17 October 2024. For over a year Israel has inflicted unimaginable violence on the people in Gaza, with no sign of a letting up in the killing and destruction. Current estimates state that over 42,000 people have been directly killed, with thousands remaining missing and over 100,000 injured in Gaza, most of whom are children and women. But the true toll is widely estimated to be much higher. Extreme concern rises as the Israeli occupying forces turn their efforts to Northern Gaza, stating its intention to remove the estimated 400,000 people who remain there.
Since Sunday, 13 October 2024 alone, dozens of cumulated deaths and grave injuries resulted from the bombing and fire of Al-Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir Al-Balah, a tank shelling of a food queue on Monday in Jabalia, another killing in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan district and the bombing of a school shelter in Jabalia. These massacres add to the grave and unlawful harm inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli military, which FIDH asserts is committing an ongoing genocide against Palestinians. This assessment is based on the deliberate and systematic nature of the attacks — including the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the denial of vital supplies — leading to conditions aimed at destroying the Palestinian population in whole or in part. A United Nations Commission has found that "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities".
Far from improving, the humanitarian situation becomes more dire every day. According to the United Nations, September marked the lowest level of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza in at least six months. And in October, Israeli government data indicated that aid entering Gaza had nearly come to a total halt.
FIDH reiterates the urgent need for a permanent ceasefire and the release of Israeli and Palestinian captives. States are urged to implement sanctions against Israel, such as arms embargoes, for its gross and repeated international law violations. Their policies must align with the recent ICJ advisory opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) illegal. States are also urged to support the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Prosecutor’s efforts to bring about accountability for the international crimes reported in Palestine and Israel, and in no way to obstruct or threaten the Court’s authority or hinder its ability to carry out its independent mandate. As such, FIDH particularly warns of the severity of the pending United States (US) legislation, the "Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act", which threatens to sabotage any meaningful actions by the ICC to bring Israeli and Hamas leaders to justice.