Contrary to popular assertions, nothing in Israel’s actions these past 22 months shows that it intends to harm the civilian population.

James Sinkinson

By James Sinkinson, JNS

In June, Spanish President Pedro Sanchez joined the shameless chorus of Israel’s slanderers, asserting, falsely, that Gaza is in a “catastrophic situation of genocide.”

Israel’s enemies—college radicals, mainstream media, NGOs, U.N. officials, celebrities and even heads of state—have cast accusations of genocide in the current Gaza war as wildly as rice at a wedding. Despite their frequency, such accusations are outright lies, disproven by hard, unassailable facts.

These lies can be destroyed using two powerful truths. First, nothing in Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas indicates any intention of eliminating Gaza’s population. To the contrary, Israel’s policies show exactly the opposite, remarkably effective efforts to protect Gaza’s civilian population.

Second, nothing in Gaza death-toll demographics indicates that Israel has actually targeted innocent Palestinians. Rather, again, it’s just the opposite: Facts show Gaza death tolls are heavily skewed toward combatants. Moreover, overall deaths in the conflict reveal it to be one of the least deadly wars to the enemy’s population compared to any previous conflict in the last century. Finally, most public health estimates place the number of births in Gaza during the war far higher than war-related deaths, hardly a diminishing population.

Outrageously, instead of praising Israel’s efforts to save civilian lives, increasing members of the “international community” slander the Jewish state, using the genocide accusation in the same manner that blood libels were used to discredit, delegitimize and physically attack Jews over the centuries. Simultaneously, these enemies viciously parrot Hamas’s fake death statistics, while ignoring Hamas’s war crimes and its own genocidal strategy of human sacrifice.

Israel’s actions utterly fail to support the accusation that it intends to eliminate or diminish the Palestinian people. Remember that a key legal requirement of the crime of genocide is that the perpetrator intendsto decimate an enemy population.

Yet it is irrefutable that the Israel Defense Forces targets only terrorists. In fact, to avoid harming innocents, the IDF consistently gives warnings to civilians of impending attacks. It uses phone calls, SMS messages, leaflets, social media and “roof-knocking,” in which the Israeli Air Force fires a non-explosive missile or sound munition at the roof or upper edge of a targeted building a few minutes before the actual strike.

The IDF also issues evacuation warnings to Palestinian civilians, encouraging them to move to areas where they will face less danger from combat operations. For example, in mid-October 2023, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to approximately 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to move south, where they would be safer. Israel similarly plans to warn civilians to evacuate Gaza City ahead of an upcoming offensive. The IDF’s painstaking efforts to separate civilians and combatants are inconsistent with genocide.

In addition, the IDF has allowed massive deliveries of humanitarian aid, about 2 million tons of it, meant to preserve civilian life. In fact, John Spencer, chairman of urban warfare studies at West Point, wrote of Israel’s humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza: “There is no historical precedent for a military providing the level of direct aid to an enemy population that Israel has provided to Gaza.”

How can a country that provides its enemy with such ample humanitarian assistance be rationally accused of genocide?

Finally, Israel has been adamant that its war is against Hamas, not the Palestinians of Gaza, though polls show many of them support the terrorist group. Indeed, Israel has consistently stated its goals to be a) destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities; b) securing the release of all hostages; and c) ensuring that Gaza never again threatens Israel. What’s more, as noted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon.”

Actual death toll numbers confirm that Israel has targeted Hamas fighters, not Palestinian civilians. Israel has been successful in minimizing the number of deaths of non-combatant Gazans compared with armed combatants. A study by the Tamaror research group for Israeli-Palestinian conflict studies indicates that during this war, “the proportion of (potential) armed casualties increased beyond 45%, indicating increasingly precise targeting and corresponding civilian casualty reductions.” It’s no surprise, then, that the ratio of civilians to combatants in Gaza is much lower than in comparable wars. Whereas the civilian-fighter ratio in Gaza is estimated to be 1.5:1, the average ratio in urban warfare, in general, according to the United Nations, is 9:1 civilians to fighters. This alone destroys the genocide argument.

Despite the war, Gaza’s population, measured by births vs. violent deaths, has actually increased. Estimates by organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund project births in Gaza from Oct. 7, 2023, to the present at about 124,245. Contrast that with violent deaths estimated at 75,200 during the same period by the independent Gaza Mortality Survey. Using births vs. violent deaths, the territory actually experienced a net gain in population, the opposite effect of a genocide.

Finally, how do overall Gaza deaths compare to other wars in the last century? Consider that 16 to 17 million people perished in World War I; 70 to 85 million died in World War II; 3 to 4 million in the Korean War; 2.5 to 3.5 million in the Vietnam War. Most recently, an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 people died in Syria’s civil war. Notably, none of these conflicts was termed a “genocide.” In contrast, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health and others, some 62,000 to 75,000 Gazans have died in the current war, out of an estimated population of 2.1 million. Again, these numbers don’t come close to genocide proportions; rather, they are simply the result of a brutal urban war, one that Hamas started and in which it uses its citizens as human shields.

In short, despite countless baseless assertions by media, NGOs, the United Nations, radical leftists and clueless celebrities, all hard data about deaths in Gaza unassailably refute accusations that Israel is committing genocide. The truth is, Israel takes extraordinary measures to limit civilian casualties, especially given the fact that the IDF possesses military power that could inflict many more deaths without such precautions.

We can fight these enemies of Israel by using hard facts to expose the genocide slander every time it is uttered, condemning their lies and cursing their shameless immorality.

Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).