The continuation of genocide crimes in Gaza and settlement expansion in the West Bank and Jerusalem is a stigma on humanity – The international community’s failure to provide protection for the Palestinian people

Date: August 19, 2025

Press Release

The continuation of genocide crimes in Gaza and settlement expansion in the West Bank and Jerusalem is a stigma on humanity – The international community’s failure to provide protection for the Palestinian people

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR): Israeli occupation forces continue to commit daily massacres against our people in the Gaza Strip, in the context of an ongoing genocide for the 680th consecutive day, accompanied by starvation crimes, and a systematic escalation of aggression in the West Bank and Jerusalem, within Zionist colonial and racist schemes aimed at implementing the settler-colonial project that seeks to liquidate the Palestinian cause, uproot the Palestinian people, forcibly displace them, and deprive them of their right to self-determination. During the past 24 hours alone, 60 martyrs and 344 wounded arrived at hospitals in the Strip, bringing the total death toll to 62,004 martyrs, the majority of them children and women, while the number of wounded reached 156,230, with thousands of victims still under the rubble unreachable due to ongoing bombardment, confirming the genocidal nature of the aggression and its systematic targeting of civilians.

The ICSPR: Confirms that the video recording of the targeting of 11-year-old girl Amina Ashraf Al-Mufti by a direct missile from an Israeli drone while she was fetching water at the yard of Kamal Adwan Hospital, on December 21, 2024, proves the deliberate targeting and killing of children, as part of the genocide during which the occupation forces killed nearly 19,000 children in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.

The ICSPR: States that the Israeli aggression and genocide have forced most Gaza residents into overcrowded camps lacking the most basic necessities of life, amidst the spread of famine, thirst, diseases, and epidemics, after Israeli forces destroyed 92% of homes, 90% of schools, universities, and hospitals (rendered out of service), and 95% of water wells. This is part of schemes to erase civil infrastructure and turn Palestinians into a community vulnerable to uprooting and displacement under a policy of ethnic cleansing. Evidence shows that the occupation authorities have crammed Gaza’s entire population into less than 15% of the Strip’s area, while working to establish mass detention camps on the ruins of Rafah, falsely marketed to international public opinion as so-called “safe zones.” Following the approval of the plan to reoccupy Gaza City and the northern Strip, Israel seeks to forcibly displace more than one million people, constituting a full-fledged ethnic cleansing crime. Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues to invade and destroy Al-Zaytoun neighborhood completely through bombardment, bulldozing, and explosive robots, displacing its residents as a prelude to the reoccupation and destruction of Gaza City and imposing a new reality aimed at the forced displacement of its inhabitants.

The ICSPR: Notes that more than two million people live under a systematic starvation policy, as only 1,937 aid trucks have entered during the past 22 days — less than 15% of actual needs. Most trucks are looted amid deliberate chaos engineered by the occupation, along with the prevention of UNRWA from bringing in aid, and obstruction of the distribution of what little aid enters, worsening the suffering of children, women, and the sick. Four new deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours due to hunger and malnutrition, raising the total starvation-related deaths to 263 martyrs, including 112 children. On the other hand, the occupation deliberately targets starving civilians as they attempt to obtain aid in front of criminal U.S.-Israeli aid distribution points, raising the toll of “aid massacres” to 1,938 martyrs and 14,420 wounded since the beginning of the aggression.

The ICSPR: Warns that 40,000 infants and 250,000 children face the risk of slow death due to acute malnutrition. The Ministry of Health recorded 320 miscarriages due to malnutrition, while 40% of pregnant and breastfeeding women suffer severe nutritional deficiencies. Nearly 200 children per day arrive at hospitals with acute malnutrition, while anemia rates among patients have reached unprecedented levels. At the same time, 19,000 cases of acute diarrhea, half of them among children, have been recorded due to water contamination, food shortages, lack of infant formula, and essential medicines, alongside fuel shortages that hinder the operation of water wells, desalination plants, and hospital generators. Only 15 hospitals out of 38 remain partially functional, amid shortages of medicines and medical supplies. Although the Strip requires 600 aid trucks daily, only 1,937 trucks entered in 22 days out of the needed 13,200 — less than 15% of actual needs. Most of these trucks are looted amid deliberate chaos engineered by the occupation under a policy of “starvation and chaos engineering.”

The ICSPR: Points out that, in addition to the massacres in Gaza, the occupation deliberately targets the healthcare system, as the Al-Aqsa Hospital has been bombed 13 times during the genocide war, killing 2 citizens, injuring dozens, and endangering patients. There are fears that the expansion of Israeli aggression may shut down the few partially operational hospitals. Attacks on medical teams killed 1,590 healthcare workers, including nearly 200 doctors, and 1,360 others were arrested, among them Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, Dr. Marwan Al-Homs, and Dr. Ahmed Mahna. The health sector suffers from a lack of 70% of essential medicines.

The ICSPR: Notes that in parallel, the occupation allows extremist settlers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque daily to perform Talmudic rituals, provoking Muslim sentiments. At the same time, settler militias, under army protection, escalate their assaults on residents of Jerusalem and the West Bank, particularly farmers, as part of schemes to displace Palestinians and seize land for settlements. This includes the announcement of implementing the E1 plan, which involves building 3,412 settlement units, dividing the West Bank and isolating Jerusalem in preparation for Israeli sovereignty and annexation, effectively eliminating any possibility of an independent Palestinian state.

The ICSPR: Affirms that the Gaza Strip is now living in a post-humanitarian catastrophe phase, where the Palestinian people are subjected to genocide and systematic forced displacement, while settlement and Judaization in the West Bank and Jerusalem are organized colonial crimes. Together, they constitute a dangerous colonial project that threatens to liquidate the Palestinian cause and undermine regional and international peace. The ongoing international silence represents direct complicity in the crime, and must end immediately through urgent legal, political, and humanitarian action to save the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights.

The ICSPR: Commends international organizations rejecting genocide and opposing forced displacement, and welcomes Egypt’s stance rejecting the displacement of Palestinians, while warning against Israeli negotiations with countries reportedly considering accepting Palestinians. ICSPR condemns the deepening Palestinian division and absence of a unified plan to confront occupation crimes, as well as the weak international response — including by the UN, Arab and Islamic countries, and the international community — in declaring Gaza a famine zone and enforcing international humanitarian law and ICJ rulings.

The ICSPR: Renews its urgent call to the international community, third states, the UN, and global conscience to:

• Stop the genocide and Israeli aggression in Gaza and the West Bank.

• Declare Gaza a famine zone.

• Lift the siege, open crossings, and ensure humanitarian aid flows through the UN.

• Stop the criminal U.S.-Israeli aid distribution mechanism.

• Provide immediate international protection for civilians, through the UN General Assembly’s “Uniting for Peace” resolution, by deploying an international protection force as part of a plan to end the occupation.

• Impose sanctions, boycott, suspend Israel’s UN membership.

• Prosecute Israeli leaders, soldiers, and accomplices before the ICC and under universal jurisdiction.

• Urge the ICJ to issue its final ruling confirming Israel’s perpetration of genocide and hold it criminally and civilly accountable.

• Mobilize global civil society to intensify political, legal, and grassroots advocacy to pressure states and organizations to fulfill their moral, legal, and humanitarian duties to stop genocide and starvation.