Is the Israel-Palestine Conflict a War of Extermination or Self-Defense?

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a coordinated assault on Israeli border communities, killing over 1,200 people, including civilians subjected to rape, mutilation, and beheading, as documented by testimonies and forensic evidence. Hamas’s founding charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews worldwide, framing its actions as a religious obligation. This attack, the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, demonstrates an intent to annihilate Israel, not merely resist it. Under international law, Israel’s subsequent military response is a lawful exercise of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, as the state faces an ongoing armed threat from a terrorist group dedicated to its eradication.

The Israel Defense orces (ID) have implemented unprecedented measures to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, including dropping leaflets, making phone calls, and sending text messages to warn residents of impending strikes, and using 'roof-knock' munitions to signal evacuations. ID officials report that for every high-value Hamas target, they often abort strikes if civilian presence is detected, and they have facilitated humanitarian corridors for aid delivery. A comparative analysis by military experts notes that Israel’s ratio of combatant-to-civilian deaths in urban warfare is lower than the global average for similar conflicts, such as the US-led coalition in Mosul or the Allies in WWII. These actions contradict claims of extermination, as a genocidal campaign would not prioritize warning adversaries or risk soldiers’ lives to spare civilians.

A group of over 800 scholars specializing in genocide studies and international law, including prominent figures like Raz Segal (Stockton University) and rancesca Albanese (UN Special Rapporteur), have issued statements and reports concluding that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide. They cite the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s water infrastructure, agricultural systems, hospitals, and schools, alongside the deaths of over 35,000 Palestinians (as of May 2024), many of whom are women and children, as evidence of intent to destroy the Palestinian population in part. The ICJ’s preliminary ruling in January 2024 deemed it 'plausible' that Israel is committing genocide, ordering provisional measures to prevent such acts. These experts argue that the scale and systematic nature of the destruction, including the use of starvation as a weapon, move beyond self-defense into extermination.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented numerous incidents in Gaza that amount to war crimes, including the use of 2,000-pound bombs in densely populated refugee camps, the bombing of hospitals and aid convoys, and the blockade of food, water, and fuel, leading to widespread famine and disease. These organizations highlight that Israel’s evacuation orders are ineffective, as designated 'safe zones' have themselves been bombed, and the Rafah crossing remains closed, leaving civilians with nowhere to flee. The killing of over 100 journalists and 200 aid workers, the highest in any conflict in modern history, further indicates a disregard for civilian life. Such actions, they argue, are not proportionate self-defense but a deliberate policy of collective punishment, which is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.