‘The international legal order is breaking down in Gaza’: UN experts mark one year of genocidal attacks on Palestinians

GENEVA – Marking one year since the start of Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza, a group of independent human rights experts issued the following statement:

“The world faces the most profound crisis since the end of World War II. The atrocities which the world witnessed in World War II resulted in a collective determination to say ‘Never Again’ and to create the United Nations to achieve that goal. However, one year since the 7 October attack by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups against Israel, the world has seen a brutal escalation of violence, resulting in genocidal attacks, ethnic cleansing and collective punishment of Palestinians, which risks breaking down the international multilateral system.

The Israeli military assault that commenced immediately after the October 7 attack, was accompanied by genocidal statements by Israeli leaders. On October 9, the Israeli Defense Minister Gallant ordered a “complete siege, no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel” and a full-on assault against the biggest open-air prison of our time. On 28 October, following weeks of air strikes on Gaza, just as the ground invasion began amid violent anti-Palestinian rhetoric by Israeli officials, public figures and others, Prime Minister Netanyahu issued the command: “Remember what Amalek has done to you, we have been commanded. And we do remember.” In so doing, he invoked the Biblical reference: “Now go, attack Amalek, and destroy all that they have, and spare no one; but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

One year later, the promise by Israeli leaders to destroy Gaza has been fulfilled. The Strip is now a wasteland of rubble and human remains, where survivors – men and women, children and the elderly – struggle to hold on to life amid deprivation and disease. Israeli bombs have spared no one – not journalists, students, scholars, doctors, nurses, babies, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, civil servants, people seeking food and safety or humanitarian workers, including UN staff. Entire families have been exterminated and generations erased, with millions of lives torn apart.

Nearly all those surviving are displaced, trapped in ever-shrinking parts of the tiny territory, corralled into crowded camps and shelters with nowhere to flee. Constant bombing has turned humanitarian zones into killing fields.

The enhanced siege, restrictions on aid and relentless targeting of homes and key civilian infrastructure have led to starvation at an unprecedented pace. The decimation of health infrastructure has made preventable diseases incurable and accelerated the spread of illness and epidemics, while the massive destruction of educational, cultural and heritage institutions and the land itself deeply jeopardises Palestinian culture, national identity and existence on the land.

Meanwhile, as the world watches the people of Gaza live in constant terror of impending annihilation, broadcast and shared on social media, a deliberate pattern of conduct threatening the extinction of Palestinians through mass displacement, death, destruction and annexation of land is emerging in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.

Nothing can justify these acts. For a year, we have implored States to intervene, in line with their moral and legal obligations to prevent these atrocities and preserve the international legal system, human rights and humanity. Our calls have gone largely unheeded, together with those of millions of people worldwide who have used their platforms to advocate for an end to the violence, and who continue to face repressive tactics to silence and punish their voices, in several countries.

The international legal order is breaking down in the face of these atrocities. The International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants remains outstanding without a timely decision by the Court while a genocidal campaign rages. Provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to prevent genocidal acts and preserve evidence of crimes committed in Gaza remain unfulfilled. The ICJ Advisory Opinion declaring Israel’s occupation unlawful, and amounting to racial segregation and apartheid, followed by a widely supported General Assembly resolution, remains to be implemented. Defiant in the face of overwhelming public sentiment across the international community, Israel continues to act with brazen disregard for international law and order.

The international community’s failure to secure a ceasefire and hold accountable all those responsible for or complicit in heinous crimes, has not only enabled the continuation of unprecedented brutality but widened it to the broader region, setting Lebanon ablaze with violence and destruction.

This spiral of destruction must end. The international community must act with utmost urgency to change the trajectory of violence if we are to avert a full-scale conflagration with unthinkable consequences – most egregiously for the children.

We call on all leaders to move beyond dehumanising and polarising narratives, and actively work for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and crimes in Palestine/Israel and the region, for the immediate release of all persons arbitrarily detained, both Israelis held in Gaza and Palestinians held by Israel.

We call for immediate provision of life-saving humanitarian assistance to all affected people and for such access to be guaranteed by the international community.

We honour all victims, recent and past. Our societies must allow space to process the immense toll of collective grief and trauma, within those peoples most deeply affected by this, and in communities across the globe who have borne witness and taken action. We must try to move forward together. We extend a heartfelt appeal to the Israeli people, acknowledging their deep trauma and pain, and seeking their support in fostering change and working together to bring an end to the violence against and suffering of the Palestinian people.

We demand that everyone, state actors and individuals alike, prioritise respect for international law and human rights without discrimination and double standards.

The world must swiftly reorient its moral compass toward justice and freedom for all and recommit to international peace, which will never be achieved until everyone, including Palestinians and Israelis, are afforded the chance to live in equal dignity and freedom.”