Amnesty International has accused Israel of continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreed last month.
The US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 10 October, ending two years of war. However, Amnesty’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard, warned that the ceasefire “risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal”.
She added that while Israeli authorities and forces have reduced the scale of their attacks and allowed limited amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over.
The Israeli foreign ministry did not immediately respond to the allegations when contacted by Agence France-Presse. In previous statements, it has dismissed similar claims as “entirely false”, “fabricated” and “based on lies”.
The 1948 UN genocide convention defines genocide as any of five acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
In December 2024, Amnesty concluded that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza by three of those acts, including deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians.
In its latest update, Amnesty said Israel continues to severely restrict the entry of supplies and the restoration of essential services.
“Despite a reduction in scale of attacks, and some limited improvements, there has been no meaningful change in the conditions Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza and no evidence to indicate that Israel’s intent has changed,” the organisation stated.
Israel’s foreign ministry previously branded Amnesty a “deplorable and fanatical organisation”, insisting that Israel is defending itself and acting in accordance with international law.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,221 people. Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has since killed at least 69,799 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry regarded by the UN as reliable. Since the ceasefire began, 352 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.
Callamard said Israel’s “deliberate, unlawful denial of lifesaving aid to Palestinians, many of whom are injured, malnourished and at risk of serious disease, continues to threaten their survival.”
In September 2025, the UN commission of inquiry concluded that genocide is occurring in Gaza, a finding Israel rejected. The commission determined that Israeli authorities and forces had committed four of the five genocidal acts listed in the 1948 convention, including killing members of the group, causing serious harm, imposing destructive living conditions, preventing births and forcibly transferring children.
Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent and punish public incitement to commit genocide in Gaza.
