Israeli forces have perpetrated likely atrocity crimes in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, including possible war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have also perpetrated likely atrocity crimes.

BACKGROUND:

Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched a deadly assault into Israel, Israeli forces have launched relentless bombardments from air, land and sea, as well as imposed a complete siege of Gaza. Since October 2023 over 44,000 Palestinians have been killed, approximately 70 percent of whom are women and children. An estimated 10,000 more individuals are likely missing or buried under rubble of destroyed buildings. Israel has targeted and destroyed civilian objects protected under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in a manner widely characterized as collective punishment. Over 70 percent of civilian infrastructure across the Gaza Strip has been destroyed. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, and Israel determined that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during its military operations and attacks in Gaza, including starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, sexual violence, torture, forcible transfer, deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities and others.

Israel’s complete siege of Gaza has resulted in a dire humanitarian crisis and acute shortages of water, food and medicines that threaten the survival of 2.3 million Palestinians. The electricity supply to Gaza has also been cut off, resulting in an ongoing blackout and contributing to the collapse of hospitals and water and sanitation services. The CoI found that Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system. Nine out of every ten Palestinians in Gaza are internally displaced and have faced successive so-called evacuation orders by the Israeli military. Areas where internally displaced Palestinians have been directed to seek safety lack necessities for survival and are regularly hit by airstrikes and missiles. The UN Children’s Fund found that at least 87 percent of school buildings have been directly hit or damaged since October 2023, including one third of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s (UNRWA) schools, where many displaced persons sought shelter and were areas previously designated as “safe.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the OPT has concluded that since 7 October Israel has committed at least three of the constitutive acts of genocide in Gaza, and that statements made by high-level Israeli military and government officials are evidence of genocidal intent. The UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories determined that Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide. On 29 December 2023 South Africa filed an application before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) instituting proceedings concerning alleged violations of Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention in relation to Palestinians in Gaza. The ICJ issued legally binding provisional measures on 26 January ordering Israel to prevent the commission of all acts within Article II of the Genocide Convention, to ensure that Israeli military forces do not commit any of these acts, to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide against Palestinians, and to provide basic services, including humanitarian aid, to address adverse conditions of life in Gaza. The ICJ issued additional provisional measures in March and May.

During their assault on 7 October, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups attacked civilian areas in Israel and perpetrated flagrant violations of international law, including capturing and forcibly taking hundreds of civilians as hostages. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 5,400 injured. The UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict found that conflict-related sexual violence – including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment – was committed. The CoI found that members of the military wings of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other violations and abuses of international law, including deliberately killing, injuring and mistreating civilians, taking hostages and committing sexual and gender-based violence.

Palestinian territory – encompassing the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem – has been occupied by Israel since 1967. On 19 July 2024 the ICJ issued an advisory opinion detailing that Israel’s continued presence in the OPT is unlawful, asserting Israel must end its presence as rapidly as possible, immediately cease all new settlement activities and evacuate all settlers. The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding Israel end this occupation within 12 months. The UN Special Rapporteur has determined that Israel has imposed a system of racial oppression and discrimination that satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the crime of apartheid, a crime against humanity.

Since 7 October 2023 existing patterns of violence in the Occupied West Bank have escalated. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli settlers have perpetrated over 1,492 attacks, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian fatalities and injuries, as well as damage to Palestinian property. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that settlers carrying out these attacks are at times acting with the acquiescence and collaboration of Israeli forces and authorities. At least 16 Israelis, including members of the Israeli forces, have been killed by armed Palestinians. According to a group of UN experts, in 2023 Israel seized more Palestinian land than in any year in the past 30 years. There has also been a sharp increase in unnecessary and disproportionate force by Israeli forces, including airstrikes, violent military tactics during search-and-arrest operations and incursions by armored personnel carriers and bulldozers sent to refugee camps. OHCHR has reported a significant increase in extrajudicial executions, mass detentions and enforced disappearances – with thousands held in detention in deplorable conditions without charge or trial – as well as sexual violence and ill-treatment, including waterboarding, that may amount to torture against Palestinian detainees.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

Since early October 2024 Israel has intensified its siege on northern Gaza, resulting in widespread devastation and hundreds of civilian casualties. Israeli authorities have closed major crossings into the north, denying and impeding access to basic supplies critical for the survival of civilians. In November the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Famine Review Committee warned there is strong likelihood that famine is imminent within northern Gaza. On 28 October the Israeli Parliament passed two laws that would ban UNRWA from operating in territories under Israeli control, severely undermining humanitarian aid, education and shelter for Palestinian refugees.

In recent months Israeli forces have dramatically increased their systematic use of unlawful force with militarized operations across the Occupied West Bank. An airstrike carried out by Israeli forces on 3 October on a residential building in Tulkarem camp, which killed at least 18 Palestinians, was the single deadliest incident carried out by Israeli forces in the Occupied West Bank since OCHA began documenting casualties in 2005.

On 21 November the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two Israeli government officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and a Hamas official. The ICC judges determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe that these senior Israeli leaders and Hamas official bear responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

ANALYSIS:

Israel’s repeated use of weapons with wide area and indiscriminate effects in densely populated areas suggests a pattern of willful violation and disregard for IHL and likely amounts to war crimes. The mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza likely amounts to the war crime and crime against humanity of forcible transfer.

The imposition of sieges that deprive civilians of goods essential to their survival as a punitive measure may amount to collective punishment, a violation of IHL. While Israel has imposed an air, sea and land blockade of Gaza since 2007, the latest siege likely amounts to intentional starvation of civilians as a method of warfare – a war crime – and may amount to a crime against humanity. The intentional starvation of civilians in Gaza, together with statements from Israeli officials, may amount to a constitutive act of genocide – namely deliberately inflicting on a protected group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

During their attack on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups perpetrated likely war crimes, as well as potential crimes against humanity. Hamas’ indiscriminate rocket attacks are also in violation of international law. Since its formation in 1987, Hamas has consistently refused to recognize the State of Israel and has at times proliferated inflammatory and hateful rhetoric against Israelis and Jews. Hamas’ security forces have also committed grave abuses against Palestinians in Gaza, including arbitrary arrests, summary executions and torture. Any use of human shields by Hamas in the context of the current hostilities may amount to a war crime.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring parts of its civilian population into occupied territory, also known as “settler implantation.” Seizures and demolitions of Palestinian and Bedouin land and property leave communities at risk of forced evictions, arbitrary displacement and forcible transfer. Israel’s permanent occupation endangers the cultural existence of the Palestinian people and violates their right to self-determination.

The international community has struggled to speak out resolutely in defense of international law and the protection of civilians, amplifying the risk of further atrocities. Since 7 October the UN Security Council (UNSC) has voted multiple times on draft resolutions, with many failing to pass due to insufficient votes or vetoes cast by Permanent Members, including the United States (US) and Russia. The US has a long history of using its veto to protect Israel.

RISK ASSESSMENT:

• • Bombardments, ground offensives and siege tactics amounting to likely war crimes and crimes against humanity.
  • Ongoing evacuation orders likely amounting to crimes of forced displacement and forcible transfer, increasing risks of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
  • Violence, attacks, mass arrests and likely forcible transfer in the Occupied West Bank.
  • Institutionalized systematic racial oppression and discrimination against Palestinians and the de facto and illegal annexation of Palestinian land.
  • No effective accountability for cycles of deadly hostilities between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups over the past two decades.

NECESSARY ACTION:

A permanent ceasefire must be urgently reached and monitored by an independent, international body. UNSC Resolution 2735 must be implemented without delay. Israel should immediately lift the siege of Gaza. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups must safely and unconditionally release all individuals taken hostage. All states must cease arms exports to Israel, as well as apply other economic and political measures necessary to ensure respect for international law and the implementation of legally binding UNSC Resolution 2728. All parties should condemn anti-Semitic, anti-Arab and Islamophobic hate speech and leaders must refrain from spreading and engaging in dehumanizing rhetoric and actions. Governments with influence must use all diplomatic means to urge the Israeli government to repeal the legislation dismantling UNRWA’s work in the OPT.

Israel must immediately implement the ICJ’s provisional measures and its allies must ensure Israel’s compliance. States parties to the Genocide Convention should support proceedings before the ICJ and refrain from attempts to impede the independent work of the Court or discredit the merits of the dispute. The ICC must be allowed to conduct its mandate with independence and impartiality and all states should cease any impediments, intimidation, retaliation or improper influences against the Court and its officials. Israel should ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC and cooperate with all UN-mandated investigative mechanisms.

The root causes of violence and atrocities must also be addressed. Israel must lift its blockade on Gaza and cease illegal settlement-related activity and apartheid policies. Israel should also end the occupation of Palestinian territory and collective punishment of Palestinians. All parties should work toward a sustainable political solution consistent with international law and various UNSC resolutions.