Almost 1200 dead

Former chief prosecutor: Hamas massacre was genocide

Items left behind by partygoers at the Supernova music festival, which turned into a bloodbath on October 7.(Bild: APA/AFP/Jack Guez)

According to the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023 was genocide. 

"What Hamas did was genocide, because Hamas intended to destroy the Israelis," emphasized Luis Moreno Ocampo in an interview with APA. Conversely, Moreno Ocampo also assumes that Israel has allegedly committed war crimes in its response to the massacres. In this regard, he refers to a report by his successor at the ICC, Karim Ahmad Khan.

The report mentions the siege of Gaza, the bombing of hospitals and mosques in the Gaza Strip and also attacks by Israeli troops in the West Bank. The violence emanating from militant Jewish settlers in the West Bank is "also extremely bad", explains Moreno Ocampo. 

Archive image from 2017: Former Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo(Bild: APA/AFP/Mandel Ngan)

"You can't fight terrorism with war"
Moreno-Ocampo deduces from history and also from the recent Middle East war: "You can't fight terrorism with wars. That goes wrong." For every terrorist killed, there are ten new ones - the family and friends of those killed. In this regard, Moreno Ocampo points to the background and personal history of Hamas leaders, from which this pattern can be seen. 

Terrorism is a crime, not a war. Whenever terrorism has been met with war, the war has always been lost. "They only produce their own enemies," said Moreno Ocampo. He cited France's war in Algeria (1954-62) and the USA's "war on terror" in Afghanistan (2001-21) as examples. "We have learned nothing from this."