Israel on Thursday faced accusations of "acts of genocide" and exhibiting "signs of ethnic cleansing" in its military offensive in Gaza, charges Israeli authorities dismissed as "lies".

They are the latest in a series of accusations levelled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch detailed what it called deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths".

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 45,129 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

"Human Rights Watch is once more spreading its blood libels in order to promote its anti-Israel propaganda," the foreign ministry said.

"Since the beginning of the war, Israel has........

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