The London-based rights organisation said its findings were based on satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans as well as “dehumanising and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials”. Israel angrily dismissed the findings as “entirely false”, denouncing the report as “fabricated” and “based on lies”.

Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard accused Israel of treating the Palestinians in Gaza "as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them. “Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” she said in a statement.

Independent UN rights experts have accused Israel several times of genocide, and South Africa dragged the country to the UN’s top court in December 2023 accusing Israel of “violating the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza” in a case which is still ongoing. But Israeli officials have repeatedly and forcefully denied all such allegations, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

“The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” Israel’s foreign ministry said. “Israel is defending itself… acting fully in accordance with international law”, it added.

But Callamard insisted at a press conference in The Hague that “the existence of military objectives does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent.” She said Amnesty had based its findings on the criteria set out in the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.

But an Israeli army spokesperson said the report’s claims "fail to account for the operational realities faced by the IDF. “The IDF takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians during operations. These include providing advance warnings to civilians in combat zones whenever feasible and facilitating safe movement to designated areas.”

Amnesty’s 300-page report points to “direct deliberate attacks on civilian and civilian infrastructures where there was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives” as well as the blocking of aid deliveries, and the displacement of 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people. Palestinians have been subjected to “malnutrition, hunger and diseases” and exposed to a “slow, calculated death”, Amnesty said.

The Amnesty report also referenced dozens of calls by Israeli officials and soldiers for the annihilation, destruction, burning or “erasure” of Gaza.Such statements highlighted “systemic impunity” as well as “an environment that emboldens… such behaviour”.

“Governments must stop pretending that they are powerless to terminate Israel’s occupation, to end apartheid and to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Callamard. “States that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit,” she added.