For the first time, two of Israel's leading human rights organisations have labelled the country's actions in Gaza as a "genocide", demanding the international community step up pressure on the Netanyahu government to change course.
B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) released dual reports in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon, detailing grave allegations against Israel authorities during the 22 month long war in Gaza.
While both organisations have been critical of the Israeli government and military in the past, their intervention adds further fuel to the international argument over whether, or when, Israel crossed the line from self-defence to total destruction in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Both organisations compiled testimony from Palestinians, as well as official statistics and data about the impact of the war in Gaza, to reach their conclusions.
B'Tselem's report, titled "Our Genocide", detailed the factors the organisation believed led to a charge of genocide against Israel.
They included mass killings, destruction of infrastructure, forced displacement, and mass arrests and alleged abuse of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
"The report we are publishing today is one we never imagined we would have to write," B'Tselem's executive director Yuli Novak said.
"But in recent months, we have been witnessing a reality that has left us no choice but to acknowledge the truth.
"Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
Ms Novak said Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and taking 250 hostages, was a "trigger" for Israel's actions in Gaza.
"October 7 was real, it was a real attack that was oriented mostly towards civilians — it was a criminal attack, and personally I can say it was one of the most, or probably the most frightening day of my life," Ms Novak told the ABC.
"What it created … in Israel society is a sincere feeling of existential threat.
"That feeling, that collective trauma was taken advantage by a government."
'Israel has imposed a violent and discriminatory regime'
While acknowledging the October 7 attacks, B'Tselem has said the response from Israel could not be viewed in isolation.
"The current onslaught on the Palestinian people, including in the Gaza Strip, must be understood in the context of more than seventy years in which Israel has imposed a violent and discriminatory regime on the Palestinians, taking its most extreme form against those living in the Gaza Strip," the report stated.
Israel has repeatedly denied it is pursuing a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, accusing Hamas in turn of trying to wipe out the Jewish population in Israel.
Israeli authorities frequently refer to the war in Gaza as being against Hamas and not the Palestinian population.
But B'Tselem and PHRI disagreed, and argued the massive death toll, now approach 60,000 according to Palestinian health authorities, and scale of destruction on the ground was evidence there was a broader plan.
Israel has rejected figures released by Gaza's health authorities as Hamas propaganda, without providing any evidence for its claim and without publishing its own data on the number of dead and injured in the war.
Gaza health workers 'acting heroically'
PHRI focused its inquiry on the destruction of Gaza's health sector, describing a "deliberate and systemic dismantling" of the strip's hospitals and health workforce over 22 months of war.
The organisation cited the frequent targeting of Gaza's hospitals by Israeli forces, with evacuation and displacement orders issued throughout the war and direct attacks crippling their operations.
PHRI outlined damage to facilities including Al-Shifa, Al-Ahli, Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan, Nasser, the Indonesian, and the European hospitals as evidence of a concerted campaign.
"From the start Israel portrayed hospitals as legitimate military targets, justifying attacks that would never be tolerated anywhere in the world," PHRI's executive director, Dr Guy Shalev said.
"Israel claimed Hamas used the hospitals for military purposes, but these claims were unverified and bore no relation to the comprehensive, absolute destruction of an entire system.
"Amid this horror, our colleagues and friends, the healthcare workers of Gaza, are acting heroically to save lives while they themselves are under direct attack."
Dr Shalev said more than 1,500 healthcare workers had been killed, and 300 had been detained by Israeli forces.
"It is our duty to support them, ensure their protection, and insist on accountability and justice," he argued.
Dr Shalev was asked whether he believed the tide of public opinion in Israel was turning — or, at the very least, there was a recognition amongst the population about the realities on the ground in Gaza.
"Yes, we've been seeing a change in the past few weeks — and I think that a lot is attributed to the reality being much worse on the ground in Gaza," he replied.
"And the ability to deny it, the ability to not see it, I think, is just not so much possible for many of Israelis watching the images coming out from Gaza.
"We always say better late than ever — and everyone who is reckoning with what has been going on in the past almost two years and is willing to join us calling to stop it, doing whatever they can to stop, it is something that we of course support and we want to encourage, but also the past needs to be accounted for."
The ABC asked the Israeli foreign ministry for comment on the reports, but had not received a response prior to publication.
'They called Gazans human animals'
One of the key elements of the crime of genocide, under international conventions, is the proof of intent.
Both B'Tselem and PHRI said there was a wealth of evidence, such as statements from political and military leaders, coupled with the scale of the devastation on the ground which could prove intent.
"As much as this legal discussion is super important, and is critical in order to bring perpetrators into justice, what we know from history is that the legal system, definitely the international legal system, works not in the time frame that is needed in order to stop a genocide," Ms Novak said.
"Usually it get to its conclusion way, way after the damage has already been done.
"In the first days of the attack, the highest political level in Israel — including the prime minister himself, the minister of defence, the president of Israel stood out and told us, all of us, told the world, and also their soldiers, their intent.
"They marked the entire population of Gaza as responsible for Hamas attack.
"They called Gazans human animals."
