US rejects HRW's genocide accusations against 'Israel'
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MSF reported documenting 41 attacks on its staff, including air strikes on health facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys.
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Palestinians pray next to the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Sunday, December 15, 2024. (AP)
The United States on Thursday rejected an accusation by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that "Israel" was committing "acts of genocide" in Gaza by targeting water infrastructure. The claim was part of a report released by the New York-based organization earlier in the day.
"When it comes to a determination of something like genocide, the legal standard is just incredibly high, and so the finding in this scenario we just disagree with," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters. "That does not take away from the fact that there is a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza."
The HRW report follows a similar accusation from Amnesty International, based in London. Separately, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released a report on Thursday accusing "Israel" of "ethnic cleansing" during the 14-month-long war on Gaza.
MSF reported documenting 41 attacks on its staff, including air strikes on health facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys.
Patel distanced the US from MSF's findings but highlighted the importance of non-governmental organizations in such contexts. "Even within their report, they make pretty clear that they don't have the legal authority to determine intentionality" in the strikes on MSF, Patel said.
"But we continue to appreciate the important role that's played by civil society organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, and we're deeply concerned about the scale of civilian harm in this conflict," he added.
Read more: MSF accuses 'Israel' of ethnic cleansing, calls for ceasefire in Gaza
Since the start of the war on Gaza, the US has been a key ally of "Israel", providing strong diplomatic, military, and financial support.
In early October, a report from Brown University’s Costs revealed that the US has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military assistance to "Israel".
'Israel' dropped 85K tons of bombs on Gaza
The Palestinian Environment Quality Authority in November stated that the Israeli forces have dropped more than 85,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the genocide on October 7, 2023, surpassing the amount dropped during World War II.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, on International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, the authority added that "the ongoing Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip has led to the destruction of vast areas of agricultural land and the contamination of soil with toxic chemicals that will hinder farming for decades."
The authority stressed that the occupation forces have used all kinds of weapons and shells in their ongoing aggression, notably white phosphorus, which is prohibited under international law by the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons. These weapons target environmental components, causing severe environmental damage that threatens human and animal life.
It also highlighted that the damage to water infrastructure has caused polluted water to leak into groundwater reservoirs, warning of a health and environmental disaster that could threaten hundreds of thousands of residents for generations to come.
