The publication of the 296-page report is notable as it is the first time since October 2023 that a major western human rights organisation has clearly stated that Israel’s actions constitute genocide.

Covering the nine months between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024, it draws on interviews with 212 people — including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza and healthcare workers — as well as fieldwork and analysis of an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery.

Amnesty also analysed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials, and official Israeli bodies. On multiple occasions, Amnesty says it shared its findings with the Israeli authorities but received no substantive response.

Its publication comes as the situation in the North Gaza governorate grows particularly acute, with its besieged population facing starvation, displacement and annihilation amid relentless bombardment and suffocating restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.

Amnesty secretary-general Agnès Callamard said: “Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.

“These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”

She added: “States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide.

“All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.

“The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued last month offer real hope of long-overdue justice for victims.

“States must demonstrate their respect for the court’s decision and for universal international law principles by arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC.”

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty UK’s chief executive, said: “As a state party to the Genocide Convention, the UK has a legal obligation to use all reasonable means to help prevent genocide.

“The UK must take urgent steps to make clear to Israel that this country does not support genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, and those acts must end immediately.

“The UK government must, as an urgent first step, work with other countries by all diplomatic and legal means to press Israel into fully implementing the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice.  

“To avoid the risk of itself being complicit in genocide, the UK must immediately end all arms transfers to Israel. 

“The UK should also press for multilateral targeted sanctions at the UN Security Council against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in crimes under international law.

“The UK must act to ensure justice and accountability, supporting the ongoing International Criminal Court investigation into Palestine and executing any ICC arrest warrants.”