Israel’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, has dismissed allegations of genocide against Israel, insisting that casualty ratios from the Gaza conflict prove the Israeli military did not deliberately target civilians.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Monday, Ambassador Freeman drew a sharp contrast between Gaza’s casualty figures and global wartime standards, arguing that Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be classified as genocide.
He said: “According to the United Nations, in every other war, the number of civilians to combatants killed is normally one combatant to six civilians, or in urban conflict, one combatant to nine civilians. In this case, we’re looking at a ratio of one to one. This would be the most accurate.”
The envoy explained that even figures released by Hamas, which he said he does not accept as accurate, point to an unusually balanced ratio of combatants to civilians.
“Even if we take Hamas’s figures, and I don’t accept Hamas’s figures, but even if we do, and 69,000 Palestinians were killed, at least half of them, according to all international figures, including President Trump, were Hamas fighters. President Trump gave the figure of over 50,000 of them were Hamas terrorists,” he said.
Ambassador Freeman argued that such figures contradict the notion of genocide, maintaining that Israel has been wrongly accused. He said the country’s military actions were aimed strictly at dismantling Hamas’s capabilities after the group’s attack on Israel.
“So firstly, the accusation of a genocide is absolutely outrageous. It’s got no basis in fact whatsoever. You only need to have a look at the numbers and the dynamics to understand what’s been going on there,” Freeman stated.
He described the situation in Gaza as a war forced upon Israel, not an act of aggression initiated by it. “What’s been going on in Gaza is a war. And unfortunately in war, people are killed. Wars are a terrible thing. Wars are horrible things. This was a war that Israel didn’t want. It’s a war that Israel didn’t start,” he said.
The ambassador reiterated that Hamas was solely responsible for civilian casualties, accusing the group of using residents as human shields.
“They used the civilian population of Gaza as human shields, and they carried out their war against Israel. And so in this war, unfortunately, civilians were killed. That’s what happens when Hamas, a brutal terror organization, use humans, their civilians, as human shields,” he said.
Freeman also rejected the United Nations Commission’s use of the word genocide, describing it as “truly offensive.” He said, “The fact that a small United Nations Commission whose leaders have been discredited, delegitimised in every way whatsoever, no one takes that report seriously, and I think that we know what a genocide is. A genocide was the Holocaust when six million Jews were murdered. A genocide is what happened in Rwanda when a million Tutsis were murdered. We do not need to look at what’s going on here and misuse the word in order to try and create lies around what’s happened.”
The Israeli envoy further expressed hope that the ongoing ceasefire would lead to lasting peace but emphasised that it depends on Hamas’s willingness to disarm. “If Hamas are willing to lay down their arms and if Hamas are willing to give up power in Gaza, then this ceasefire will hold,” he said.
Freeman concluded by reaffirming Israel’s desire for stability and coexistence. “I’m hopeful we’ll see all of our hostages come home and that we will see better days. I want better days for Israelis. I want better days for Palestinians. I want this war to end. I want this war to end permanently. But in order for that to happen, Hamas need to give up their arms and they need to give up power,” he stated.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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