Health authorities say Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people. More than half of those killed late Tuesday and early Wednesday reportedly were women and children.

Mr. Stephens argues that if Israel intended genocide, its military could have caused far more deaths. But genocide is about intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a group. Dismissing genocide because a powerful state didn’t maximize killing reduces it to a numbers game and ignores reality.

Amid outcry over civilian casualties in Gaza, experts note Israel's so-called 'dumb bombs' can be used with precision. Israel is doing all it can to mitigate civilian harm, a U.S. official said.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called the joint statement issued by a host of U.S. allies "disgusting."

The answer, of course, is that Israel is manifestly not committing genocide, a legally specific and morally freighted term that is defined by the United Nations convention on genocide as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”

The Israel-Gaza war: On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking civilian hostages.