A new study from a network of human rights researchers concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide under international law and called on the international community to take action as the United Nations’ top court digs into the conflict.
The University Network for Human Rights study, published jointly on Wednesday by researchers at Boston University, Cornell Law School, the University of Pretoria, and Yale Law School, reviewed the reports of journalists, independent human rights monitors, and UN agencies as the researchers sought to determine whether Israel was in violation the laws stemming from the Genocide Convention of 1948.
Representatives for the Consulate General of Israel to New England did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In December, the consulate said in a statement that the accusation of genocide is “not only wholly unfounded as a matter of fact and law, it is morally repugnant.” The consulate said Israel has been acting lawfully in its actions against Hamas militants and is trying to minimize civilian casualties.
The study’s authors wrote that Israel has worked to eliminate the Palestinian people through violence directed at Gaza’s population, medical facilities, and aid efforts, and that Israeli officials have demonstrated through their words an intent to do so.
“From the publicly available evidence, we have concluded that genocide is taking place,” said Boston University International Human Rights Clinic director Susan M. Akram, who contributed to the report.
She said researchers aimed to draw direct connections between what they characterized as dehumanizing rhetoric used by Israeli officials and the actions of Israel’s military in Gaza. She noted that classifying a genocide — which she said is “among the greatest of international crimes” — often hinges on being able to prove intent.
The report quotes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, the latter of whom said Israeli forces “are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” the Times of Israel reported.
Days later, Israeli President Isaac Herzog told reporters there was “an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the attack, and he dismissed arguments that Gazan civilians were unaware of the plan.
”The report details so many statements by Israeli leaders that show the plan to decimate the Palestinian population,” Akram said.
International law defines genocide as committing specific acts of violence with the intent “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”
“Specifically, Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people,” the authors wrote in the study’s executive summary.
The current conflict in Gaza is the latest chapter in hostilities dating back decades. On Oct. 7, Hamas mounted a surprise attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostage.
Israel has responded with a massive and ongoing military campaign in the months since. In that time, more than 34,000 Gazans have been killed and more than a million displaced, according to the United Nations.
Prosecutors from the International Criminal Court at The Hague are facing increasing pressure to act. In March, a UN-appointed special researcher found there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration said that Israel likely had violated international humanitarian law while using US-provided weapons, but wartime conditions prevented US officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
This latest report highlighted that Israeli bombing has destroyed up to 70 percent of homes in Gaza, as well as the majority of its civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools. Israel’s actions, according to the report, have also led to famine in northern Gaza and lack of access to water and medical services throughout much of the area.
The report did add that the researchers “condemn all violations of international law committed by all parties, including violations committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians on or since October 7, 2023.” However, researchers wrote, “violations of international law by any party do not justify the commission of other violations of international law, including and especially the paramount crime of genocide.”
Elyse Semerdjian, a professor at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide studies who was not involved with the report, said the study helps push back against the narrative that “everything starts on Oct. 7,” and instead highlights historical patterns of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
She said the study’s findings are likely to make it into the International Court of Justice’s case against Israel, but she added that arguments over whether Israel’s campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide are not likely to come to any conclusion soon.
”We’ll be debating for decades whether this was a genocide. Meanwhile, there will be no Palestinians left in Gaza,” she said. “Genocide is a process — it’s not an event.”
The report concluded with a statement that “these violations give rise to obligations by all other States: to refrain from recognizing Israel’s breaches as legal or taking any actions that may amount to complicity in these breaches; and to take positive steps to suppress, prevent, and punish the commission by Israel of further genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Akram said proof of genocide obligates other countries, including the United States, to stop providing Israel with weapons and technology and to not defend the nation’s actions as lawful self-defense.
“We want to make sure we’re on the right side of the law,” she said. “And setting the record straight is extremely important for us who are in this work.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Mike Damiano of the Globe staff contributed.
Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter. Daniel Kool can be reached at daniel.kool@globe.com. Follow him @dekool01.