More than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed since the deadly Hamas attack on Israel in early October. And while many are calling the Israeli military’s response justified, Jewish historian Raz Segal has joined other scholars in speaking out against it.

“I want to make it clear that I think that the Hamas attack was a horrendous mass murder, a war crime and that constituted as well crimes against humanity … I also called for eventually putting the planners and the perpetrators on trial. So I want to make it very clear what I think about the Hamas attack on 7 of October. That, however, in no way justifies or excuses the retaliatory genocidal assault that we’re seeing on Gaza. So, no, that’s not an appropriate response,” said Segal, associate professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University.

Segal joined with over 800 scholars in writing a letter denouncing the Israeli government for what they say may be a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. “We are compelled to sound the alarm about the possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. We do not do so lightly, recognizing the weight of this crime, but the gravity of the current situation demands it,” the letter states.