Photo Credit: Mohammad Zaanoun, Activestills Collective

This week, our organisations mark a year of shame in which the international community failed to prevent, punish, or put an end to Israel’s ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. A year full of mourning, grief, and despair, as the international community offers the Palestinian people nothing but empty words.

We pay tribute to our colleagues who have been killed during the past year by Israel’s genocidal machinery, Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour, Dana Yaghi, and to those who have lost family members. Despite the attacks, damage, and destruction of our offices and the repeated forced displacement of our colleagues, we managed to continue the work, documenting a plethora of Israeli atrocities, including arrests, detention, enforced disappearances, displacement, challenges facing women, use of Palestinians as human shields, killings, torture, sexual violence and inhumane treatment, physical assault, death from malnutrition, and investigated the attack on Al-Tabaeen school, and the Indonesian Hospital, among others. We commend our colleagues for their steadfastness and courage to continue the work in the face of genocide, and wish for their safety in a time where no Palestinian is truly safe.

The live-streamed genocide has seen over 42,000 Palestinians killed, more than 97,700 injured, and the trauma of millions who have been forcibly displaced more than ten times, terrorised, starved, and denied the basic necessities needed for survival. Such is the ferocity of Israel’s attacks against Palestinians in Gaza, that 902 families have been wiped off the civil registry. Thousands of Palestinians have been detained and forcibly disappeared, with countless cases of systematic abuse and torture while in custody, including sexual violence. Simultaneously, Israel has alarmingly escalated its decades-long colonial violence against Palestinians elsewhere in historic Palestine since 7 October 2023. Particularly in the West Bank, Israel has increased its shoot-to-kill policy and military attacks, which have led to the killing of at least 707 Palestinians, including through airstrikes, and the extensive destruction of infrastructure. Moreover, the expansion of colonial settlements continues unabated, fueling almost daily settler attacks against Palestinians, often under the protection of Israeli forces. Not only has the international community failed to take concrete measures for accountability, but most Western countries have aided and abetted this ongoing genocide and colonial violence, including through arms sales to Israel and by shielding those responsible from accountability.   

The vast majority of Gaza’s residents fear that they will never go back to their homes, cities, and villages from which they have been displaced, as had happened in the 1948 Nakba. Since the very beginning, it has become apparent that Israel seeks to systematically eliminate Palestinians in Gaza and replace them with Jewish-Israeli settlers. This lies at the core of Israel’s Zionist settler-colonial project, and Israel is utilising genocide to advance it.

Unfortunately, those fears are turning into reality. Since as early as 13 October 2023, Israel set about Palestinian displacement through so-called ‘evacuation orders’, accompanied by the relentless, widespread and systematic attacks on Palestinians and the infrastructure, with no safe place to seek refuge. Earlier plans and statements by Israeli military and political officials indicate a clear intention to resettle Gaza, forcibly transfer Gaza’s inhabitants out of Gaza, and propose that other countries could take in displaced Palestinians.

One year later, crazed with impunity - a direct consequence of the international community’s failure to act, on 6 October 2024, the Israeli military announced a ‘new phase’ of its genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated his consideration for the ‘Generals’ Plan’, which aims to change the reality on the ground in Gaza by laying a full siege on northern Gaza, denying entry of supplies, ordering Palestinians to leave, and whoever remains would be considered a target. Over the past seven days, the Israeli military has launched a new ground invasion and siege of the northern Gaza Strip, cutting Jabaliya refugee camp off from Jabaliya city through sand dunes placed at exit/entrance points of the camp, and issued new forcible displacement orders for the entire North Gaza Governorate. This indicates that the ‘Generals’ plan’ has been set in motion, and aims to control the land, advance the elimination of Palestinians, and prepare the scene for Israeli annexation and re-settlement of Gaza. With around 86 percent of Gaza placed under ‘evacuation orders’, and the renewed wave of genocidal violence launched against Palestinians in northern Gaza affecting some 400,000 Palestinians, the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes may be deemed necessarily permanent.

A Palestinian from northern Gaza, whose identity is kept anonymous, is one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who refuse to follow the displacement orders issued by the Israeli military. He tells us:

“I am in northern Gaza with eleven of my family members, including my two children. We have been in northern Gaza for over a year and refuse to head to the south so we don’t repeat the 1948 Nakba. We have, and continue to endure all kinds of suffering and pain, bombardment, siege, and deprivation of the minimum requirements of life. Each one in northern Gaza has been displaced at least ten times. There is nothing worse than what we have witnessed and lived through over the past year. We know that the so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ that they are ordering people to go to is a lie and that every place in Gaza is a target for the army. For the past five days since the start of the [renewed] military attack in northern Gaza, particularly in Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia, we have been living in an unprecedented state of fear, panic, and terror. What we hear and see from the intensity of the aerial and artillery bombardment, the fire belts, the storming of homes and forcing civilians to leave and head south, dead bodies thrown in the streets, families trapped inside their homes, the destruction and bombing of bakeries and water wells, the evacuation of hospitals, and even separating the North Gaza Governorate from Gaza city, is only the beginning of emptying northern Gaza of its residents. We know that the real aim behind all this is to empty the north of its residents. We are aware of this, and we will not allow it to happen even if it costs our lives. Despite the absence of any official statement or announcement to that effect, what we see on the ground proves the truth of this purpose.”

Since the very beginning, we have raised the alarm against Israel’s genocide, employment of starvation as a method of warfare, famine, forcible displacement orders, and the illegality of Israel’s so-called evacuation orders and ‘humanitarian zone’, the spread of epidemics and diseases, among others. However, these sounds of alarm have fallen on deaf ears. The lack of international accountability for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people over 76 years has paved the way for the commission of the most heinous of crimes, genocide, and has emboldened Israel to reach unprecedented levels of violence and violations of international law to serve its settler-colonial project in Palestine.

We tried to turn every gearwheel of the international legal system in an attempt to stop Israel’s brutality and demand a ceasefire. We have engaged with the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, the Secretary-General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Procedures, the Commission of Inquiry, and the Special Advisor on Genocide, as well as Third States, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), among many others. Despite important developments, many have failed to uphold their mandates and obligations. The landmark rulings of the ICJ in South Africa v. Israel, determining the plausibility of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and ordering Israel by three legally-binding provisional measures orders to take all measures to stop with immediate effect all genocidal acts in Gaza and “immediately halt its military offensive, [...] in the Rafah Governorate,” remain ineffective in relation to Israel, as Third States fail to take concrete and meaningful action to ensure Israel’s compliance with the Court’s orders. The same applies to the Human Rights Council’s resolution urging “all States to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel”.

In its Advisory Opinion on Legal Consequences Arising From the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, the ICJ, upon finding, inter alia, that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) is unlawful and must be brought to an end as rapidly as possible, reminded states of their international legal obligations. Third States are obliged not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the unlawful situation, including preventing and abstaining from treaty relations and economic dealings with Israel, ceasing the provision or transfer of arms to Israel, and implementing sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in such maintenance, as explained in the subsequent UNGA resolution. Nevertheless, many states are failing to uphold their obligations.

Against a strenuous political terrain, we challenged Third States’ complicity and support of Israel in their national jurisdictions. We filed a lawsuit in the U.S. federal court against President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin for the U.S. officials’ failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli genocide. We also filed a lawsuit against the German government for exporting weapons of war to Israel for use in Gaza. One of the more successful endeavors we undertook was launching legal action in the Federal Court of Australia, seeking access to all permits allowing the export of arms and weapons to Israel that have been granted by the Minister for Defence since 7 October 2023. One of the consequences of this legal challenge was the government’s imposition of a ‘soft ban’ on direct arms exports to Israel, however, this does not include parts and components, exemptions for exporters, and transfers via third states such as the U.S., that end up in Israel. In a similar vein, the UK government decided to suspend weapons exports to Israel following the threat of new legal action before UK courts, due to the risk of facilitating serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israel in Gaza, while permitting indirect trade of F-35 fighter jet components. In light of this partial suspension, we continue the legal action towards a total ban on arms to Israel, including F-35 fighter jet part exports to Israel - whether direct or indirect, in the UK, the Netherlands, and elsewhere.

However, all these efforts fall short in light of the deflating reality that no enforcement mechanism exists in the international system and absent genuine political will to pressure Israel into compliance with international law. The unabated U.S. support to Israel has strengthened the latter to carry out total warfare with zero consideration for the law - which has been distorted and invoked as “camouflage” to legitimise its genocide in Gaza. The U.S. continues to supply arms to Israel in billions of U.S. Dollars and provide it with military and political support. This has taken the form of launching retaliatory threats and intimidation against ICC members and their families, support to the delegitimisation and elimination campaign against UNRWA, and the provision of intelligence and logistics support to carry out the Nuseirat massacre committed by Israeli forces on 8 June 2024 via civilian vehicles that infiltrated the refugee camp through the reported utilisation of the U.S.-built pier. The U.S. support for Israel is evident in its positions within the UN, where it has blocked five draft resolutions at the Security Council, most of which aimed to impose a ceasefire. Of the four resolutions in relation to Gaza that were passed, three were adopted with U.S. abstention. That said, the Security Council has failed to enforce any of these resolutions.

The gravity of the situation in Gaza has further required the intervention of the ICC, as the court of last resort for justice for Palestinians. While the ICC’s work on the situation in the State of Palestine has been one marked with unparalleled difficulties both from within and outside the ICC, state interventions in the justice process have increased following the long-overdue announcement of the arrest warrants application filed by the Office of the Prosecutor. The amicus curiae proceedings triggered by the United Kingdom on jurisdiction matters already settled by the Pre-Trial Chamber in 2021, and several states’ positions against the ICC’s jurisdiction in the situation in Palestine, have further delayed the issuance of arrest warrants and justice before the ICC.

A year on, and states’ continued failure to uphold their international obligations to prevent and end genocide and ensure respect for international law remains unwavering. Only few states have set an example for state action in the face of genocide, including Colombia in banning coal exports to Israel and severing diplomatic ties, South Africa in holding Israel accountable before the ICJ, Malaysia in banning all Israeli and Israeli-bound vessels from docking at its ports, Mexico, Chile, South Africa, Djibouti, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and Comoros in referring the situation in the State of Palestine to the ICC, and Belgium, Ireland, and Iceland’s financial contributions to the ICC in support of the Prosecutor’s investigation in relation to Gaza. Instead, states, including many European states, continue to deal with Israel as if it were ‘business as usual’, and have completely disregarded Palestinians suffering in their statements marking one year since 7 October. The ongoing Gaza genocide has laid bare the hypocrisy and double standards of the global north concerning the rules-based international order, while the global south has rallied behind Palestinians and the respect for the international legal order, exposing their biases. 

We, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq, and Al Mezan, renew our commitment to continue advocating for accountability and justice for the Palestinian people, who have been enduring a year-long genocide in Gaza, and 76 years of Israeli settler-colonial apartheid and an ongoing Nakba.