Israel carried out airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday, September 1, killing at least 31 people, health workers said, as the country pressed ahead with an offensive on the territory's largest city, Gaza City.
The announcement of the death toll comes after prominent genocide scholars, along with other human rights groups, accused Israel of genocide, charges it staunchly denies.
Airstrikes and artillery shelling have been carried out continuously in Gaza City since Israel declared it a dangerous war zone last week. On the outskirts of the city and in the Jabalia refugee camp, residents have seen robots packed with explosives destroying buildings.
Hospitals in Gaza said at least 31 people were killed in Israeli strikes, most of them women and children. At least 13 of them were killed in Gaza City, where Israel is carrying out one of its biggest operations since Hamas — the Palestinian group designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union — attacked southern Israel, triggering the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel says it is targeting only militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties. More than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry says more than 160,000 others have been wounded - but the figures it publishes do not distinguish between civilians killed and fighters.
Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during the October 7 attack. Forty-eight hostages are still in Gaza, and about 20 of them are believed to be still alive, while the rest were released during ceasefires or previous agreements.
As the war continues, the world's largest organization of genocide scholars said on September 1 that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel, which was founded after the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews and others were killed, denies the accusations. It says it takes every precaution to avoid harming civilians and is waging a war in self-defense after the Hamas attack on October 7, which Israel itself calls a genocidal act.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars – which has about 500 members worldwide, including several Holocaust experts – joined other major human rights organizations, including two Israeli groups, in using the term to describe Israel's actions during the war.
"Israel's policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide" as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes, the association's resolution, which was supported by 86 percent of those who voted, said.
"People who are experts in the study of genocide can see the situation as it is," Melanie O'Brien, the organization's leader and professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told the Associated Press.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry called the assessment “a disgrace to the legal profession and to any academic standard.” It said the designation was “entirely based on Hamas’ campaign of lies.”/ REL
