Israel 'clearly' committing genocide in Gaza: Palestinian-American lawyer

Israel's actions in Gaza fall under the definition of genocide as it is "clearly committing three of the five genocidal acts under the international treaties", according to Palestinian-American lawyer Lara Elborno.

In an interview with Anadolu, Elborno asserted that Israel must be held responsible "for its crimes this time."

"If it is not held responsible for its crimes then what does that say about not only the entire framework of international law, which was developed post World War II for the purpose of preventing and sanctioning genocide, but also the international institutions which have been established for the purpose of promoting accountability," she said.

Failure to act now would mean that international law and institutions are "essentially obsolete, completely ineffective and should be dismantled," she added.

On the current situation in Gaza, Elborno said Israel had expressed its intent to resume its attacks and concentrate on the southern parts of Gaza after the end of "the so-called humanitarian pause."

She said attacks are now increasing in the southern part of Gaza, where some 1.7M Palestinians from the north were previously forced to flee.

The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s relentless air and ground attacks since Oct. 7 is now nearly 15,900, with more than 42,000 others injured.

The Israeli death toll stands at 1,200, according to official figures.

"What I fear is that what we have seen in the past six weeks is going to be far superseded in this moment – in brutality, in destruction, in killing because of the fact that Israel is focusing its mammoth air strikes, its brutality, its destruction on the very areas where the families are sheltering," said Elborno.

'This is genocide’

She stressed that it is essential for the world to realise "what Israel is doing right now is a genocide."

"This genocide is the latest aspect of its colonial violence and domination of the Palestinian people in a 75-year-long ethnic cleansing campaign to ethnically cleanse all of Palestine from Palestinians for the benefit of the settler colony," said Elborno.

"We must strongly condemn this, we must strongly reject this, and support freedom for all people, from the river to the sea, regardless of background."

She said Israel’s actions fit the legal definition of genocide under the Rome Statute and also the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, also known as the Genocide Convention.

"Genocide requires intent and action. Not only have there been over 100 statements of genocidal intent expressed at the highest levels of Israeli military and governments since Oct.7, but they are also clearly committing three of the five genocidal acts under the international treaties," said Elborno.

The convention defines genocide as five acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” according to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

As Elborno explained, Israel is guilty of three of the five acts: “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.”

"This is not my opinion. This is the opinion of over 800 genocide scholars, over 47 state crime scholars and numerous others who have come out in this moment and said that Israel is committing genocide. Not only that, but the annihilation phase of genocide," she said.