In assessments of the Gaza genocide, experts state that statements by Israeli political and military leaders—coupled with eliminationist media rhetoric, and Israel's conduct in Gaza—indicate genocidal intent and incitement against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Genocidal intent is also evidenced by the scale and systematic nature of actions that exceed any legitimate military objective,: "Fyfe, the Washington and Lee University legal scholar, said, 'Genocide can occur within or outside of war. But it is never permissible, even if the war itself is. So war is not a defense...If a military leader intends to gain land and removing a group is the only way to do it, that's not necessarily genocide. But if the only reasonable inference from a siege or campaign is that the group itself is being destroyed as such, then that is genocidal intent...I do not think it is reasonable to claim that the siege is a military objective, given that Hamas is already crippled. including the extensive targeting of children,: "The extensive and deliberate targeting of Palestinian children shows that the military operations were not conducted solely to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, nor can they legitimately contribute to the other stated goals of defending the state of Israel and securing the release of Israeli hostages." widespread sexual violence,: "Whether targeting women, men, boys or girls, sexual violence was conducted not just to degrade and humiliate profoundly the direct victims but to punish the Palestinian group as a whole." the destruction of cultural heritage,: and the imposition of life-destroying conditions,: "The nature of the conditions of life that Israel imposed on Palestinians in Gaza following 7 October 2023 indicates that the destruction of the group, as such, was their intended outcome. The Israeli authorities decided to impose a total siege on Gaza on 9 October 2023...fully aware that this would necessarily cause and exacerbate malnutrition, hunger, the outbreak of multiple diseases and, ultimately, bring Gaza to the brink of famine. Indeed, Israel must have been aware of the 'objective probability' that these conditions of life would lead to the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a factor identified as probative of intent." together with the persistence of these practices despite full awareness of their catastrophic effects.: "The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities were aware that, by destroying the healthcare system throughout Gaza, their actions would lead to the destruction of Palestinians as a group... the systematic and complete destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza, the siege-induced deprivation of medical necessities... were part of the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza by preventing their capacity and possibility to heal, recover and live"
Both a United Nations commission of inquiry and Amnesty International documented a "pattern of conduct" by Israeli authorities, concluding that genocidal intent is the "only reasonable inference" that could be drawn based on the evidence.: "The evidence presented in the report clearly shows that the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, as such, was Israel's intent—either in addition to or as a means to achieve its military aims. There is only one reasonable inference that can be drawn from the evidence presented: genocidal intent has been part and parcel of Israel's conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including its military campaign.": "On the basis of fully conclusive evidence, the Commission finds that statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent. Additionally, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, the Commission finds that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn, based on the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities. Thus, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." A United Nations panel also concluded that statements made by Israeli officials indicate genocidal intent.
Multiple genocide studies experts—including the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch and others—draw attention to the multitude of verbal statements made by Israeli officials that dehumanize Palestinians and which incite, justify, or praise atrocities against them. The United Nations commission of inquiry found that Israeli officials—President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant—had engaged in the crime of "direct and public incitement to commit genocide" with their comments. Incitement-to-genocide is a stand-alone crime that is prosecutable even if genocide does not occur. Genocidal intent and incitement have also been attributed to Israeli journalists and United States congressmen.
Legal standard According to a 2025 United Nations commission of inquiry that convened on Israel's actions in Gaza, genocidal intent can be established through "direct evidence, such as statements expressing an intent to destroy", or inferred from "circumstantial evidence, taking into account the totality of the evidence, by inference through the examination of the pattern of conduct".
Background
Since its foundation in 1948 and the Nakba, Israel has been accused of carrying out genocide against Palestinians during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Israel's treatment has been characterised as "slow-motion genocide", as well as a corollary or expression of settler colonialism and indigenous land theft.; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
After 7 October 2023
On 7 October, after armed incursions and massacres in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to exact a "huge price" by turning Hamas hideouts "into rubble", while minister of defense Yoav Gallant declared, "We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly." Professor Omer Bartov interprets these statements as genocidal intent. Scholar Mark Levene noted the increasing rhetoric of genocide and ethnic cleansing under the preceding Netanyahu governments.
The Israeli historian Raz Segal and legal scholar Luigi Daniele also pointed to increasing genocidal rhetoric before October 2023, highlighting a May 2023 Times of Israel article that said that the only way to achieve peace is to "obliterate" Palestine. Segal and Daniele draw parallels between that article's rhetoric and scholarship that points to Russian media outlets' rhetoric in the Russian invasion of Ukraine as genocidal. Segal and Daniele also point to previous comments by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the former Knesset member Ayelet Shaked, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who in February 2023 called for the destruction of Palestinian villages in the West Bank. The genocide scholar Shmuel Lederman detailed how these comments by Smotrich, alongside others denying Palestinian statehood and calling for their destruction or removal from territory claimed by Israel, influenced Hamas' decisions before October 2023. News outlets at the time of Smotrich's comments also highlighted their genocidal nature.
In a report presented to the UNHRC in March 2024, the legal scholar Francesca Albanese concluded that Israel was committing genocide. She wrote that genocidal intent can be inferred from "the totality of conduct targeting the totality of Palestinians, in the totality of the occupied Palestinian territory". Israel rejected the report. Albanese later accused Israel of "carrying out a systematic campaign of forced displacement, destruction, and genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank".
In June 2024, historian Yoav Di-Capua said a "genocidal mindset" was pervasive among settler communities and politicians in Israel, often mirroring Hamas' own genocidal ideology. He charted the history of this ideology among Israel's "ultra-orthodox Zionist nationalists", or Hardal, from the 1970s up to the Gaza war, and its influence on the politics of Netanyahu's government, particularly Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. According to Di-Capua, this genocidal ideology included Jewish supremacy and a desire for maximalist territorial expansion across the biblical Land of Israel. Di-Capua described Netanyahu as a "political captive" of Hardal, saying he had "echoed" their rhetoric of "eradication". He said Smotrich and Ben-Gvir seek the adoption of this ideology as national policy and are using the Gaza War to implement their plan.
Statements by Israeli officials
Israeli prime minister and cabinet ministers
The nonprofit organization Law for Palestine compiled a database of over 500 statements by Israeli officials indicating incitement and intent in Gaza. Zoé Samudzi, a sociologist and genocide studies scholar, stated in September 2025 that most experts now believed "annihilatory intent has rarely been more explicit than the repeated comments made by Israeli leadership in the progression of the state's aggression from the days after 7 October 2023".
According to scholars Mark Levene and Abdelwahab El-Affendi, since 7 October 2023, official and semi-official sources have engaged in rhetoric suggestive of genocidal intent. The Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard said that the 7 October attacks, the Gaza war hostage crisis, and Hamas's war crimes "generated rage that transformed what has been the rhetoric of marginalised groups into a flood of statements now made by politicians, journalists and celebrities,... provid[ing] a tailwind" for others to find such speech acceptable.
On 9 October 2023, Israeli minister of defense Yoav Gallant said:I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly. The statement was characterised as dehumanisation. According to Kenneth Roth, while some excuse this remark as referring only to Hamas, the context makes clear that "human animals" refers to everyone in Gaza. On 10 October, Gallant said: "Gaza won't return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate everything." ("Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on 9 October that 'we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly'. He subsequently announced that Israel was moving to 'a full-scale response' and that he had 'removed every restriction' on Israeli force.").
In May 2025, Netanyahu said in closed-door testimony to members of the Knesset that Israel was "destroying more and more houses [in Gaza, and Palestinians accordingly] have nowhere to return", and that "the only obvious result will be Gazans choosing to emigrate outside of the Strip". The International Commission of Jurists characterised these statements as support for forced displacement, and former UK Supreme Court justice Jonathan Sumption said that they would be likely to substantiate a case of genocidal intent.
In October 2023, Israeli energy (later defense) minister Israel Katz said: "All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world." In July 2025, Israel Katz, now the Defense Minister, instructed the IDF to relocate all Gazans to a "humanitarian zone" in the destroyed city of Rafah, in preparation for an unspecified "emigration plan". Legal experts condemned this as a violation of international law, including crimes against humanity, and an open letter by Israeli legal scholars said that the plan "could amount to the crime of genocide".