ICSPR: The Continuation of Genocide and Comprehensive Policies of Dismantling Palestinian Society in Gaza and the West Bank

9 January 2026

Press Statement

ICSPR: The Continuation of Genocide and Comprehensive Policies of Dismantling Palestinian Society in Gaza and the West Bank

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) affirms that the Palestinian peopleparticularly in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem are undergoing the most dangerous phase in their modern history. Policies of genocide, field executions, deliberate starvation, systematic destruction of infrastructure, forced displacement, arbitrary arrests, media bans, land confiscation, and settlement expansion are being implemented within a comprehensive and deliberate siege regime. These acts amount to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the four Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

ICSPR refers to official data issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip on 9 January 2026, confirming that 14 martyrs and 17 injured were received over the past 24 hours, while additional victims remain under the rubble and on roads due to ongoing bombardment and the continued ban on the entry of heavy machinery reflecting the complete inability of civil defense teams and medical personnel to carry out rescue operations.

ICSPR confirms that the cumulative toll since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on 7 October 2023 has reached 71,409 martyrs and 171,304 injured, with approximately 9,000 victims still missing under the rubble, constituting the continued crime of genocide and a grave violation of the occupying power’s obligations under international humanitarian law, particularly the duty to protect civilians and ensure rescue operations. Ceasefire violations since 11 October 2025 have exceeded 1,200 incidents, resulting in the killing of 439 Palestinians and the injury of 1,223 others, proving that the occupation has used de-escalation as political and media cover to pursue policies of killing and slow genocide.

ICSPR documents the continued targeting of civilians, displaced persons’ tents, and shelters. The latest escalation resulted in the killing of 14 Palestinians within 24 hours, including 5 children, and the injury of dozens following airstrikes on schools, residential areas, and displacement camps, in flagrant violation of the principles of distinction and proportionality and the prohibition on targeting civilians. Forced displacement and shelter policies have become central tools in engineering genocide, as nearly one million Palestinians live in dilapidated tents or destroyed buildings amid a shortage exceeding 230,000 tents, alongside rising deaths caused by cold and building collapses during successive winter storms.

ICSPR affirms that starvation has become a deliberate policy through restrictions on the entry of food, humanitarian aid, fuel, temporary housing, and recovery supplies, as well as restrictions on the work of UNRWA and humanitarian organizations—constituting the crime of using starvation as a weapon of war prohibited under international humanitarian law.

ICSPR warns of the collapse of the health sector in Gaza, where more than 50% of essential medicines are unavailable, vital medical departments have shut down, and mortality rates among cancer and kidney failure patients have risen to approximately 50%. Unprecedented levels of acute malnutrition have emerged, particularly among children and pregnant women. The continued closure of the Rafah Crossing has prevented more than 22,000 patients and wounded from traveling, while over 500,000 surgical procedures remain unperformed, amounting to collective punishment and a grave violation of the rights to life and health.

ICSPR condemns the targeting of Palestinian fishermen in Gaza’s waters. Since the start of the aggression through the end of 2025, approximately 230 fishermen have been killed, around 50 injured, and more than 40 arrested, reflecting a systematic policy aimed at suffocating Palestinian livelihoods and enforcing starvation, in blatant violation of the rights to life, work, and freedom of movement.

ICSPR stresses that the destruction of the education sector constitutes a long-term strategic crime. Approximately 98% of schools in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, depriving more than 638,000 children of education. Around 1,000 educational staff members and 20,000 students have been killed, alongside the banning of educational materials, raids on universities, and arrests of students and teachers, as part of efforts to destroy awareness and national identity.

ICSPR affirms that the conditions of Palestinian prisoners have reached an unprecedented level of danger. More than 10,400 prisoners are currently detained, including 3,600 administrative detainees, 78 women, and 320 children, subjected to grave violations including torture, solitary confinement, and denial of medical care. These practices have resulted in the deaths of 323 prisoners since 1967, including 86 since the start of the genocide, alongside hundreds of documented cases of starvation, torture, and sexual assault, and the arrest of more than 200 women and 600 children during 2025.

ICSPR documents the continuation of settlement expansion and de facto annexation of Palestinian land. Israeli authorities approved 19 new settlements and 130 settlement outposts, constructed 12,000 settlement units—including 4,500 in East Jerusalem—confiscated approximately 55,000 dunums of land, demolished 3,679 structures, and carried out more than 4,200 settler attacks, including the destruction of 7,600 olive trees. These actions resulted in the killing of 270 Palestinians and the displacement of 2,850 people during 2025, alongside daily military checkpoints, field assaults, Judaization of Jerusalem, and attacks on holy sites. Occupation forces and settler militias carried out 23,827 attacks in the West Bank during the year, including the displacement of 13 Bedouin communities, large-scale land confiscation, and the establishment of new settlements, constituting forced displacement and slow ethnic cleansing.

ICSPR strongly condemns the continued ban on the entry of foreign journalists and international media into the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive year, pursuant to a government decision upheld by the Israeli Supreme Court, amounting to media genocide and systematic blackout. This coincides with the killing of 257 journalists since the start of the aggression and violates UN Security Council Resolution 2222, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Geneva Conventions. ICSPR also condemns restrictions imposed on civil society and humanitarian organizations, including license revocations, persecution of activists, and the suppression of Palestinian content on digital platforms, as part of a systematic effort to silence Palestinian voices internationally and conceal violations.

ICSPR considers that the totality of these crimes and policies—mass killing, starvation, siege, medical deprivation, societal destruction, media bans, land theft, settlement expansion, and racial discrimination—constitute a single, integrated system aimed at dismantling Palestinian society, breaking its will, imposing demographic and geographic realities by force, and undermining the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. International silence is no longer neutrality but legal and moral complicity. Delayed justice is justice denied, and these crimes will not be subject to statutes of limitation.

Accordingly, ICSPR calls upon the international community, third states, mediators, the United Nations, and free people of the world to:

1. Stop the aggression, protect civilians, consolidate the ceasefire, and lift the comprehensive siege on the Gaza Strip; open all crossings without restrictions; ensure freedom of movement for patients and the wounded; guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid, temporary housing, medicines, and all essential needs; and ensure the safe entry of civil defense, medical, and humanitarian teams.

2. Impose international measures to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes and genocide before international courts; accelerate International Criminal Court procedures without selectivity; and ensure the entry of international investigative mechanisms and international media to document violations.

3. Impose comprehensive international sanctions on the occupying power, including an arms embargo and the suspension of military and security cooperation.

4. Establish an urgent and sustainable international coalition of governments, humanitarian organizations, and international civil society under the “Uniting for Peace” framework of the UN General Assembly to confront international failure, protect Palestinian civilians, and ensure implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2803.

5. Call on activists and free people worldwide to continue and escalate popular mobilization through demonstrations, media campaigns, international solidarity, and humanitarian initiatives to stop the ongoing genocide, save civilian lives, and exert pressure for immediate action.

6. Guarantee the Palestinian right to self-determination and end the occupation by stopping Israeli aggression and all occupation crimes and ensuring the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.