On Thursday, a report published by a special UN committee said Israel’s actions in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” while Human Rights Watch released a report saying Israel was committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
The UN report, released by the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, said Israel has used “criminal means” to achieve its military goals, including the use of starvation as a weapon.
“This included intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of warfare, and intentionally directing attacks against civilians,” the report reads.
The committee, which was formed in 1968, also discussed the occupied West Bank, where it said Israel has an “apartheid system of injustice.” The report said the “killing of and serious bodily or mental harm caused to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are violations under international law.”
The HRW report focused on Israel’s forcible displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. “Israeli authorities have caused massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023 and are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” HRW said. “There is no plausible imperative military reason to justify Israel’s mass displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population, often multiple times.”
In response to the reports, the US again denied Israel was committing genocide. Referring to the genocide label, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, “That is something we would unequivocally disagree with. We think that kind of phrasing and those kinds of accusations are certainly unfounded, as it relates to the humanitarian situation.”
When asked about the HRW report, Patel claimed that the US has not seen “forced displacement” in Gaza and said it would be a redline for Secretary of State Antony Blinken. His denial comes as Israeli forces are carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza, a reality that’s been acknowledged by Israeli media.
Israeli troops are forcing Palestinian civilians to leave the northern cities of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun under the threat of death, whether by shooting or starvation. Haaretz reported that Israeli forces are destroying all the homes in the areas they are cleansing so Palestinians have no place to return.
Patel’s comments follow the Biden administration’s pattern over the past year of denying the reality on the ground in Gaza to ensure US weapons continue to flow to Israel.
