‘Unspeakable Horror’: Amnesty International Accuses Israel of Genocide in Gaza
We interviewed Amnesty International's Gaza researcher about its landmark 300-page report documenting evidence of Israel's genocide against Palestinians.
Amnesty International, the largest human rights organization on the planet, has conducted a sweeping investigation concluding that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Titled ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman,’ the resulting nearly 300-page landmark report bases its damning findings on the international stipulations of the Genocide Convention, hundreds of interviews with witnesses and survivors, and forensic analysis of Israel’s offensive in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
Joining us from Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank is Budour Hassan, international researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories at Amnesty International, who provides critical context and insights regarding the report and the unimaginable, ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people.
You’ve likely caught slivers of the destruction since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas in the wake of the group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Perhaps you’ve skimmed some headlines across social media, caught a brief segment on TV between your favorite shows, or even sought out coverage via media outlets such as Al Jazeera (whose office in Ramallah was raided by heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers back in September), Haaretz, Democracy Now!, the Intercept, or Middle East Eye. Whatever you’ve read, heard, or seen, however, are mere glimpses of the absolute carnage and utter devastation collectively levied on the Palestinian people, as a whole.
Amnesty International’s Budour Hassan describes the reality experienced by everyday Palestinians—documented in meticulous detail throughout the group’s report—as “unspeakable horror.”
We’ve covered the filing of an ongoing case before the International Court of Justice charging Israel with genocide in January 2024, and since then, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. We recently shed some light on the thousands upon thousands of Palestinians rounded up and detained in makeshift Israeli prisons throughout the region—where some are held without charges or trials, indefinitely, and many are tortured.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel unleashed its U.S. weapons-supplied response to the brutal attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, the majority women and children, and countless remain buried beneath the rubble of neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, and refugee encampments—yet as Amnesty International’s report chronicles, Israel continues to act with impunity.
The human rights group outlines the arduous process of making its ultimate determination of genocide in its report’s executive summary:
“To make a determination on genocide, Amnesty International first examined whether Palestinians in Gaza constitute part of a protected group under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), that is a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. It then focused on three out of the five prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention: “killing members of the group”; “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”; and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. It finally examined whether Israel committed these acts with the specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, [the] group, as such”.
“To this end, Amnesty International interviewed 212 people as part of its research. They included Palestinian victims, survivors and witnesses of air strikes, displacement, detention, the destruction of farms, homes and agricultural land, as well as individuals who faced the impact of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid. Amnesty International also spoke with members of local authorities in Gaza, Palestinian healthcare workers and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies involved in the humanitarian response in Gaza.
“Amnesty International complemented these interviews with its analysis of an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery, video footage and photographs posted on social media or obtained directly by its researchers. It authenticated and, where possible, geolocated video footage and photographs. It reviewed an extensive collection of media reports, statements, reports and data sets published by UN agencies and humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. It reviewed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials and official Israeli bodies, including spokespersons of the Israeli military and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defense tasked with administering civilian matters in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
“Amnesty International also examined submissions made to and decisions taken by the Israeli Supreme Court as well as publicly available material relating to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Despite its repeated attempts to engage with the Israeli authorities through information and meeting requests, the organization received no substantive answer to any of its letters sent between 30 October 2023 and 16 October 2024.”
Since the release of ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman,’ various other human rights organizations have published reports and articles similarly accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. We’ve included links to several below.
Why We Covered This Topic
We’re talking genocide:
Intentionally targeting and massacring people, the majority women and children.
Deliberately leveling cities and hospitals and neighborhoods, schools, and refugee camps.
Purposely cutting and dismantling power, water, sanitation, and other basic, life-saving services to a populace of more than 2 million.
As documented in Amnesty International’s report, senior Israeli officials actually declared, and soldiers later echoed, the murderous notion that there were no “uninvolved” or “innocent civilians.”
The suffering of the Palestinians should be on the cover of every single major news outlet on the planet, every single day, until it ceases and those responsible are held accountable. Why isn’t it? We’ll get more into this in another episode, but remember: The bombs and weapons obliterating these civilians are being supplied by the United States and other allies.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Amnesty International has published a nearly 300-page report concluding that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
It chronicles Israel’s actions during its offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023 and examines the killing of civilians, forcible displacement, destruction of civilian infrastructure, obstruction/denial of life-saving humanitarian aid, and restriction of power supplies. It also analyzes Israel’s intent through this pattern of conduct and statements by Israeli decision makers.
Amnesty International’s findings are based on stipulations set forth by the Genocide Convention, an international treaty obligating all states to prevent genocide and punish perpetrators, interviews with witnesses and survivors, analysis of visual and digital evidence, and more.
Who We Interviewed & What They Said
Budour Hassan is an international researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories at Amnesty International.
“We at Amnesty International are frequently asked, ‘Why did you do that?’ And we obviously speak about accountability, about international tribunals, about our call for stopping arms, but we first and foremost, really did it for the victims, because for to be true to the victims, it's important to name what is happening as it should be named, and having [been] as part of the team that has interviewed victims of unspeakable horror, really unspeakable horror. And when I say unspeakable, I really mean it as such. There were so many phone calls where we started collecting testimonies when there was minutes of silence, and there was no way to break it even to ask a simple question, what happened? Because, how can you respond when a father starts reciting the names of the family that has been decimated, his wife's name, his children's name, his parents name, his siblings names, and telling you that he's the only survivor and about the guilt of surviving?”
Additional Resources
Read Amnesty International’s report outlining its investigation and conclusion of genocide: “‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Check out Human Rights Watch’s “Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water.”
Study South Africa’s genocide filing against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
Read Doctors Without Borders’ scathing assessment: Gaza: Life in a Death Trap
Learn more about the history, legal framework, and ratification of the Genocide Convention at the United Nations
Listen to our previous coverage of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “9/11 Redux: Will the Israel-Hamas Conflict Lead to a Renewed War on Terror?” / “The Genocide Case Against Israel: Parts I & II” / “The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World” / “Disappeared: Inside Israel’s ‘Torture Camps’” / and more.
Check out all our accompanying Substack pieces, too.
News Beat is a multi-award-winning podcast brought to you in conjunction with Manny Faces Media.
Audio Editor/Sound Designer/Producer/Host: Manny Faces
Editor-In-Chief/Producer: Christopher Twarowski
Managing Editor/Producer: Rashed Mian
Episode Art: Jon Chim