The world’s leading genocide scholars’ association has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president said on Monday.

Eighty-six per cent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution, which declares “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)”.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli foreign ministry.

Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that accuses it of genocide.

Israel’s military action has killed 63,000 people, damaged or destroyed most buildings in the territory and forced nearly all its residents to flee their homes at least once.

Since its founding in 1994, the genocide scholars’ association has passed nine resolutions recognising historic or ongoing episodes as genocides.