ICSPR: Escalation by the Occupation in the Gaza Strip Confirms the Continuation of the Crime of Genocide and Undermines the Ceasefire Agreement
Date: 9 July 2026
Press Release
ICSPR: Escalation by the Occupation in the Gaza Strip Confirms the Continuation of the Crime of Genocide and Undermines the Ceasefire Agreement
The International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the continued commission by Israeli occupation forces of premeditated killing and systematic targeting crimes against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, through the bombing of displacement tents and civilian vehicles, direct gunfire on citizens and drivers, killing of children and women, obstruction of rescue and ambulance operations, and the withholding of the bodies of martyrs. These actions constitute a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement, international humanitarian law, international human rights law, the four Geneva Conventions, the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Over the last forty-eight hours, the Israeli occupation has escalated its breaches of the ceasefire agreement and continued its airstrikes, shelling, and direct gunfire against civilians in various areas of the Gaza Strip, leading to the killing of at least fourteen Palestinians, including children, women, and drivers, and injuring dozens more, in continuation of a policy of systematic targeting of civilians and undermining any obligations arising from the ceasefire agreement.
In the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli drone targeted the Al-Batn Al-Samin area south of Khan Younis, killing the two young men Yahya Saeed Muhammad Hamdan (26) and Abdullah Suleiman Awad Abu Yousef (23), and injuring a number of citizens. Four civilians were also killed and others injured when a tent sheltering displaced persons in the Al-Maslak area south of the city was struck, in yet another crime confirming the continued targeting of places sheltering civilians and displaced families. In addition, a truck driver was killed by occupation forces’ gunfire inside the “yellow zone” in Rafah city, in further evidence of ongoing attacks on civilians and their sources of livelihood.
In central Gaza, Osama Walid Deeb Muhareb (36) and the young woman Sundus Farah Muhammad Muhareb (24) were killed, and others injured, when an Israeli drone strike hit the Nuseirat camp. The young man Muhammad Abu Khammash was also killed by occupation forces’ gunfire east of Deir al-Balah, in parallel with continued artillery shelling and shooting at areas east of the Maghazi and Bureij camps.
In Gaza City, citizen Muhammad Al-Fioumi was killed and three others injured in a drone strike that targeted a civilian vehicle near Al-Abbas Junction in the western part of the city. Other civilians were killed in separate attacks in the Sheikh Radwan and Al-Zeitoun neighborhoods and along University Street, alongside continued gunfire from Israeli quadcopter drones and military vehicles in the Al-Tuffah and Al-Sabra neighborhoods, as well as demolitions of homes in the northern Gaza Strip.
As a result, the death toll since the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement has risen to 1,098 martyrs and 3,517 injuries.
ICSPR expresses its deep concern over the continued withholding of Palestinian bodies and their use as a bargaining chip, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law. It also voices grave concern regarding the continued detention of physician Hossam Abu Safiya, his deprivation of legal visits, and the uncertainty surrounding his health condition, which raises serious fears for his life and safety.
ICSPR further expresses its deep concern over ongoing breaches of the ceasefire agreement, the obstruction of the entry of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and fuel, and the prevention of the Palestinian National Committee from carrying out its tasks in the Gaza Strip, in addition to Israeli measures aimed at imposing new facts on the ground, including the expansion of buffer zones and attempts to divide the Gaza Strip into isolated cantons. These actions threaten the unity of the Strip and entrench policies of forced displacement and demographic change prohibited under international law.
ICSPR affirms that the Israeli escalation during the last forty-eight hours, which claimed the lives of fourteen Palestinians, forms part of a systematic policy aimed at emptying the ceasefire agreement of its substance and imposing new realities by military force, through continued daily killings, targeting of civilians and displacement tents, and deepening of the humanitarian catastrophe. This confirms that the occupation government is using the agreement as a cover to continue the crime of genocide, amid the inability of mediators and the international community to ensure respect for its obligations under international law.
The International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) calls upon the United Nations, the Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, the guarantor states and mediators, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, the States Parties to the Genocide Convention, the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and all free people of the world to act immediately to assume their legal, political, and moral responsibilities. ICSPR urges them to work to stop the crime of genocide and the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, to compel Israel to implement its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, to open all crossings, and to guarantee the free flow of humanitarian aid, fuel, medicines, and medical supplies, as well as to secure the evacuation of patients and the wounded, enable ambulance and civil defense crews to perform their duties, release the withheld bodies, reveal the fate of the missing and forcibly disappeared, and ensure the protection of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, especially Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya. ICSPR also calls for enabling the Palestinian National Committee to carry out its tasks, expediting the procedures of the International Criminal Court and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, and imposing deterrent sanctions on the occupying state, including banning the export and transfer of weapons to it, and halting all forms of military, political, and economic support that contribute to the continuation of the crimes. It further calls for ensuring accountability for all those responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and ending the policy of impunity.
End.
International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR).
