ICSPR Calls on the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to Urgently Issue Arrest Warrants Against Israeli War Criminals: The Ongoing Genocide in Gaza Must Not Go Unpunished

Monday, 7 July 2025

Press Release

“ICSPR Calls on the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to Urgently Issue Arrest Warrants Against Israeli War Criminals: The Ongoing Genocide in Gaza Must Not Go Unpunished”

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) has submitted an urgent legal memorandum to several international bodies and decision-making entities, including: the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the President of the Human Rights Council, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and the International Court of Justice.

In the memorandum, ICSPR called for immediate and serious action to put an end to the unjustifiable delay in issuing and executing international arrest warrants against Israeli political and military officials involved in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

ICSPR affirmed that the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces over the past nine months in Gaza constitute a clear and deliberate pattern of grave and systematic violations of international humanitarian law, particularly the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998). Furthermore, these crimes meet all the legal criteria of genocide, in terms of intent, conduct, and consequences, as documented in dozens of reports issued by international and local organizations.

The memorandum presented detailed data illustrating the scale and nature of the crimes and violations committed. According to ICSPR:

• More than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 27,000 children and women, as well as thousands of medical staff, journalists, and civil defense personnel.

• Over 90,000 civilians have been wounded, many suffering from amputations and permanent disabilities, including thousands of children.

• More than 80% of residential buildings and infrastructure in Gaza have been destroyed, including water, electricity, communications, healthcare, and education facilities.

• More than 390 medical facilities have been directly targeted, and over 30 hospitals have been rendered completely out of service.

• Hundreds of schools, universities, places of worship, museums, and archaeological sites have been bombed, in a deliberate attempt to erase Palestinian national and cultural identity.

• Starvation has been used as a weapon of war, with a full blockade preventing the entry of food, water, medicine, and fuel, leading to the death of dozens of children due to dehydration and malnutrition.

• Over 1.7 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes, rendering Gaza an uninhabitable disaster zone.

ICSPR emphasized that these crimes are not the result of individual misconduct but are part of a deliberate and systematic policy orchestrated by Israel’s highest political and military leadership. This underscores the existence of criminal intent and a clear purpose to commit genocide, as defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Commission expressed deep concern over the continued international paralysis and legal inaction, which have effectively granted Israel impunity and emboldened it to escalate its crimes. ICSPR also criticized the delay by the International Criminal Court in issuing arrest warrants, despite overwhelming and well-documented evidence, which represents a serious failure to uphold the Court’s mandate and a grave violation of the Palestinian victims’ right to justice.

ICSPR Demands the Following:

1. Immediate issuance of international arrest warrants against all Israeli political and military officials involved in war crimes and genocide, including the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, Chief of Staff, field commanders, and anyone responsible for planning, ordering, or executing the crimes.

2. Activation of universal jurisdiction by national courts to prosecute Israeli war criminals, and full cooperation by States Parties to the Rome Statute.

3. Obliging non-cooperative states to uphold their international obligations and refuse safe haven to perpetrators.

4. Strengthening international protection mechanisms for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, and ensuring an immediate end to the aggression and blockade.

5. Establishing a special international criminal tribunal for Israeli crimes in Palestine, similar to the tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

6. Requiring Israel to provide immediate compensation to victims, as part of a broader transitional justice and reconstruction process.

ICSPR concluded its statement by stressing that impunity fuels further atrocities, undermines international law and human rights frameworks, and allows genocide to continue unchecked. The Commission called on the international community to rise to its moral and legal responsibilities, and to translate words into actions that ensure accountability for Israeli leaders and justice for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian victims of one of the most horrific atrocities in modern history.