Israel rejected on Tuesday accusations by rights group Amnesty International that it was committing "genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, dismissing the claims as "baseless lies".
"The radical anti-Israel organisation Amnesty has once again chosen to publish baseless lies against Israel," foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein told AFP in a statement.
He said that Israel is "fighting to defend itself against Hamas", the Palestinian militant group whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the Gaza war, and that the military does not target civilians.
Marmorstein added that Hamas calls for "genocide against Israel" and "does everything in its power to carry that out -- the atrocities of October 7 serve as evidence of this".
"Israel is targeting only terrorists and never civilians. Hamas, on the other hand, deliberately targets Israeli civilians and hides behind Palestinian civilians, stealing humanitarian aid intended for the people of Gaza and causing suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis," the spokesman said.
In its annual report, Amnesty said Israel was acting with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".
The group also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".
Marmorstein rejected the accusation, saying that "Amnesty spreads completely unfounded lies. All of (Israel's) actions in the West Bank are aimed at preventing Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians."
"Of course, the facts have never stood in the way of Amnesty," he said.
