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Soph03 In large part, this is what it means. However, your inclusion of this correct definition has been rendered useless by your inability to understand how it is applied or what the words within the word mean, or imply.
Israel is not deliberately killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza. It is killing and destroying Hamas terrorists, their infrastructure, and the places they use to store weapons and attack from. Here, you can see an intent to kill or destroy who and what poses a significant threat to peace, security, and human life in Israel, but NOT an intent to kill Gazan civilians.
What would be the reason Israel wants to kill civilians in Gaza? What distinguishes them from other Palestinian Arabs, with whom they are currently not at war? Arab populations in Israel are not at significant risk, and Arab populations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are at very minimal risk. There are, unfortunately, some terrorist factions in those areas, but they are not experiencing a high, moderately high, or moderately low death toll within their civilian population. This means there is no ethnic or national basis for the claim of "genocide."
One could claim that Israel is trying to commit genocide against Hamas, but this would be absurd. Israel is exercising its right to self-defense. There is some negligence and carelessness on their part, but this does not equate to "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that group."
Hamas always hides among its civilian population, in tunnels, in emergency vehicles, and in civilian buildings. Yesterday, Israel released further photographic evidence of Hamas' tunnels underneath civilian buildings and hospitals. Hamas also attacked Israeli soldiers from a hospital. They are not fighting an open war, but one where they have to use their civilians as part of their defense strategy. If they didn't, they would lose very quickly.
In October, 800 Hamas rockets misfired and hit Gaza. As a result, civilians were killed by Hamas throughout the month. Statistics are also released by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and should therefore be questioned.
This may come as a surprise to you, but it is
intent, not action, that informs us of whether killing is a genocide or not.
If Israel did wish to commit genocide, they would have a premeditated, effective, consistent (
all the Arabs), and clear way of achieving it. Numbers, even when high, do not necessarily indicate genocide. As said, Hamas is using its civilians to an overwhelming degree.
Normally, it would not be prompted by being attacked or having a genocide committed in your own land. Israel did experience a genocide on October 7th, as Hamas infiltrated with the specific plan and intention to kill civilians and kidnap them. Not only this, they executed this plan to a devastatingly horrible extent. This extent was using torture and abusing victims prior to their deaths and after their deaths. In this case, the intent is so recognizable and clear that it is blinding.
