Israel warfare methods ‘consistent with genocide’: U.N. committee

U.N. committee accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, using starvation as a method of war, causing death and destruction.

Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, a special U.N. committee said Thursday (November 14, 2024), accusing the country of "using starvation as a method of war".

The United Nations Special Committee pointed to "mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians", in a fresh report covering the period from Hamas's deadly October 7 attack in Israel last year through to July.

"Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated U.N. appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury," it said in a statement.

Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", said the committee, which has for decades been investigating Israeli practices affecting rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel, it charged, was "using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population".

A U.N.-backed assessment at the weekend warned that famine was imminent in northern Gaza.

Thursday's (November 14, 2024) report documented how Israel's extensive bombing campaign in Gaza had decimated essential services and unleashed an environmental catastrophe with lasting health impacts.