The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) adopted a resolution on Aug. 31 concluding that Israel’s “policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” citing Article II of the U.N.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In the resolution, the association says Israel’s responses to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack have not been limited to combatting the armed group but have “targeted the entire Gazan population.” The document accuses the Israeli government of committing “systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
The IAGS highlighted what it described as extensive forced displacement and destruction in Gaza, saying Israeli operations have “forcibly displaced nearly all of the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip multiple times” and citing estimates that more than 90% of housing infrastructure in the territory has been destroyed. “This is a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide,” IAGS president Melanie O’Brien said Monday.
Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group; it does not cover political groups or what is sometimes called cultural genocide.
The Palestinian Government Media Office said it welcomed the IAGS decision in a statement seen by TIME. Israel has repeatedly denied that its military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide, saying it is exercising its right to self-defense. A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office dismissed the allegations as “ridiculous” and a “blatant falsehood.”
Israel has faced legal action and scrutiny on the international stage: a case alleging genocide was brought before the International Court of Justice in December 2023, and the International Criminal Court has pursued investigations and measures targeting senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
TIME has contacted Netanyahu’s office and Israel’s Foreign Ministry for comment. The IAGS resolution arrives as Israel moves ahead with an expanded military campaign in Gaza City, a plan that has drawn criticism from world leaders and aid organizations. There are also growing worries about humanitarian conditions in Gaza, particularly after a U.N.-backed food-security body reported that an assessment was taking place in Gaza City for the first time since the war began.
The Israel–Hamas conflict began after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people and resulted in roughly 250 hostages being taken.
Since the start of the war, Gaza health authorities report that over 63,000 Palestinians have died; that total includes roughly 348 deaths attributed to “starvation and malnutrition,” according to Gaza’s health ministry. Independent verification on the ground remains limited.
Humanitarian organizations, journalists and international bodies primarily rely on casualty figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry; those figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently confirmed by TIME.
