LONDON: The UK’s Foreign Office is under growing pressure after it emerged it failed to publish a 2024 internal assessment that reportedly found no serious risk of genocide in Gaza, and refused to say whether a new assessment has since been carried out.
Amnesty International filed a freedom of information request in June to obtain a copy the document and ask whether any reassessment has taken place amid the escalating violence in the territory.
After receiving no response within the specified time frame for such requests, Amnesty lodged a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, .
The government has come under fire for what critics describe as a contradictory stance, and calls for transparency are mounting. While ministers have insisted that only international courts can determine whether or not genocide is taking place, they told a domestic court, during a recent case brought by human rights group Al-Haq, that officials had reviewed the issue and found “Israel’s actions and statements did not create such a risk.”
Extracts from the unpublished 2024 assessment were disclosed in court. One part stated: “No evidence has been seen that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian women or children. There is also evidence of Israel making efforts to limit incidental harm to civilians.”
Another said: “There is no evidence of a high-level strategic decision, passed down through military chains of command, like that which was in evidence for the massacre and deportations at Srebrenica that were found in the Bosnian genocide case to constitute genocide (the ICJ’s only finding of genocide to date),” referring to the International Court of Justice.
The document reportedly concluded that Israel’s conduct could be “reasonably explained as a legitimate military campaign waged as part of an intensive armed conflict in a densely populated urban area,” and also cited the use of human shields by Hamas.
However, Amnesty argued that parts of the assessment appear to be outdated, and said the government might have updated its conclusions without disclosing them.
Kristyan Benedict of Amnesty said: “The government’s refusal to engage with us on this raises the suspicion that the government has made a further genocide assessment, and it is likely to be different from the 2024 claim that there was no serious risk of a genocide.”
More than 60 MPs wrote to the Foreign Office in May urging it to publish any updated assessments regarding the risk of genocide in Gaza.
The debate comes amid growing international concern about developments in the territory, with some legal experts and Israeli nongovernmental organizations accusing Israeli authorities of showing genocidal intent.
On Friday, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey described Israel’s latest plan, to occupy Gaza City and displace tens of thousands of Palestinians, as “ethnic cleansing.”
