US rejects Amnesty report saying Israel commits genocide in Gaza

WASHINGTON

The US on Thursday rejected Amnesty International's report that said there is “conclusive evidence” of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

"We disagree with the conclusions of such a report. We have said previously and continue to find the allegations of genocide to be unfounded," State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

Patel acknowledged the "vital role" of NGOs and human rights organizations like Amnesty International but characterized their findings on genocide in Gaza as "an opinion."

He added that the findings by the rights group do not change the US' "continued" concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as the effect on civilians. He urged all parties to work toward an agreement to end the war.

Asked if the US conducted a formal process to determine if Israel is committing genocide, Patel said, "There's no formal conclusion of the process ... There continue to be a number of deliberative processes as it relates to the situations on the ground, tools that we've spent a lot of time speaking about up here, things like CHIRG (Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance), things like conventional arms transfer policy, things like the Leahy process. I wouldn't speak to those processes in detail,” he said.

The Leahy process is a system the US uses to ensure that foreign state forces do not grossly violate human rights before they receive US help.

Pressed about how the US determined the genocide allegations to be "unfounded," Patel said: "I'm not a lawyer, so can't speak to the definition and how that feeds into this."

London-based Amnesty said Thursday that it found “sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza."

It said it examined Israel’s acts in Gaza "closely and in their totality, taking into account their recurrence and simultaneous occurrence, and both their immediate impact and their cumulative and mutually reinforcing consequences."

Last month, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.