• The term was first coined in the wake of the Holocaust and is now being perversely weaponized to attack the Jewish state in the aftermath of the deadliest assault on Jews since the Holocaust.
• The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide clearly defines the term. Genocide requires the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. This definition is employed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• Israel’s intent has never been to target Palestinians writ large, only the members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other terrorist groups that engage in acts of violence. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear that Israel’s war is “against Hamas terrorists, not against Palestinian civilians.”
• Ireland, in support of South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ, even requested that the court broaden its interpretation of genocide, implicitly recognizing that Israel does not meet the established definition.
• When the ceasefire was reached and the living hostages were returned, Israel ceased offensive operations, a clear statement that the intent of Israel was never the destruction of the Palestinian people.

Israel’s actions have always been directed at defeating Hamas, returning the hostages, and ensuring Hamas can never perpetrate a massacre against Israelis again. Over the course of the two-year conflict, Israel repeatedly offered to end the war if Hamas would return the hostages and surrender.

Israel’s military prowess is well documented. If Israel wanted to destroy the people of Gaza, it could have done so. In fact, Israel facilitated massive amounts of humanitarian assistance and risked the lives of its own soldiers to minimize civilian casualties.

• Israel facilitated over 2.1 million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza on over 110,000 trucks in the two years following Hamas’ October 7 massacre.
• Israel supplied water and electricity directly to Gaza, actively repairing and reconnecting damaged water pipes and electric lines.
• Thousands of Gazan civilians and their caretakers were evacuated from Gaza by Israel in coordination with third-party countries to receive medical care.
• The IDF routinely warned Palestinian civilians to evacuate ahead of military operations and strikes through text messages, phone calls and by dropping leaflets, even though it inevitably means also warning the terrorists.
• The IDF has urged Palestinian civilians to temporarily move out of areas where it plans to operate to minimize casualties and has provided them with ample time to do so.

While every civilian death is a tragedy, they regularly occur in war and are not illegal under international convention or U.S. law.

• According to international laws of armed conflict, Hamas has turned civilian areas into legitimate military targets, compelling Israel to operate in these areas to destroy Hamas.
• The U.S. manual on the Law of Armed Conflict states that “Civilians must not be made the object of attack” and “Military objectives may not be attacked when the expected incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to civilian objects would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected to be gained.” This does not disallow strikes in which civilians will be killed.
• The manual also states that “The law of war, as applied by the United States, gives no ‘revolving door’ protection; that is, the off-and-on protection in a case where a civilian repeatedly forfeits and regains his or her protection from being made the object of attack depending on whether or not the person is taking a direct part in hostilities at that exact time.”

The destruction and loss of life in Gaza are a result of the highly complex urban environment Israel was forced to operate in and Hamas’ intentional strategy of attempting to maximize Palestinian civilian casualties.

• Hamas intentionally places Palestinian civilians in harm’s way, using them as human shields to launch attacks against Israeli civilians. Former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar described Palestinian civilian deaths as “necessary sacrifices.”
• Hamas built hundreds of miles of tunnels underneath Gaza’s cities and built infrastructure and stored weapons in and under schools, mosques, hospitals and civilian homes.
• Hamas routinely stole and diverted aid, and destroyed civilian infrastructure like water pipes and electricity, to increase the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and generate international pressure against Israel.
• Hamas attempted to prevent civilians from leaving danger zones with roadblocks and armed terrorists.
• Hamas attacked aid delivery sites and murdered aid workers to prevent the safe and effective distribution of humanitarian aid.

Israel has not committed genocide. False accusations of genocide against the Jewish state are baseless, intended to associate Israel with the world’s worse crime to generate public pressure.

Those peddling this dangerous lie and blood libel are lying and distorting the facts to push a nefarious anti-Israel campaign which must be rejected outright.

Hamas sought to commit genocide against Israel on October 7, and the Jewish state responded by exercising its legitimate right of self-defense to eliminate terrorists and prevent further atrocities against the Israeli people.

• “Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025” by Prof. Danny Orbach, Dr. Jonathan Boxman, Dr. Yagil Henkin and Adv. Jonathan Braverman
• “No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza” by Bret Stephens
• “A Response to the ‘This Is the Story...on Gaza’ Ben Rhodes NYT Opinion piece” by John Spencer
• “It is not genocide: A response to Omer Bartov” by Michael Berenbaum and Menachem Z. Rosensaft
• “Why it’s wrong to call Israel’s war in Gaza a ‘genocide’” by Norman J.W. Goda and Jeffrey Herf