Introduction
The crimes come in light of the aggressive war against the Gaza Strip, which is accompanied by acts of killing and genocide of Palestinians and the systematic and widespread destruction of infrastructure and residential buildings. At the same time, senior Israeli officials, leaders and journalists keep calling for revenge against the Gaza Strip and its Palestinian residents by targeting civilians and destroying infrastructure. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu announced that Israel would eliminate the Hamas movement; he said: “We will paralyze them to the point of destruction, and we will take revenge for this black day that they brought upon the State of Israel and its citizens, and we will turn all the places where Hamas hides and operates from into destroyed cities. He ordered Gaza residents to leave the Gaza Strip because the occupation forces would operate everywhere.” So far, this aggressive war has resulted in 22,313 Palestinian fatalities, while the number of injured has reached 57,296.”.[1]
The Israeli occupation forces and settlers continue to commit serious crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, taking advantage of the ongoing aggressive war on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. These crimes have become more severe acts: wilful killing, property destruction and rubbery, arbitrary arrests, torture, restriction of freedom of movement, and interception of ambulances. In contrast, settler crimes are represented by the deliberate killing of dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank, forced displacement of residents at gunpoint, and prevention of Palestinian farmers being unable to access their lands and seize their property.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced on 10/9/2023 the imposition of a comprehensive siege on Gaza, which has already been besieged since 2007. He said: “No food, no water, no electricity, no fuel,” adding: “Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly”.[2] Retired Major General in the Israeli army, Giora Eiland, declared: “We need to bomb Shifa Hospital and starve the people of Gaza, and this should have been done on Saturday, 10/7/2023, seven in the morning, when Hamas began its attack on Israel”.[3] Energy Minister of the Likud Party, Yisrael Katz, announced, “There is no water and electricity for the residents of Gaza after today. This is how a people of murderers must be dealt with.”[4]
Several members of the Israeli government announced their intention to purge the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and forcibly displace them to Egypt or Jordan, knowing that 70% of them were refugees who were forcibly displaced from their homes during the Palestinian Nakba in 1948. The Israeli army spokesman told foreign media on Tuesday morning, 10/10/2023, that The Palestinians must go to Egypt through the Rafah crossing. Amir Whitman, leader of the liberal movement in the Likud Party, called for international coordination to transfer all residents of the Gaza Strip. In contrast, significant businessmen called for the destruction of Gaza and leveling it to the ground, given a period. They were limited to Jordan and Egypt to save the lives of the people of Gaza and absorb them into their country.”.[5]
Former Israeli Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked, who is considered one of the biggest instigators against the Palestinian people, published on her personal Facebook account on June 30, 2014, an article by Uri Altsur urging the destruction of Palestine, including its cities, villages, and infrastructure, and the extermination of all Palestinians as enemies, including… That is the sheiks and women, the killing of Palestinian mothers, and the destruction of their homes under the pretext that they give birth to “little snakes,” and this is clear evidence of its support for the extermination of the Palestinians.[6]
Legal dimensions
Despite the seriousness of the statements of Israeli leaders regarding genocide, preventing food shipments and humanitarian aid from reaching the stricken population of Gaza, and cutting off water supplies to Gaza, Western countries continue to operate with a policy of double standards by highlighting the human losses in Israel, while neglecting to mention the plight. The painful suffering of Palestinian civilians killed and maimed resulted from indiscriminate Israeli military reprisals. On October 9, 2023, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and France issued a joint statement publicly condemning Hamas attacks and pledging “to ensure Israel’s ability to defend itself,” giving Israel carte blanche to use large-scale aggressive force throughout the Gaza Strip, which is half of its more than two million population are children.
Western countries also support the Israeli military attack on Gaza as an exercise of the right to self-defense, which is contrary to the truth because Israel is already aggressively occupying the Palestinian territories and working to strengthen the apartheid colonial settler system in the occupied Palestinian territories, and is trying to forcibly transfer Palestinians from Gaza to Gradually seizing more and more parts of historic Palestine. These actions violate jus cogens international law and may amount to war crimes of forcible transfer and crimes against humanity of displacement, persecution, and apartheid.
Furthermore, the criminal acts committed by the Israeli military constitute collective punishment prohibited by international law because they target innocent Palestinian civilians due to past actions attributed to Hamas. Willful killings and collective punishment violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. By failing to stop the current attack on the Gaza Strip, third countries are also violating their obligation to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law, contributing to supporting and perpetuating an aggressive war on Gaza, and depriving the Palestinian people of their collective right to self-determination, ending the Israeli occupation, and dismantling settler-colonial rule and gaining independence.
Besides, third countries provide military equipment for use in the commission of Israeli war crimes, including “willful killings,”[7] intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body and health,[8] and the widespread destruction and deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare[9] through depriving them of things that are indispensable to their survival.”[10]
Since 2007, Israel has imposed an air, land, and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, punishing its entire population. The current fighting is the sixth major military operation conducted by Israel and armed groups based in Gaza since then. In June, Amnesty International published its investigation into the May 2023 attack on the Gaza Strip, concluding that Israel illegally destroyed Palestinian homes, often without military necessity, amounting to collective punishment against the civilian population. Israeli forces in Gaza (as well as in the West Bank and Israel) committed acts prohibited by the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population to maintain a regime of oppression and control over Palestinians, which constitutes a crime Apartheid is against humanity.[11]
While there has been recent criticism of those who think Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, a long history of human rights scholarship and legal analysis supports the assertion. Prominent scholars of the international law crime of genocide and human rights authorities assume that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people could constitute a form of genocide. Those policies range from the 1948 mass killing and displacement of Palestinians to a half-century of military occupation, the discriminatory legal regime governing Palestinians repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements expressly favoring the elimination of Palestinians.[12]
Statements by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant confirm the intentional retaliatory attacks against civilians, considering that he ordered the imposition of a “complete blockade of the Gaza Strip.” He firmly declared that there would be no electricity, food, or fuel; everything was closed. “We fight human animals, and we act accordingly.” In the context of ordering the evacuation of northern Gaza, he also stated that the goal is to “change the face of reality in Gaza after 50 years.” An Israeli army spokesman admitted, “Israel, in its large-scale bombing of Gaza, aims to inflict the greatest amount of damage and seeks precision.” An unnamed Israeli official told local media that Gaza would turn into a “tent city” at the end of the military campaign. Legal experts point out that these statements show a genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinians as a national group.[13]
The all-out war waged by Israel against Gaza is inconsistent with international humanitarian law. It violates Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the absolute prohibition of starvation as a method of warfare, prohibiting combatants from “attacking, destroying, removing or rendering Indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs. Rule 53 of customary international humanitarian law refers to the prohibition of starvation as a customary rule in international law. Deprivation of basic supplies necessary for the survival of a population, including food and clean water, May amount to a war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(25) and a crime against humanity under Articles 7(1)(b), 7(2)(b) and 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court.[14]
The call made by the Israeli Minister of Defense to cut off food, water, and basic supplies necessary for human survival in a besieged area under occupation and in the context of widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population may reach the threshold of “genocide” given the occupation’s intention to cut off water, food, medicine, and electricity from Gaza. Thus, imposing famine with the intention of wholly or partially destroying the Palestinians in Gaza, killing them, causing them serious physical or mental harm, or deliberately subjecting them to living conditions intended for their actual destruction, in whole or in part.[15]
Given the Israeli Prime Minister’s complementary calls to turn Gaza into “ruins,” such a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population would amount to a crime against humanity, reminiscent of the “scorched earth” policy implemented at Nuremberg. Moreover, the inhumane language used by the Israeli Defense Minister, a high-ranking government minister, describing the Palestinian people as “human animals” amounts to a blatant expression of inflammatory libel, used to belittle them and encourage the commission of international crimes.
The Israeli occupation revealed a plan to clean the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and forcibly displace them to Egypt or Jordan, knowing that 70% of them were refugees who were forcibly displaced from their homes during the Palestinian Nakba in 1948. The Israeli army spokesman said this to foreign media on Tuesday morning, 10/ 10/2023. The Palestinians, including more than a million children, must go to Egypt through the Rafah crossing. On October 13, 2023, the Israeli occupation army ordered more than a million Palestinians to leave their homes in the northern Gaza Strip and head to the central and southern Gaza to Rafah, Khan Yunis, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, al-Maghazi, and Bureij. Palestinian and international human rights organizations considered this matter illegal because it aims to forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and bring them closer to the border with Egypt. Since that time, Israel has not stopped the relentless bombing of the entire Gaza Strip by air, land, and sea, including the southern regions, where Most of the Palestinians have taken refuge, which means that there is no safe place in Gaza, and indicates a clear intention of the occupation to wipe out the Strip and cleanse it of Palestinians by continuing the crimes of killing, destruction, and displacement, and placing the population in difficult living conditions that reach the threshold of partial or total destruction.[16]It is estimated that more than 1.5 million people in Gaza are displaced. Among these are 813,000 displaced people seeking shelter in 154 UNRWA shelters. UNRWA shelters accommodate people far exceeding their planned capacity. Overcrowding leads to the spreading of diseases, including acute respiratory infections and diarrhea, raising environmental and health concerns and affecting the Agency’s ability to ensure timely and effective service delivery.[17]
The Israeli bombing targeted hospitals, Medical centers, medical teams, ambulances, schools, and worship places. Reports indicated that 300 schools and educational facilities were damaged, 135 medical facilities was targeted, which led to 25 hospitals and 52 medical centers being out of service, and 55 ambulances were damaged. The occupation forces requested the evacuation of 13 hospitals located in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. Three churches and 74 mosques were also bombed, and 11 bakeries that produced bread were destroyed.[18] The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that at least 521 people, including 16 medical workers, were killed in 137 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza as of November 12. These attacks, along with Israel’s decisions to cut off electricity and water and obstruct humanitarian access to Gaza, severely impede access to health care. As of November 10, the United Nations found that two-thirds of primary care facilities and half of hospitals in Gaza were non-functional while medical teams dealt with unprecedented numbers of seriously injured people. Hospitals ran out of essential medicines and equipment, and doctors told Human Rights Watch that they had to perform operations without anesthesia and use vinegar as a disinfectant[19] Human Rights Watch said that the Israeli army’s repeated and unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further devastating the health care system in the Gaza Strip and should be investigated as war crimes. Despite the IDF’s claims on 5 November 2023 regarding Hamas’ “disdainful use of hospitals,” no evidence has been presented to justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law.[20]
The cutting of water, electricity, and the Internet from Gaza and preventing the entry of humanitarian convoys carrying food, medicine, and other supplies essential to the Gaza Strip for the survival of the population meets Israel’s intentional genocidal declarations of Palestinians, in whole or in part, as a national group through murder; Causing severe physical or mental harm; Deliberately imposing living conditions on them to destroy them physically, in whole or in part. It seems that Israel intends, through its siege of the Gaza Strip and bombing it brutally and indiscriminately, to inflict the most significant amount of human losses, destroying infrastructure and imposing living conditions on the Palestinian people to partially or destroy them physically.[21] In light of the above, it can be inferred that the calls for retaliation repeated by Israeli officials since the beginning of the war on Gaza, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement to turn Gaza into rubble and the Defense Minister’s statement to cut off food, water, electricity, and other essential supplies necessary for human survival in the area It has already been subject to an unjust siege since 2007 and is constantly exposed to fierce military attacks targeting the civilian population, which may amount to the crime of genocide given the clear intention of the occupation to punish the residents of Gaza by depriving them of all necessities, inflicting severe physical or mental harm on them, or subjugating them and intentionally inflicting living conditions intended to destroy them in whole or in part.[22]
Recommendations
The Arab Council strongly condemns the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza and the indiscriminate massacres against civilians. The widespread and systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure constitutes a violation of international law, potentially amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity and reaching the level of genocide.
The Council warns against the continuation of intense and indiscriminate attacks by the Israeli army on densely populated areas in Gaza, along with the complete closure and cutting off of electricity, water, food, and medicine supplies to Gaza. Such actions represent serious violations of the right to health and life for approximately 2.2 million people in Gaza.
In light of these circumstances, the Council recommends condemning the criminal actions of the Israeli army, investigating the Fourth Geneva Convention, and urging the international community to fulfill its responsibilities to stop the attack and ensure respect for international humanitarian law.
It emphasizes the international community’s failure to halt the escalation, contributing to the support and perpetuation of the aggressive war on Gaza and depriving the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination and independence.
The international community must strongly condemn Israel’s retaliatory military attacks against Palestinian civilians and civilian targets in Gaza.
Immediate intervention is required to protect the Palestinian people and counter Israel’s incitement to genocide against Palestinians. We must exert strong pressure on Israel, the occupying force, to comply with its obligations under international law, ensuring the vital supplies of water, gas, fuel, electricity, and basic necessities reach Palestinians in Gaza.
Any attacks on civilians and civilian facilities must cease. U.S. and European leaders bear the responsibility of holding Israel accountable for its violations of international law.
Israel must address the root causes of violence by ending its Israeli settlement project and suppressing the Palestinian people. The Israeli army must withdraw completely and unconditionally from the occupied Palestinian territories, with the European Union intervening to ensure the dismantling of the discriminatory apartheid system. Israel should open immediate safe passages for humanitarian supplies, including fuel, medical, and food supplies, and guarantee the population’s rights to access water and electricity.
The international community should effectively intervene to halt the killings, starvation, and displacement in Gaza, holding Israel accountable for its violations of international humanitarian law.
Swift action is required to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure the provision of medical aid, relief, and fuel.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court should investigate Israeli crimes, including indiscriminate targeting of civilians and civilian structures.
Third-party countries should avoid assisting in maintaining the illegal situation and cease sending military equipment to Israel.
Israel must adhere to the principles of international law, including proportionality, distinction between civilian and military targets, and refraining from collective punishment, revenge, and displacement.
The international community should take legal action against Israel at the ICC and ICJ.
Israel must pay financial compensation for damages caused, including property destruction, loss of life, and displacement.
