Zürcher Nachrichten - Amnesty accuses Israel of 'live-streamed genocide' in Gaza

The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned Israel's blockade on aid had become a "silent killer" in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, with children and the sick suffering the most.

In its annual report, Amnesty said Israel was acting with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

The Gaza war erupted after the Palestinian militant group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of Gaza and a ground offensive that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,365 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools."

- 'Children starving' -

Gaza's civil defence agency on Tuesday said Israeli strikes killed at least seven people, including four in tents for displaced people near Al-Iqleem in southern Gaza.

"I just want to lay my head on a pillow and sleep. We don't want to be collecting remains (of body parts)," said Widad Fojo, who lost relatives in one of the strikes.

Israel resumed its Gaza offensive on March 18 after a two-month ceasefire, saying it aimed to secure the release of hostages.

"We will bring them back," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to captives held in Gaza.

Amnesty said it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel", including attacks on civilians, and that Israel had "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

The London-based rights group said 1.9 million people -- about 90 percent of Gaza's population -- had been forcibly displaced.

Israel rejected the report, accusing Amnesty of spreading Hamas propaganda.

"The radical anti-Israel organisation Amnesty has once again chosen to publish baseless lies against Israel," said foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein.

"Israel is targeting only terrorists and never civilians. Hamas, on the other hand, deliberately targets Israeli civilians and hides behind Palestinian civilians, stealing humanitarian aid intended for the people of Gaza and causing suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis," he told AFP.

UNRWA said children and the sick were suffering the most.

"Children in Gaza are going to bed starving. The ill and the sick are not able to get medical care because of shortages in supplies in hospitals and clinics," its spokeswoman Juliette Touma said.

"Gaza has become a land of desperation... The siege on Gaza is a silent killer, a silent killer of children, of older people, of the most vulnerable in the community."

- Collective failure -

UNRWA also said more than 50 of its staff, including teachers and doctors, had been abused by Israeli forces in detention.

"They have been treated in the most shocking & inhumane way. They reported being beaten + used as human shields," UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.

Israel has accused some UNRWA employees of involvement in the October 7 attack and has subsequently banned the agency from operating within its territory.

Amnesty said the war represented a collective failure by the international community.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty's regional director, said Palestinians had endured "extreme levels of suffering while the world showed a "complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".

Separately, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel released from detention on Tuesday a medic held since a deadly attack on ambulances in southern Gaza on March 23.

The attack had left 15 medics and emergency responders dead, which an Israeli military investigation said was a result of "operational" failures on part of the troops on the ground.

A.P.Huber--NZN