Egypt Daily News – Two prominent Israeli human rights organizations have issued a damning joint report accusing the Israeli government of perpetrating genocide in the Gaza Strip and systematically extending similar patterns of destruction and repression into the occupied West Bank. The report, released on Monday by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, asserts that Israeli policies amount to a coordinated campaign to dismantle Palestinian society from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
The report, which emerges amid ongoing Israeli military operations in both Gaza and the West Bank since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, presents a stark assessment: Israel is not only engaged in large-scale military aggression but is also intentionally inflicting destruction on Palestinian civilians and infrastructure in a manner consistent with the legal definition of genocide.
Coordinated Strategy of Destruction
“Close examination of Israeli policy in the Gaza Strip, and the devastating outcomes it has produced, lead us to an unequivocal conclusion: Israel is acting in a coordinated manner to destroy Palestinian society in Gaza,” the report states.
While the level of destruction in the West Bank has not reached the same scale, the two organizations warn that similar patterns are beginning to emerge there as well. “Israel has already begun replicating, on a smaller scale, the same methods of destruction and dehumanization in the West Bank,” the report cautions.
Since October 2023, Israeli military forces and settlers have significantly escalated their assaults in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. According to Palestinian data, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 wounded during this period.
Human Toll in Gaza: A Catastrophic Reality
In Gaza, the human toll has reached catastrophic levels. Over 204,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Israeli attacks, the vast majority of them women and children. More than 9,000 people are reported missing under the rubble, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Conditions in the enclave have deteriorated to the point where famine and disease are claiming lives on a growing scale.
Yuli Novak, Executive Director of B’Tselem, described the Israeli government’s actions as part of a broader political agenda aimed at erasing Palestinian presence across all of historic Palestine. “This far-right government is advancing an agenda of genocide and forced displacement. Every Palestinian between the river and the sea is being rendered vulnerable and expendable,” she said. “The situation is deteriorating rapidly, and the international community must intervene to stop these crimes.”
Collapse of the Health System
The report devotes particular attention to the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system, which it says has been deliberately targeted. It documents direct Israeli strikes on hospitals, deliberate obstruction of medical aid, and the killing or detention of medical personnel. According to the report, these are not unintended consequences of war, but part of a systematic policy aimed at incapacitating Palestinian society.
“There is ample evidence of the intentional and methodical dismantling of Gaza’s health sector and other critical infrastructure,” the report reads. “Israel has attacked hospital after hospital, prevented the evacuation of patients, and blocked humanitarian aid, all of which reflect a coordinated and deliberate strategy of annihilation.”
The destruction of hospitals and the blockade on the entry of medicine and humanitarian relief have left thousands without access to basic medical care. Severely wounded and chronically ill patients are also being denied evacuation for life-saving treatment abroad.
Urgent Call for International Action
The authors of the report urge the international community to act swiftly. “This campaign of violence meets the criteria for genocide under international law,” they wrote, calling on global health organizations, humanitarian agencies, and state actors to take immediate steps to confront what they describe as an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
They appeal to world leaders to use every available legal and diplomatic mechanism to halt what they call the Israeli government’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.
“The global community must no longer turn a blind eye,” the report concludes. “The time for action is now.”
