Dr Samreen Bari Aamir
THE Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, commonly known as the Genocide Convention, is a cornerstone of international law that first codified genocide as a distinct and punishable crime.
It was adopted on 9 December 1948 and entered into force on 12 January 1951, with 150 states currently party to it. The Convention defines genocide in Article II as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The definition of genocide includes two essential elements: the physical element (the acts committed) and the mental element (the intent behind them). The intent, or dolus specialis, is what makes genocide unique among international crimes. It requires proof that the perpetrators intended to destroy a protected group physically, either entirely or partially. Acts such as cultural suppression or displacement, while serious violations of human rights, do not in themselves constitute genocide unless they are tied to an explicit intention to eliminate the group’s existence. The victims must be deliberately targeted because of their identity as members of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, not merely as individuals.
In the light of this legal framework, the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza provides compelling grounds for discussion regarding the application of the Genocide Convention. According to the Center for Preventive Action (updated October 2, 2025), as of January 2025, approximately 1.9 million Gazans—around 90 percent of the population—have been displaced and face acute or catastrophic food insecurity. There are currently no functioning hospitals in Gaza and over 46,000 Gazans have been killed since the escalation of conflict in October 2023. By July 2025, Reuters reported that more than 60,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israel’s air and ground campaign, with nearly one-third of the dead being children under 18. The Anadolu Agency further reported that as of October 2025, at least 66,288 Palestinians had been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
Today, nearly seven million Palestinians live as refugees worldwide, while those in Gaza endure an ongoing blockade that has created dire humanitarian conditions. Since October 2023, Refugees International and other organizations have published numerous reports documenting Israel’s conduct in Gaza. A March 2024 report found that Israel consistently and groundlessly impeded humanitarian aid, blocked legitimate relief operations and resisted measures that would have allowed aid to flow freely. In September 2024, another report documented famine-like conditions in Gaza, linking hunger directly to Israeli government restrictions on aid access and military conduct. By November 2024, a multi-agency scorecard informed by humanitarian groups on the ground concluded that Israel had consistently failed to uphold its legal obligations to facilitate humanitarian relief, while Gaza’s healthcare system teetered on the brink of collapse due to resource depletion and targeted attacks. The same report cited evidence of the forced displacement of civilians.
In May 2025, Refugees International warned that Israel’s ongoing blockade of aid had led to the near-total collapse of Gaza’s humanitarian system and had directly precipitated famine conditions. This blockade was found to cause extensive harm to civilians with no defensible military rationale. Following the declaration of famine in August 2025, the organization reported that Israeli authorities engaged in famine denial, continued to obstruct aid and conducted military actions that worsened displacement and civilian deaths. These findings, corroborated by legal experts, human rights organizations and Palestinians themselves, demonstrate that Israel was repeatedly warned about the humanitarian consequences of its actions, had reasonable grounds to foresee the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza and nevertheless proceeded.
This evidence indicates that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet both the physical and mental elements required under the Genocide Convention. The deliberate killing of civilians, the imposition of conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction and the obstruction of humanitarian relief all reflect genocidal acts. The continuation of these actions despite repeated international warnings further demonstrates specific intent—the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Consequently, the accumulated evidence establishes a prima facie case that Israel’s conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide under international law.
The ongoing devastation in Gaza represents not only a humanitarian catastrophe but also a profound test of the international community’s commitment to the principles enshrined in the 1948 Genocide Convention. The deliberate targeting of civilians, the systematic starvation of a population and the destruction of essential infrastructure such as hospitals all point toward the intent to destroy a people as such. Upholding justice, accountability and the sanctity of human life requires immediate international action to halt further atrocities and to ensure that those responsible for the crime of genocide are brought before the law.
—The writer is Assistant Professor, DHA Suffa University, Chairperson, Centre for Alternative Perspectives.
