Israel’s actions in Gaza “meet the legal definition of genocide,” an overwhelming majority of the world’s leading scholars on the subject said on Monday.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has passed a three-page  resolution that outlines a wide range of Israeli actions that it says constitute genocide, including deliberate attacks against civilians, starvation, deprivation of humanitarian aid, sexual violence, and forced displacement of the population.

In addition to the actions of the Israeli military, the resolution also references statements by high-level Israeli government officials as proof of genocidal intent.

Specifically, the resolution cites “Israeli governmental leaders, war cabinet ministers, and senior army officers” who “have made explicit statements of ‘intent to destroy,’ characterizing Palestinians in Gaza as a whole as enemies and ‘human animals’ and stating the intention of inflicting ‘maximum damage’ on Gaza, ‘flattening Gaza,’ and turning Gaza into ‘hell.'”

The scholars also note Israeli officials’ support for a plan floated by US President Donald Trump to expel all Palestinians from Gaza, which they contend “amounts to ethnic cleansing.”

The resolution, which passed with the support of 86% of IAGS members who voted on it, concludes by calling on the Israeli government to stop all genocidal actions in Gaza; comply with the provisional measures orders issued earlier this year by the International Court of Justice; and “support a process of repair and transitional justice that will afford democracy, freedom, dignity, and security for all people of Gaza.”

Melanie O’Brien, president of IAGS and professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told The Guardian that the scholars’ resolution is “a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide.”

The IAGS resolution comes just a little more than a week after the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) declared a famine in Gaza that it warned was projected to get even worse in the coming weeks.

“Between mid-August and the end of September 2025, conditions are expected to further worsen with famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis,” the IPC stated. “Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5), while those in emergency (IPC Phase 4) will likely rise to 1.14 million (58%). Acute malnutrition is projected to continue worsening rapidly.”

The Gaza Health Ministry currently estimates that more than 330 people in Gaza, including over 120 children, have so far died from severe hunger as a result of the Israeli blockade that has for months prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid.

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