Tel Aviv — In a watershed moment that shatters the Israeli state’s long-standing narrative of self-defense, two of Israel’s most respected human rights organizations have delivered a damning verdict: the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza. The joint declaration, released by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel (PHR-Israel), accuses the state of deliberately inflicting mass suffering on the Palestinian population in a campaign that fits the precise legal definition of genocide under international law.
For the first time, the accusation of genocide does not come from international watchdogs or legal bodies abroad, it comes from within Israel’s own civil society. The reports meticulously detail a pattern of conduct that includes indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, obliteration of critical infrastructure (Hospitals, Schools, Media offices), and a coordinated policy of starvation. Together, these acts have left over 38,000 dead, half of them children, millions displaced, and the entire strip teetering on the edge of famine.
“The Israeli government, with full awareness, is producing conditions meant to destroy life in Gaza,” said the director of B’Tselem, Guy Shalev, noting the systematic targeting of hospitals and food networks. “This is no longer just war, it’s annihilation.”
PHR-Israel, for its part, highlighted that Gaza’s healthcare system no longer functions in any meaningful sense. Hospitals have been bombed or are without fuel. Doctors are performing surgeries without anesthesia. Water purification systems are in ruins. According to PHR director Yuli Novak, the absence of food and medicine is not a failure of policy, it is the policy.
“We are watching this with the knowledge that our own state is responsible,” Novak stated. “And the Western powers are complicit. Genocide could not happen without their weapons, their political cover, and their silence.”
Their report leans heavily on Article 2(c) of the 1948 Genocide Convention, which defines genocide as acts “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” By depriving Gaza’s population of water, food, fuel, and shelter, while bombing refugee camps and blocking humanitarian access, Israel has created exactly those conditions, the report argues.
The political weight of this report lies in its authorship. B’Tselem, founded in 1989, has long been viewed as a conscience inside Israeli society. Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, meanwhile, comprises both Jewish and Arab medical professionals working inside Israeli and Palestinian territories. These are not fringe actors; they are well-established, legally grounded institutions now turning their scrutiny inward.
Their findings echo recent declarations from other global human rights bodies. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and even UN experts like Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, have concluded that Israeli military conduct amounts to genocidal acts. But the Israeli state has routinely dismissed such reports as biased or antisemitic. That argument collapses when the accusers are themselves Israeli.
Western governments, chief among them the United States, Germany, and the EU bloc, now face intense legal and moral scrutiny for their unwavering military and financial support. Under the Genocide Convention, states are obligated not only to refrain from committing genocide, but to prevent and punish it. With evidence mounting and internal Israeli dissent growing, continued support may constitute legal complicity.
Meanwhile, the human toll in Gaza worsens. Entire generations are being erased. A population that has survived 17 years of siege now faces death by starvation, untreated illness, or aerial bombardment. And yet, the international community has shown no sign of stepping in to halt what is now plainly described by Israeli experts as genocide.
The implications are monumental. If Israel is found to have committed genocide, and more pressingly, if its allies are deemed complicit, the entire post-WWII legal order surrounding human rights and international law will be on trial. As B’Tselem’s director bluntly stated, “History is watching. So is the law.”
As The Guardian noted, both B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel have formally accused the Israeli government of genocide, citing evidence that meets the threshold established in the Genocide Convention. These findings come as the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorates rapidly, with starvation, medical collapse, and displacement intensifying by the day.
