AP file photoLONDON: Nearly 380 writers from the UK and Ireland, including Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan, penned an open letter Wednesday denouncing what they called Israel's "genocide" in Gaza and urging a ceasefire.The letter called on "our nations and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror," they wrote in a letter published on the Medium website. "The use of the words 'genocide' or 'acts of genocide' to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organisations," the letter continued.Israel has repeatedly denied all accusations of genocide in its campaign to crush Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.The letter comes a day after 300 French-language writers, including Nobel Literature prize winners Annie Ernaux and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, signed a similar statement condemning "genocide". "Palestinians are not the abstract victims of an abstract war. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead. "Serious violations of international law are being committed and are further threatened by Israel," the lawyers said, adding the UK is "legally obliged to take all reasonable steps within their power to prevent and punish genocide."
