PRESS RELEASE: 75+ U.S. Military Leaders Reject Gaza Genocide Claims
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2026
Contact: Blake Johnson
bjohnson@jinsa.org
Retired U.S. Military Leaders and Legal Experts Reject Genocide Allegations Against Israel
Washington, DC – On the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, a group of over 75 senior retired U.S. military leaders and legal experts today issued an open letter, organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, rejecting allegations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, concluding that the allegation is unsupported by the facts and does not meet the definition of genocide.
The signatories, including those who have commanded U.S. armed forces in combat, emphasize that the standards used to judge military conduct matter precisely because war is tragic and imperfect. Lowering the standard for what constitutes genocide, they warn, could create dangerous incentives for adversaries to embed themselves among civilians, exploit resulting casualties, and characterize lawful military operations as genocide.
The precedent established today will shape the conditions under which American forces fight tomorrow.
“Accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza is obscene,” said JINSA President and CEO Michael Makovsky. “It egregiously distorts the truth, the facts, and the law. These senior U.S. military commanders and lawyers, who understand the realities of war and the unprecedented steps Israel has taken to avoid civilian casualties, have stepped forward to correct the record. I hope those who are fair-minded will take heed.”
Genocide is an exceptionally grave crime requiring evidence of an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Civilian casualties, however tragic, do not by themselves establish genocidal intent. Based on their professional experience and assessment of Israeli military operations, the signatories conclude that Israel has neither intended to destroy Palestinians as a group nor conducted its campaign in a manner consistent with such an intent.
The extensive measures taken by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to protect civilians while fighting Hamas, included advance warnings, evacuation instructions, protected corridors, tactical pauses, stringent legal review of targets, and repeated decisions to cancel strikes because of the presence of civilians. These precautions have at times required Israeli forces to surrender tactical advantages and expose their own personnel to greater risk.
The signatories do not minimize the suffering of civilians in Gaza. They draw instead on their own experience commanding American forces pointing out that, “There is no perfect attack; there are only those in which commanders use all available information to make hard decisions and their best judgement to comply with legal obligations and protect civilians.”
The letter also distinguishes inflammatory statements by Israeli political officials, which the signatories condemn, from the conduct of the IDF itself. Political rhetoric, they argue, cannot substitute for evidence of genocidal intent in the conduct of military operations.
The signatories call on those making allegations of genocide to apply the Genocide Convention faithfully and to distinguish between the tragic consequences of combat, potential violations of the laws of armed conflict, and the specific crime of genocide.
Misapplying that standard risks rewarding adversaries who deliberately endanger civilians and undermining the ability of the United States and its allies to defend themselves.
The letter concludes: “Protecting civilians and preserving the ability of our nation to defend itself requires us to defend the truth when the laws of war are being distorted to make false charges of genocide.”
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