Since the latest explosion of violence began on October 7, both Israel and Hamas have been accused of breaking international law. As the terms “genocide”, “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” are used to describe the deadly acts carried out by both sides, FRANCE 24 takes a look at what these terms mean.

It has been more than two weeks since the war between Hamas and Israel started, and the fog of war is showing no signs of thinning.

Since the fighting began on October 7, more than 1,400 Israelis and 4,000 Palestinians have been killed. Almost half of Gaza’s population has been displaced, according to the UN, and more than 200 people are still being held hostage by Hamas.

Amid the relentless violence, calls to respect the rules of war have been made repeatedly by world leaders and international organisations alike. 

On October 10, the UN Commission of Inquiry said it was “collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides”. That same day, US President Joe Biden called Hamas’s attack on Israel an act of “terrorism”, claiming it “brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by millennia of anti-Semitism and genocide of the Jewish people”.

Three days later, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour appealed for the organisation to do more to prevent Israel from carrying out a “crime against humanity”.

And most recently on October 18, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague demanding action against what they call genocide against Palestinians.

Source: France 24