The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) strongly condemns Israel’s resumption of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, along with widespread unlawful killings of Palestinian civilians, the blockade of humanitarian relief for over a month, and the relentless forcible displacement of the population.
On 18 March 2025, Israel breached the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which had taken effect on 19 January, by launching an intense wave of strikes that resulted in the death of at least 404 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including many children, on this day alone. As of 8 April 2025, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 1,449 people killed and 3,647 injured, as Israeli bombardments escalated and ground operations expanded, bringing the total number of Palestinian victims since 7 October 2023 to over 50,000 killed and 115,000 injured. In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children. Overall, a large percentage of fatalities are children and women, according to information recorded by the OHCHR.
“The massacre must stop now. Since resuming armed hostilities, Israel has revived its pattern of war crimes, including indiscriminate, disproportionate and direct attacks, the targeting of journalists, medical personnel and rescue workers and the blocking of humanitarian relief,” said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme Director. “These crimes are enabled by the direct support of a number of countries to Israel and the international community’s failure to ensure that Israel is held accountable, including the failure of some States to enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
On 2 March, two weeks before effectively putting an end to the ceasefire, Israel started imposing yet another blockade, cutting off the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, with the stated objective of pushing Hamas to accept new terms for the extension of the ceasefire agreement. This marked the resumption of Israel’s use of starvation as a method of warfare by depriving civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including by intentionally impeding relief supplies, amounting to a war crime for which Israel’s Prime Minister is already wanted by the International Criminal Court, as well as to collective punishment, also a war crime.
Israel’s conduct further violates the International Court of Justice’s binding orders of 26 January, 28 March and 24 May 2024 to, among other things, “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” with a view to preventing a “risk of irreparable prejudice” to the “plausible rights of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide” pursuant to the Genocide Convention. The OHCHR stated that “in light of the cumulative impact of Israeli Forces’ conduct in Gaza, the Office is seriously concerned that Israel appears to be inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group in Gaza,” thereby clearly pointing to a serious risk of genocide.
Between 18 March and 6 April 2025, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) issued 15 evacuation orders, causing the forcible displacement of an estimated 390,000 people. In addition to the zones covered by the evacuation orders, which amount to 36 per cent of the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have redeployed since 20 March, resulting in about 66 per cent of the Gaza Strip being considered no-go zones for Gazans. This complicates the search for safety of the civilian population and renders the evacuation orders impossible to comply with and thus ineffective. Furthermore, the designated areas in many of the evacuation orders include hospitals and medical units, forcing healthcare workers to organize the transport of injured people with very few resources rendered even more scarce due to Israel’s blockade.
Since Israel has repeatedly failed to take any measures to ensure that those who flee can shelter safely elsewhere, the evacuation orders do not comply with international humanitarian law. Moreover, given their wide scope and in light of Israel’s announced plan to seize large areas and dismember the Gaza Strip, these evacuation orders may amount to the war crime of transfer of the population of an occupied territory and the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population.
“Encouraged by the US President’s recent statements, Israel is openly announcing the blatantly unlawful plan to seize vast portions of occupied territory as ‘buffer zones’, which will ineluctably result in the forcible displacement of the population of the Gaza Strip,” added Benarbia.
The ICJ also condemns the IDF’s continued targeting of aid workers. On 23 March 2025, 15 paramedics and rescue workers, members of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Palestinian Civil Defence and UN employees were killed while on a humanitarian mission to collect dead and wounded civilians outside the southern city of Rafah. They were reportedly found buried in the sand alongside their flattened vehicles, with “evidence of execution-style killings”, based on the specific and intentional location of multiple shots at close range and on the testimony that some of the bodies had their hands tied to their legs, attesting to the IDF’s perpetration of the war crime of wilful killing of protected persons. A video collected from the phone found on one of the bodies showed that the vehicles were clearly marked as ambulances. Under international humanitarian law, medical units and transports exclusively assigned to medical purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances. Since 7 October 2023, 408 aid workers have been killed in Gaza.
The IDF also continues to target journalists. On 7 April 2025, an Israeli airstrike targeted a tent known for sheltering media workers in the Gaza Strip, killing two journalists and injuring eight others. Under international humanitarian law, as long as they do not take any direct part in the hostilities, journalists are entitled to the same protection granted to civilians. Accordingly, the wilful killing of journalists or wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health is a war crime. The IDF claimed that they were targeting a freelance photojournalist, allegedly present during the 7 October 2023 attack against Israel, who was among the injured. Even if this were confirmed, this would not deprive him of protection under international humanitarian and human rights law, and, in any event, this would not justify the disproportionate incidental loss of life and injuries caused to the other journalists, which is also a war crime. This attack forms part of a continuous pattern of deliberate and unlawful targeting of journalists and other media workers, with a total of 167 Palestinian journalists having died since 7 October 2023.
In light of the above, the ICJ deplores that the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 (“the Fourth Geneva Convention”) was not held. On 19 September 2024, the UN General Assembly invited Switzerland, in its capacity as the depositary of the Geneva Conventions, to convene a Conference to enforce the Fourth Geneva Convention in Palestine. However, on 6 March 2025, Switzerland cancelled the Conference, purportedly, because of “[p]rofound differences” between States, leading to a lack of “cross-regional critical mass in favour of holding the Conference”. The Conference would have been a critical opportunity for States to fulfil their obligations “to ensure respect” for the Fourth Geneva Convention, as per Common Article 1 of the Four Geneva Conventions, by acting collectively to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law in Palestine and Israel.
The ICJ reiterates its calls on Israel to:
- Agree to and respect an immediate, lasting ceasefire;
- Allow unimpeded humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip and take measures to prevent starvation;
- Refrain from taking any measures that entail the forcible displacement of the population of the Gaza Strip;
- Respect the IHL principles of distinction, proportionality, precautions in attack and the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks;
- Cease and prevent the wilful killing of civilians and protected persons, including healthcare personnel, humanitarian workers and journalists;
- Cease and prevent further unlawful attacks on aid convoys, hospitals, ambulances, residential buildings, and other civilian objects;
- Comply with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice on 26 January 2024, on 28 March 2024 and on 24 May 2024.
The ICJ reiterates its calls on Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups to:
- Agree to and respect an immediate, lasting ceasefire;
- Release all hostages immediately and unconditionally.
The ICJ reiterates its calls on all States:
- Do the utmost to secure a permanent ceasefire and secure the release of all hostages;
- Cease arms exports to Israel in accordance with HRC resolution A/HRC/55/L.30;
- Take all steps to prevent Israel from seizing Palestinian territory or from forcibly displacing the Palestinian population;
- Take immediate action to protect, promote and respect the rights to life, health, and dignity of those affected by loss and trauma, through effective access to humanitarian assistance by means of land crossings, protection of remaining health infrastructure, health workers and humanitarian personnel;
- Convene an urgent Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949;
- Play a proactive role in identifying key suspected perpetrators and helping to facilitate investigations, prosecutions and the surrender and transfer of suspects through the principle of mutual legal assistance and extradition;
- Exercise universal jurisdiction over suspected perpetrators;
- Cooperate with the ICC, including complying with the arrest warrants it issued, and commit to ensuring that it has the political, diplomatic and financial support it needs to carry out its mandate.
Contact
Saïd Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; t: +41 22 979 3800, e: said.benarbia@icj.org
Nour Al Hajj, Communications & Advocacy Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; e: nour.alhajj@icj.org
