He's being legalistic about it, and I concede he may have a point there. Of course, it doesn't make what's happening all the less terrible. Both can be true, one doesn't take away from the other.

If I am going to attack a military installation under your house and I warn you to leave, that is not genocide.

If I see your house, miles from any military installation, and I destroy it in order to kill you, and I do that over and over and over, that is genocide.

In both cases, the house is destroyed. In one case, your life is saved.