The deliberate shooting and killing by Israeli soldiers of unarmed Palestinian civilians awaiting humanitarian aid at food distribution points in Gaza amounts to genocide, legal experts told Anadolu Agency.

Commenting on a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealing that Israeli commanders ordered soldiers to deliberately open fire on Palestinians arriving at aid distribution points, experts said this was a continuation of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians that have gone on for years.

Martin Shaw, a British sociologist and academic, said Israel has used heavy weapons against Palestinian civilians for the past 20 months, destroying the very foundations of life and making people completely dependent on humanitarian aid.

"They (Israel) block the aid, so that people starve. Then they block genuine humanitarian organizations from working in Gaza, making people dependent on a new US body which provides inadequate food,” Shaw said.

"Then they shoot and kill the starving as they try to get aid. It is difficult to imagine a clearer pattern of genocide.”

Israel is acting under the guise of "humanitarian camouflage," Shaw said, referring to remarks by UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese.

"⁠There is no evidence that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) seriously investigates war crimes by its soldiers,” he said.

"War crimes are part of Israel’s genocidal strategy to destroy the Palestinian people of Gaza, and any investigations are purely token," he noted. 

'Some of the most blatant war crimes we have seen in decades'

On the shooting of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid, Luigi Daniele, associate professor at Italy's University of Molise, said: "These are in my opinion, some of the most blatant war crimes we have seen in entire decades of armed conflicts. These are clearly direct attacks on civilians, as such intentional."

Noting that these crimes are opposed by the international community as a whole, Daniele stated: "So not only in The Hague they should be prosecuted, but also if these soldiers, these commanders travel elsewhere in the world, they should actually risk prosecution."

He added that Israel will lose the genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), saying: "My impression here is that the Israeli executive, and sadly, (most) sectors of its society, are so wrapped up in these exterminatory ideology dehumanizing Palestinians that they don't even realize how the rest of the world is horrified at watching what they are doing." 

'Israel has created a labyrinth of suffering for Palestinians'

Daniele said the occupation Israel has carried out for nearly 60 years has now reached the extreme point of disregarding international law.

“Israel has created a labyrinth of suffering for the Palestinians,” he said, adding that the obligation to prevent genocide arises not only after genocide is committed but when the risk of genocide becomes evident.

He said: "How can a third state ignore this when there have been not one, not two, but three provisional measures orders (by ICJ) in a row?"

"So, from this point of view, acting on the profile of state responsibility, isolating this fanatic messianic genocidal Israeli executive is in my opinion, at this point not only a moral duty of third states, but a very clear and well-defined legal duty," Daniele stated. 

'Israel must unconditionally end the occupation'

Ata Hindi, faculty member of the Tulane University in the US, also emphasized that Israel must unconditionally withdraw from the occupied territories.

Stressing that the advisory opinion of the ICJ has already stated that Israel must unconditionally end the occupation, Hindi stated: "The occupation has to end and it must end without any conditions whatsoever."

Regarding the role of the US, he stated: "This is not strictly the Israelis. There is responsibility on the Americans — direct responsibility. It is not just aiding and abetting at this point; they are facilitating these types of violations.”

"It's part of a genocide and to ensure the forced transfer of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip. This is what they want. This is what they've always wanted," he added.

Over 56,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023.