Verified Videos of Hamas attack October 7, 2023 credit: Human Rights Watch
To view videos click on https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/18/israel/palestine-videos-hamas-led-attacks-verified and go to video.
STATEMENT OF SCHOLARS OF HOLOCAUST STUDIES AND OF GENOCIDE STUDIES AND PREVENTION:
Recognizing, that on October 7, 2023, in tandem with massive rocket attacks on dozens of Israeli cities and villages, more than 1,500 armed Hamas militants illegally broke through the southern Israeli border with Gaza. They committed genocidal massacres of more than 1,400 Israeli civilians, ambushing them on the streets of their villages, breaking into their houses, and butchering them in the most cruel and vicious ways. Families hiding in their houses were murdered, including men, women, children, babies, and the elderly. The attackers set civilians' houses on fire, burning the inhabitants alive. They mutilated and burned the bodies of murdered Israelis. They raped Israeli women;
Recognizing, that Hamas militants forcibly took more than 200 Israelis and citizens of other countries as hostages to the Gaza Strip;
Recognizing, that the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas militants on October 7 are comparable, according to United States President Biden, to "the worst rampages of ISIS;"
Recognizing, that Iran has been enabling and empowering Hamas since the 1980's;
Recognizing, that Hamas militants committed these atrocities in Israel with the declared genocidal intent written in the Hamas Covenant of 1988 that calls for the elimination of the State of Israel, denies Israel’s right to exist, and calls for eternal war against Jews and Israel;
Recognizing, that Hamas's jihadist genocidal terrorism against Israel and Jews, uses indoctrination and incitement to motivate its followers to commit these massacres;
Recognizing, that according to the UN Human Rights Council, this indoctrination and incitement for genocidal terrorism includes delegitimization, dehumanization, and demonization against Israel and Jews in Hamas’s educational curricula and military training;
Recognizing, that this same indoctrination and incitement is included in educational curricula sponsored by the Palestine Liberation Organization and taught in refugee camps run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA);
Recognizing, that these incitements to destroy Israel, Israelis and the Jewish people constitute an "intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such," according to article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948);
Recognizing, that according to article 2(a) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), and article 6(a) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1988), both of which constitute customary international law, the killing of members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group with an intent to destroy the group in whole or in part is a crime of genocide;
Recognizing, that according to article 2(b) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), and article 6(b) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1988), both of which constitute customary international law, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group is a crime of genocide;
Recognizing, that according to customary international law, and article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, murder, extermination, enforced disappearances of persons, rape or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity, and other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious bodily or mental injury, perpetrated in a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, are crimes against humanity;
Recognizing, that according to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflict (Protocol I), Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non- International Armed Conflict (Protocol II) (1977), and article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998), the murder, intentional killing of persons taking no active part in the hostilities, taking of hostages, violence to life and person including cruel treatment and torture, and outrages upon personal dignity constitute war crimes;
Recognizing, that the Geneva Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and sick in Armed Forces in the Field (1949) and articles 32- 34 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflict (Protocol I) (1977), impose obligations regarding the dead and the missing, including forwarding information about the sick, wounded and dead in their hands to the other party to the conflict, and about the location of the graves of the dead;
Recognizing, that article 34, of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflict (Protocol I) (1977), requires the parties to the conflict to facilitate the repatriation of remains of the deceased;
Recognizing, that UN General Assembly Res 3220 (xxix) (6 November 1974) A/res/3220(xxix) determined the duties entrusted with the parties to the armed conflict to locate and mark the graves of the dead, to facilitate the disinterment and the return of remains, if requested by their families and to provide information about those who are missing in action, and UN Security Council Res 2474 (11 June 2019) S/Res/2474 reiterated those duties and added the obligations to search for and recover the dead as a result of armed conflict, identify them, respect the remains of the dead, … and to return them, whenever possible, to their relatives, and ensure that, data possibly leading to the identification of the deceased person is adequately collected and recorded;
Recognizing, that Israel launched a legitimate war of self-defense against Hamas, according to article 51 of the UN Charter and UNSC Res. 1368, to defend its population and to prevent the recurrence of Hamas's jihadist genocidal terrorism;
Recognizing the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), adopted in 2005 by the UN General Assembly, Therefore, we, scholars of Holocaust Studies and Scholars of Genocide Studies and prevention,
Declare that the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians, constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, and the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians and combatants constitute war crimes;
Condemn in the strongest terms these current atrocities and human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli citizens;
Calls Upon the United Nations to condemn these crimes and to require the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages;
Call Upon the International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure that pending their release, the hostages will be treated humanely and respectfully and be provided with proper medical care and supply of essential medications;
Call Upon the International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure that Hamas provides all vital information about the hostages and allows for means of communication by the hostages with their families and with the ICRC;
Call Upon the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to recognize the need for a structured, supervised and comprehensive post-war education system for Gaza and the Palestinian Authority based on the models for denazification of Germany and its population after World War II;
Call Upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO to supervise and support the establishment of a reformed education system for Palestinian children, free of incitement and for tolerance of diversity;
Call Upon the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate these crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes that Hamas has perpetrated against Israeli civilians and combatants;
Call Upon the United Nations General Assembly and the UN Office of the Special Advisors for the Prevention of Genocide and for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to invoke the responsibility to protect to condemn these acts of genocide against Israelis and Jews,
Call Upon the United Nations Security Council to take all necessary action to address Hamas's threats to peace, including the application of measures such as economic sanctions against Hamas, Iran, and against individuals responsible for Hamas atrocities;
Call Upon the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court to bring to justice individuals responsible for these commissions of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes;
Call Upon the U.N. Human Rights Council and national governments to recognize these atrocities perpetrated against Israeli civilians as acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes;
Call Upon U.N. member states to use national courts with universal jurisdiction to conduct criminal proceedings against individuals responsible for these crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.