Senior EU official says Gaza crisis 'looks very much' like genocide

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -A senior member of the European Union's executive said the displacement and killing in Gaza looked very much like genocide, the first commissioner to level that accusation and publicly break with the body's position on the conflict.

"If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning," Teresa Ribera - the European Commission's second-highest ranking official - told Politico in an interview published on Thursday.

Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of carrying out genocide in its war in Gaza. Israel's mission to the EU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ribera is the European Commission's Executive Vice President, second only in seniority to President Ursula von der Leyen. The Spanish socialist, whose portfolio includes climate and anti-trust issues, is not responsible for EU foreign policy.

"What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death," Ribera told Politico.

Her statements went further than the European Commission, which has accused Israel of violating human rights in Gaza, but stopped short of accusing it of genocide.

The Commission last week proposed curbing Israeli access to its flagship research funding programme after calls from EU countries to increase pressure on Israel to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

In that proposal, the Commission said Israel had violated a human rights clause in an agreement that governs its relations with the EU.

"With its intervention in the Gaza Strip and the ensuing humanitarian catastrophe, including thousands of civilian deaths and rapidly rising numbers of spreading extreme malnutrition, specifically of children, Israel is violating human rights and humanitarian law," it wrote.

Israel has fended off accusations of genocide, including a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as "outrageous".

The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli communities and military bases near Gaza on October 7, 2023. About 1,200 people, including more than 700 civilians, were killed, and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza.

Israel's military response has devastated the tiny, crowded enclave, killing more than 61,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities. 

Israel has repeatedly said its actions in Gaza are justified as self-defence and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields, a charge the militant group denies.

(Reporting by Lili Bayer; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew Heavens)