When Conditions of Life Can Kill: Genocide in the Gaza Strip by John B. Quigley

In order to understand what the Genocide Convention requires, one must focus on the wording of Article 2. That is where one sees that millions need not be killed before genocide is committed. The evacuation orders issued by Israel in October 2023, accompanied by statements of Israeli officials that seemed to bespeak a policy of extermination, were seen by some as showing only a “risk of genocide.” A group of UN special rapporteurs issued a warning to that effect.¹⁵⁸ The Genocide Convention, however, was already being violated.¹⁵⁹ The evacuations set in motion events that would result in deaths, and in not-insubstantial numbers. A population that was already living on the margins as a result of years of blockade was being thrust into circumstances in which large numbers would be unable to survive.

Intent to destroy was reflected in what was being said by key Israeli officials. It was also reflected in the situation itself. Even apart from those statements, an intent to destroy was the “only reasonable inference,” given the circumstances into which the population would be thrust.¹⁶⁰ Beyond the killing and wounding of Palestinians in Gaza, it is Israel’s undermining of the capacity to sustain life that is the most striking feature of what Israel has done in the Gaza Strip.