There is no basis for a UN special committee's accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, State Department acting spokesman Vedant Patel said on Thursday.

This came in response to a decision by the “United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices” that Israel’s practices during the Gaza war “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”

"This is something we disagree with unequivocally," Patel said in response to reporters' questions, adding, "We believe that such formulations and such accusations are absolutely baseless."

Patel denounced a report published by Human Rights Watch on Thursday, in which it confirmed that it had collected evidence that Israeli officials were committing the "war crime" of "forced displacement," adding that "Israel's actions appear to meet the definition of 'ethnic cleansing.'"

Patel stressed that forced displacement would be a “red line” for the United States and would not meet the criteria set by Secretary of State Antony Blinken when the war began.

The spokesman considered it acceptable to "ask civilians to evacuate a certain area while they (the Israelis) are carrying out some military operations, and thus allow them to return to their homes," stressing that the United States "has not seen any kind of this forced displacement."

"I am not a lawyer, so I will not give you a legal definition," Patel said in response to a question from the Jerusalem correspondent regarding the administration's insistence that what is happening in Gaza is mass killing, despite the fact that 44,000 people have been killed so far, at least according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, while the Lancet (British) group says that more than 186,000 people may have been killed, and many times that number of wounded, most of them women and children, and millions displaced.

“What I can say and I will repeat again is that the allegations of genocide that we continue to believe are unfounded, in the context of the ongoing conflict,” Patel added, stressing, “Now, this certainly does not diminish the moral and strategic imperative and responsibility that our partners in Israel have to conduct their operations and activities with the protection of civilians in mind and to do everything possible to minimize the impact on civilians.”

“And it certainly raises questions about Hamas’s role in this, because we have found time and time again that Hamas has rejected the end of this war; it has resisted a ceasefire or a proposal for a ceasefire… and a number of hostages remain in Gaza, including American citizens,” the spokesman said. “And that’s certainly part of it, too.”

In response to the question of the Jerusalem correspondent about the definition of the US administration for what “genocide” is, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to the definition on the US Department of Justice’s page for what genocide is.

The report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, covering the period from October 7, 2023 to last July, noted “large numbers of civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians deliberately.”

The committee, which has been investigating Israeli practices affecting rights in the Palestinian territories for decades, said Israel "used starvation as a method of warfare and to impose collective punishment on Palestinians."

"Through its blockade of Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, Israel is deliberately causing death, starvation and serious injury," she said.