Israel's War Goal in Gaza is GENOCIDE, Holocaust Scholar claims | Omer Bartov

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Uploaded: 20 Aug 2025 (11 months ago) · Shared: 11 Feb 2026
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Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, said that Israel’s war on Gaza passed the threshold of genocidal intent by May 2024.

“My view has become that the war goals that Israel declared -which were to destroy Hamas and to free the hostages, by the spring of 2024, turned out not to be the actual war goals,” he told Middle East Eye.

Bartov cites evidence, including statements by Israeli leaders, as well as the “pattern of operations that indicated both intent and the implementation of that intent”.

He also believes that Israel’s destruction of homes, educational buildings, hospitals, museums and places of worship fits the definition, since these are “the places that could make for the existence of a group: for its health, for its education, for its collective memory”.

The course of events after May 2024 has also reinforced Bartov’s opinion that genocide was occurring, including the forcible removal of the population of northern Gaza to the south and starving whoever is left, as part of the controversial General’s Plan.

This interview is part of a series conducted by MEE with international legal and Holocaust experts, exploring the question: Why do legal experts say Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide?

Catch previous episodes of MEE LIVE, our biweekly news programme exploring the stories shaping our world through breaking coverage, expert analysis, and hard-hitting interviews.

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