By Charlotte Greenfield

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -When two human rights groups became the first major voices in Israel to accuse the state of committing genocide in Gaza, breaking a taboo in a country founded after the Holocaust, they were prepared for a backlash.

B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel released reports at a press conference in Jerusalem on Monday, saying Israel was carrying out "coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip".

That marked the strongest possible accusation against the state, which vehemently denies it. The charge of genocide is deeply sensitive in Israel because of its origins in the work of Jewish legal scholars in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust. Israeli officials have rejected genocide allegations as antisemitic.

So Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem's international director, said the group expected to face attacks for making the claim in a country still traumatised by the deadly Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza.

"We've looked into all of the risks that we could be facing. These are legal, reputation, media risks, other types of risk, societal risks and we've done work to try and mitigate these risks," said Michaeli, whose organisation is seen as being on the political........

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