Germany rejects Amnesty's 'genocide' accusation against Israel

The German government on Friday rejected Amnesty International's accusation that Israel is committing "genocide" against Palestinians in its military campaign in Gaza.

Asked for a response to Amnesty's report, German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters: "The question of genocide presupposes a clear intention to eradicate an ethnic group. I still do not recognise any such clear intention and therefore I cannot share the conclusions of the report."

"We take the accusations in the report very seriously and are currently analysing them," he added.

Amnesty International is arguably the highest-profile rights group to conclude Israel's actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocidal acts as laid out under the Genocide Convention.