Escalating Mass Killings, the Targeting of Civilians, Students, Journalists, and Medics, the Destruction of the Means of Life, and the Acceleration of Annexation and Settlement Projects Reveal Israel’s Determination to Continue Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing Against the Palestinian People
Monday, 22 June 2026
Press Statement
Escalating Mass Killings, the Targeting of Civilians, Students, Journalists, and Medics, the Destruction of the Means of Life, and the Acceleration of Annexation and Settlement Projects Reveal Israel’s Determination to Continue Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing Against the Palestinian People
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) is following with profound concern and condemnation the continued and escalating grave and systematic crimes and violations committed by Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, and Jerusalem. These developments confirm beyond doubt that what has been taking place since 7 October 2023 is no longer merely a large-scale military assault, but a full-fledged system of compound crimes based on mass killing, incremental extermination, starvation, deprivation of water, the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, and forced displacement, alongside the accelerated implementation of colonial annexation and settlement projects and the violent reshaping of Palestinian demography and geography, amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide under international law.
ICSPR affirms that the overall field developments during the past days and hours reveal that the occupation has moved into an even more dangerous phase, combining large-scale direct killing of civilians with the systematic targeting of health, educational, relief, and economic facilities, while imposing lethal living conditions that make life in the Gaza Strip nearly impossible, within the framework of a settler-colonial project aimed at emptying the land of its people and imposing permanent facts by military force.
In recent days, occupation forces have continued committing mass killings against civilians throughout the Gaza Strip by targeting homes, displacement tents, civilian gatherings, vehicles, public roads, and areas falsely designated as safe displacement zones. In Gaza City, occupation aircraft bombed an apartment belonging to the Al-Safadi family on Al-Thalathini Street, killing Hussein Atta Al-Safadi, 40, and his two daughters, Lana, 12, and Zeina, 6, and injuring their mother and a number of nearby residents. Occupation forces also targeted Ahmad Munir Al-Zaza in Jabalia and opened fire on civilians in Beit Lahia, killing Taghreed Zamlat, 52, while gunfire from naval boats at displacement tents west of Gaza City caused the death of Kamal Ahmad Al-Sayed from wounds he had sustained.
In another crime that reflects the widening pattern of targeting, an Israeli drone struck a group of civilians on top of a house belonging to the Abu Hasna family in Al-Bureij refugee camp, killing journalist Ahmad Samir Washah, cameraman for Al Jazeera Mubasher, along with Abdulrahman Abu Gharqoua and Seba’i Abu Hasna. In Khan Younis, Zaki Abu Mustafa died from wounds sustained in the bombing of a displacement tent, while Haroun Abu Al-Qur’a, Abduljawad Abu Al-Laban, and Tariq Kaid Abu Saif, Director of the Hamama Al-Salam Humanitarian Association, were killed in a strike targeting a civilian vehicle near Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City. Abdul Salam Yassin was also killed by occupation fire in the vicinity of Wadi Gaza.
In a particularly grave development, occupation forces killed Palestinian high school student Raghad Hussein Ashour while she was trying to access the internet in order to complete her exams, in yet another indication of the deliberate targeting of the future of Palestinian youth and the right to education. The attacks also continued after gatherings of civilians formed to rescue the wounded, as occupation forces re-bombed civilian areas shortly after residents assembled to evacuate casualties, reflecting an entrenched pattern of targeting rescue operations and civilian response efforts.
ICSPR also condemns the continued targeting of medical, ambulance, and civil defense crews. Paramedic Maysara Al-Khawaja was killed while performing his humanitarian duty in rescuing the wounded, bringing the number of ambulance and civil defense personnel killed since the start of the aggression to more than 142, in blatant violation of the special protection guaranteed under international humanitarian law to medical and humanitarian personnel.
Field information further points to a dangerous escalation in the use of new instruments of killing, as the occupation has deployed at least 23 armed military cranes equipped with machine guns inside the so-called “yellow zone” east of the Gaza Strip, transforming the area into open killing platforms targeting residential neighborhoods and displacement zones and imposing repeated terror and forced displacement on the civilian population.
At the same time, the occupation continues to use siege, starvation, and deprivation of water as systematic weapons of war by blocking the entry of fuel, oils, lubricants, spare parts, medicines, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid, causing widespread collapse in essential services. This has led to the shutdown of most electricity generators in hospitals, the breakdown of water and sewage systems, the immobilization of hundreds of ambulances, and the deterioration of municipal and transportation services, thereby deepening the humanitarian and public health catastrophe.
Data received from health institutions indicate that around 70 percent of patients are no longer receiving complete medical services, that the shortage of essential medicines has reached 50 percent, that the shortfall in diagnostic capacity exceeds 75 percent, and that the shortage of medical consumables exceeds 60 percent, while the deficit in cardiac catheterization supplies ranges between 90 and 95 percent. UNRWA is also suffering from a severe shortage of chronic disease medications ranging between 50 and 70 percent, while its medical laboratories in Gaza have ceased functioning entirely. In addition, 72 out of 111 hospital generators are no longer operational, placing the lives of thousands of patients and wounded persons at risk, especially cancer patients, kidney failure patients, and premature infants.
ICSPR further warns of a worsening environmental and public health disaster resulting from the collapse of municipal systems, including the discharge of around 60,000 cubic meters of wastewater into the sea every day, along with increasing dangers related to Sheikh Radwan lagoon, absorption pits, and the accumulation of waste in shelters and residential neighborhoods, all of which raise the risk of a widespread outbreak of epidemics and infectious disease.
According to cumulative figures, the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023 has exceeded 73,025, while the number of wounded has surpassed 173,368. In the occupied West Bank, the number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of this year has risen to 70, including children and women, the latest being the child Reda Sami Awad, 15, and the young man Issa Arafat Awad, 19, in the town of Beit Ummar north of Hebron.
In the same context, the West Bank is witnessing an accelerated escalation in annexation and settlement projects, including the establishment of new settlement outposts, the expansion of settlements, and the construction of bypass roads, in addition to plans for a new settlement city in the Jordan Valley under the name “City of Palms.” ICSPR also warns against Israeli statements calling for the settlement of colonists in the Gaza Strip or the imposition of a permanent military presence in parts of Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, as indicators of an expansionist colonial project aimed at reshaping the political geography of the region.
ICSPR affirms that these combined policies and practices—from targeting civilians, journalists, students, and medical and relief personnel, to using starvation, deprivation of water, and siege as weapons of war, destroying infrastructure, imposing lethal living conditions, and accelerating annexation, settlement, and forced displacement—constitute grave violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and fully constituted acts of genocide.
The Commission renews its call on the United Nations, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, and international mediators to take urgent action to stop the genocidal war, provide immediate international protection to Palestinian civilians, ensure the permanent opening of crossings, facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, fuel, and medicines without restrictions, and bring an end to the siege, starvation, and collective punishment imposed on more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
ICSPR also calls on the international community to take practical and binding measures to halt annexation, settlement expansion, and forced displacement, confront attempts to reoccupy the Gaza Strip or impose permanent colonial realities in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley, and guarantee the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them the rights to self-determination, return, and independence.
Finally, ICSPR renews its call on the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the Human Rights Council, and all relevant international mechanisms to accelerate investigations and accountability measures against Israeli officials responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and to impose effective international sanctions and measures that end the policy of impunity and restore the authority of international law and the protection of civilians.
