Rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Gaza war as "genocide" and calling for a ceasefire but Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the explosive term.

Israel says it is seeking to wipe out Gaza's Islamist rulers and free its hostages still held in the occupied Palestinian coastal strip since the Hamas militant attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.

But Israel's devastating war on Gaza -- largely populated by descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from or fled what became Israeli land in 1948 -- has killed tens of thousands of civilians and sparked growing global outrage.

The accusation against Israel of genocide has been made with increasing force from quarters ranging from "Schindler's List" star Ralph Fiennes to Amnesty International and some Israeli historians.

What does the legal term really mean and who can decide whether it applies?

What is 'genocide'?

The word genocide -- derived from the Greek word "genos", for race or tribe, and "cide", from the Latin for "to kill" -- was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin.

Lemkin, a Polish Jew who had fled to the United States, used it to describe the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.

It was used for the first time within a legal framework by an international military tribunal at Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders for their crimes in 1945.

However, those accused were eventually convicted on charges of crimes against humanity.

It has been recognised within international law since 1948 and the advent of the UN Genocide Convention.

That text defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".

These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births and forcibly transferring children out of the group.

Regardless of the definition, the qualification of "genocide" has been hugely sensitive over the decades.

What is happening in Gaza?

Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian........

© Al Monitor