One year since Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel, Israel’s response has resulted in widespread destruction of Palestinian people and culture. The Israeli campaign has killed over 41,000 Palestinians and displaced approximately 90% Gaza’s population, forcing them into dire conditions without access to food, water, healthcare, or other essential services. This historic conflict dates back to the large-scale Jewish migration to Palestine in the 1930s, yet the death toll from this past year is now approximately ten times the number of deaths in all conflict in Gaza since 2008. Compared to the just over 1,100 deaths of Israelis, the recent violence has sparked a polarizing debate over whether Israel’s actions constitute genocide. Scholars, states, international organizations, and members of the wider global community have all contributed to the discussion, yet a consensus seems out of reach.

The legal definition of genocide comes from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), which entered into force in 1951. In Article II of the Convention, it states that the crime of genocide includes a set of actions taken against a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group with the intent to destroy it in whole or in part. Actions outlined include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting harmful living conditions on members of the group, preventing births within the group, and forcibly transferring children from the group. 153 states, including Israel, have ratified the treaty and recognize this definition as the legal standard to uphold.

Israeli air strikes since the October 7th attack last year have targeted refugee camps, mosques and churches, schools and universities, hospitals, and agricultural land, all of which are vital locations in a functioning society that are frequently used by civilians. It is estimated that Israel has dropped 75,000 tons of explosives in Gaza on an area of 141 square miles home to 2.3 million people. While Israel claims it has targeted underground tunnel networks and military targets used by Hamas, this concentration of violence shows the necessary intent to destroy. Unprecedented harm is being done to the Palestinian people. It clearly constitutes Israel’s actions as genocide by its definition in the Genocide Convention.

However, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) failed to rule decisively in January on South Africa’s claim that Israel is acting in violation of Article II of the Genocide Convention. While the court ruled on several points instructing Israel to stop violence and prevent genocide, the court did not make the arguably more important decision on whether Israel’s actions have constituted genocide. With no further decision on the matter since, the international community must recognize the shortcomings of the Convention’s modern application and reassess how it can be used in order to help those in Gaza and other groups worldwide.

One way of reassessing the application of the Genocide Convention to the conflict in Gaza may be through reevaluating the relationship between war and genocide.

In a 2020 article by genocide scholar Jeffrey S. Bachman, four schools of thought surrounding war and genocide are defined. The first two schools, War is Genocide and War or Genocide, are more extreme and less common. The first school equates war to genocide, and the second distinguishes them from one another entirely. The War and Genocide school finds a middle ground, recognizing that “innocent, defenseless civilians” can be victims of genocidal actions in war, but that war itself is not inherently genocidal. The final school of thought, which is perhaps the most applicable to the case in Gaza, is War as Genocide. War as Genocide recognizes that aggressive violence contains the intention to destroy a national group at least in part, so even groups that take up arms in defense can be recognized as victims of genocide.

As Israel continues with its military campaign, Hamas has fought back to defend itself and Palestinians. According to the War as Genocide school of thought, just because Hamas has taken up arms to protect itself from Israel, it does not revoke their right to be considered victims of genocide. The amount of destruction that Israel has caused in Gaza far outweighs that of which it has faced from Hamas in response.

Genocide scholar A. Dirk Moses’ idea of permanent security can also help explain Israel’s genocidal intent in this devastating conflict. Permanent security in this context can be defined as the motivation for a country such as Israel to respond to a security threat with overwhelming force. This force targets civilian populations alongside military groups to eliminate not just the present threat, but to anticipate and eliminate future ones as well.

In his November 2023 article, Moses attributes the idea of permanent security to Israel’s actions in the month after Hamas’ October 7th attack. He predicted that Israel would continue its invasion until they have eliminated the threat from Hamas in its entirety. It now looks like that is going to be the case. The threat that Israel sees does not just include Hamas combatants, but Palestinian civilians who could live beyond the group as well. While Israel may have been acting in self-defense immediately after the October 7th attack, they quickly deemed peace unworkable. The original acts of self-defense then escalated into acts of mass destruction seeking permanent security.

As Israel continues to seek a world of permanent security, the US predicts that peace talks will inevitably prove ineffective as Hamas continues to resist. Without an end to the violence in sight, the international community must reassess the application of the Genocide Convention so that it can be used to address Israel’s actions of genocide.

Elliott Howes is a senior at American University’s School of International Service majoring in International Studies with a concentration in Justice, Ethics, and Human Rights. He is is also minoring in Language and Area Studies: Italian/Europe.

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