Children represent nearly half of Gaza’s entire population, many of whom struggle with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called on the United Nations to officially recognise the Israeli attacks on Gaza as a genocide, the rights entity said in an open letter on Wednesday.
Addressing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the letter noted that “genocidal intent has been well-documented” in Israeli officials’ statements as well as those made by their journalists and the occupation forces.
“Multiple Israeli pop songs have been recently released that explicitly call for genocide, as well, further normalising a dangerous cultural shift among much of Israel’s population,” it said.
The letter came more than a month since Israel waged a deadly war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing more than 14,500 Palestinians, including more than 5,840 children.
However, Euro-Med estimated that 17,144 Palestinians, including 7,208 children, have been killed in Gaza and more than 33,830 others have been injured. The overall figure remains disputed largely because many Palestinians are still trapped under the rubble.
Euro-Med outlined the UN’s definition of “genocide”, which refers to “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group”.
“The events transpiring in Gaza align with the criteria outlined in the Convention and indicate a pressing need for the international community to address this crisis urgently,” the letter stressed.
It added that “the Gaza Strip is witnessing a genocide in the making, a conclusion that was asserted by dozens of UN special rapporteurs in a statement dated 16 November 2023.”
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have flattened entire neighbourhoods in Gaza while forcibly displacing hundreds to the south of the Strip. The Geneva-based agency said that Israel completely destroyed 56,450 housing units in the Gaza Strip while partially damaging 162,950 others.
“This means that more than 45% of the Strip’s total housing units are now unlivable, resulting in a million displaced Palestinians who are currently homeless,” it said.
Israel’s actions on the ground in Gaza line with at least two criteria under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Euro-Med said.
The first is causing “serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and the second is “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
Children represent nearly half of Gaza’s entire population, many of whom struggle with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Even before the Israeli aggression, 91% of Gaza’s children had displayed PTSD symptoms as 71% showed signs of depression, Euro-Med said.
“Israel’s genocide will cause immense psychological harm to Gaza’s surviving population, especially its traumatised children. This trauma is a direct result of the unprecedented, arbitrary, and disproportionate bombing and wiping out of entire neighbourhoods,” Euro-Med’s statement warned.
