In December 1948 the UN and her agencies and later many countries in their own legal frameworks, adopted a definition of genocide. They did this in the face of WW2 in which 50 million people died. They did not define the entire war as a genocide or the mass murders of 20, million Slavs, or the Rape of Nanking, or the bombing of 400,000 French after D Day by the Allies or the eventual slaughter of 2 million German citizens as genocides. That was war. The definition rested upon the word ‘intent’. Hundreds of millions murdered down the centuries in wars where the intent was victory, land, stealing, empire building and the rest but this intent was to murder a people, a sect, a religion, a tribe.
Looking back we can see many genocides on the American colonies, the African continent and many instances of genocides handmaiden, ethnic cleansing. There are several reasons why Gaza does not fit the bill of genocide. First, the Gazans are still overwhelmingly alive; second it is the policy of Iran to place civilians where they will be easily killed while Hamas attacks from behind them; thirdly the entire population could be hidden in tunnels safe from warplanes; fourthly Egypt on day 1 could have opened its gate and told every woman and child to get out for their safety; fifthly Israel has sacrificed near 500 soldiers determined to go after Hamas the hardest way in an urban battle rather than just destroy everything; sixthly wounded Gazans are right now being treated in Israel hospitals; seventhly Palestinian Arabs are fighting with the IDF … and so forth.
Words have definition and meaning, they are also malleable. And science has shown us that what we see with our eyes is never the whole truth.