
There was no immediate response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that accuses it of genocide.
Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after members of the Palestinian resistance group carried out an incursion into southern Israel, causing 1,200 deaths and taking more than 250 hostages.
Since then, Israel's genocidal war has killed over 63,000 people, damaged or destroyed most buildings in the territory and forced nearly all its 2.5 million residents to flee their homes at least once.
Since its founding in 1994, the genocide scholars' association has passed nine resolutions recognizing historic or ongoing episodes as genocides.
