Sept. 1 (UPI) — The International Association of Genocide Scholars on Sunday passed a resolution accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, which Israeli officials deny.
The IAGS resolution cites U.N. statistics that claim more than 59,000 adults and children have died in Gaza without citing how many are Hamas casualties and not civilian casualties.
“The government of Israel has engaged in systemic and widespread crimes against humanity, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure of Gaza,” the IAGS resolution says.
“These crimes are estimated to have left many thousands of people buried under the rubble or otherwise inaccessible and most probably dead.”
Alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity
The IAGS accuses the Israeli government of torture, arbitrary detention and sexual and reproductive violence, including “deliberate attacks on medical professionals, humanitarian aid workers and journalists.
It also says Israel deliberately has deprived Gazans of food, water, medicine and electrical services that are necessary for survival.
The IAGS resolution says Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza “constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.”
It calls on the Israeli government to immediately end all acts that “constitute genocide and war crimes.”
The IAGS also wants the International Criminal Court to surrender any individuals who are subject to arrest warrants, which would include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The IAGS describes itself as a “global, interdisciplinary, non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes and consequences of genocide and advance policy studies on genocide prevention.”
Israeli government denies genocide accusation
“The statement of the International Association of Genocide Scholars is an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard,” officials for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X on Saturday night.
“It is entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others,” the Israeli officials continued.
“Above all, the IAGS has set a historic precedent — for the first time, ‘Genocide Scholars’ accuse the very victim of genocide.”
Netanyahu denied allegations of genocide during a 2024 address to Congress and said Hamas uses civilians as human shields in violation of international law.
Israel drops leaflets and sends texts in locations targeted for military action to warn civilians to leave, but Hamas won’t let them leave or seek shelter in its extensive tunnel system beneath Gaza, he said.
“They even shoot their own people when they try to get out of the way,” Netanyahu told the joint session of Congress. “They want Palestinian civilians to die.”
He also accused Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid intended for civilians.
The prime minister said the Israeli military has the lowest combatant-to-non-combatant casualty ratio in military history.
Hamas accused of falsifying casualty data
Tablet Magazine in March 2024 reported that the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry distributes false casualty figures.
A statistical analysis of casualty reports showed relatively little change in the numbers of women and children reported dead, instead of wide variations.
Soon after Tablet published its report, the United Nations revised down its estimates of women and children killed from 69% to 52%.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between Hamas casualties and those of Gazan civilians.
The United Nations also acknowledged it had incomplete information and adjusted down its reports of deaths among women and children in Gaza, the BBC reported.