Strikes across Gaza kill at least 31 as scholars accuse Israel of genocide

Israel launched strikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday – killing at least 31 people as it presses ahead with a major offensive in the territory’s largest city, according to health officials.

Leading genocide scholars, meanwhile, joined other rights groups in accusing Israel of genocide, allegations it vehemently rejects.

Airstrikes and artillery shelling have echoed through Gaza City since Israel declared it a combat zone last week.

On the city’s outskirts and in the Jabaliya refugee camp, residents have observed explosive-laden robots demolishing buildings.

“Another merciless night in Gaza City,” said Saeed Abu Elaish, a Jabaliya-born medic sheltering in the north-western side of the city.

Hospitals in Gaza said at least 31 people were killed by Israeli fire on Monday, more than half of them women and children.

At least 13 people were killed in Gaza City, where Israel has carried out several previous large-scale raids since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel to ignite the war on October 7, 2023.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group — now largely reduced to a guerrilla organisation — operates in densely-populated areas.

Gaza City residents, many displaced by war multiple times, now face the twin threats of combat and hunger.

The world’s leading authority on food crises said last month that it was in the throes of famine — a crisis driven by ongoing fighting and Israel’s blockade, magnified by repeated mass displacement and the collapse of food production.

A total of 63,557 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says another 160,660 people have been wounded.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals. UN agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties.

Israel disputes them, but has not provided its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and took 251 people hostage.

Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

The largest professional organisation of scholars studying genocide said on Monday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel, which was established in the wake of the Holocaust, in which six million European Jews and others were killed, vehemently rejects the allegation.

It says it takes every measure to avoid harming civilians and is fighting a war of self-defence after Hamas’ attack, which Israel says was itself a genocidal act.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars — which has around 500 members worldwide, including a number of Holocaust experts — joined other major human rights organisations, including two Israeli groups, in applying the term to Israel’s wartime conduct.

“Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes, according to the group’s resolution, which was supported by 86% of those who voted.

The organisation did not release the specifics of the voting.

“People who are experts in the study of genocide can see this situation for what it is,” Melanie O’Brien, the organisation’s president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told The Associated Press.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry called it “an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard”.

It said the determination was “entirely based on Hamas’ campaign of lies”.

– Flotilla leaves Barcelona after storm delay

An activist flotilla bound for Gaza left Barcelona hours after a last-minute delay caused by stormy weather.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, consisting of around 20 boats with participants from 44 countries, had earlier set sail and then turned back, with organisers citing safety concerns.

The expedition includes climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who took part in a previous flotilla that was intercepted in July.

The flotilla is the largest attempt yet to symbolically break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. All previous ones have been intercepted at sea by Israeli forces.

Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms and that there are multiple other channels for sending aid to Gaza.

Israel has taken steps to further restrict the delivery of food to northern Gaza as it presses ahead with its latest offensive in Gaza City.