International Humanitarian Intervention: The Only Path to Stop Genocide and Massacres in Shelters and Displacement Camps

Reference No.: 37/2025
Date: April 3, 2025

Press Release

International Humanitarian Intervention: The Only Path to Stop Genocide and Massacres in Shelters and Displacement Camps

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns and denounces the continued Israeli attacks on shelters, displacement camps, and residential homes, which have resulted in massacres against forcibly displaced families. The latest atrocity occurred this afternoon, April 3, 2025, when Israeli warplanes bombed Dar Al-Arqam and Fahd Al-Sabah schools in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, which were sheltering thousands of displaced people. The airstrikes, carried out using three high-explosive missiles, resulted in a horrific massacre, killing 31 civilians, including 18 children, and injuring over 100 others. Several bodies remain trapped under the rubble of the destroyed schools, as civil defense teams are unable to retrieve them due to the lack of rescue equipment—most of which has been destroyed by Israel during its genocidal war. This raises today’s death toll to 112, with hundreds injured, and brings the number of directly targeted shelters since the start of the war to 249 schools and displacement camps.

In another horrific crime, Israeli occupation forces, after withdrawing from an incursion into the Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City this morning, detonated booby-trapped structures they had planted among residential homes. This deliberate attack killed 20 civilians, injured dozens, and caused massive destruction in homes located between Al-Mansoura and Al-Muntar streets. Search operations for missing persons under the rubble are still ongoing.

According to ICSPR researchers, Israeli warplanes have launched dozens of airstrikes on displaced persons’ tents and civilian homes across the Gaza Strip since dawn. Most attacks have targeted eastern neighborhoods of Khan Yunis and Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of 90 civilians and injuring hundreds more.

ICSPR: The Israeli Genocide Continues for the 18th Consecutive Month Amid Unprecedented Humanitarian Catastrophe

The Israeli genocidal war against Gaza has now entered its 18th consecutive month, marked by continued collective punishment, the closure of border crossings, electricity cuts, deliberate starvation and dehydration, and severe obstruction of humanitarian aid and medical supplies. These systematic actions have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis due to the destruction of essential service sectors, particularly the healthcare system. The Israeli war crimes have transformed Gaza into a devastated, uninhabitable disaster zone, plagued by famine, disease outbreaks, and worsening epidemics.

Additionally, the Israeli occupation has expanded forced displacement operations, compelling civilians to flee under heavy bombardment. This has worsened the already dire humanitarian situation, with large-scale military incursions along Gaza’s northern, eastern, and southern borders. The occupation aims to establish more buffer zones, which now cover over 30% of Gaza’s total area. Following the forced evacuation of Rafah, Israeli forces announced the creation of a second Philadelphia Corridor, isolating Rafah entirely from its surroundings. This geographic and demographic reconfiguration of Gaza signals an escalation of starvation tactics, mass displacement, intensified air and ground assaults, and potential massacres, putting thousands of Palestinian lives at risk and paving the way for the forced expulsion of Gaza’s population beyond Palestinian borders, as openly advocated by Israeli officials.

ICSPR: Gaza’s Civilian Population is Facing Extreme Starvation and Systematic Annihilation

ICSPR reaffirms that eyewitness accounts, survivor testimonies, and live media coverage confirm that Gaza’s entire civilian population is enduring extreme famine and catastrophic living conditions. The Israeli occupation continues to target civilians using internationally banned weapons, including vacuum bombs, concussion missiles, and high-explosive warheads—some weighing up to two tons—causing massive destruction to residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure. Moreover, the Israeli-imposed starvation strategy, which includes the denial of food, water, electricity, fuel, and medicine, is designed to exterminate part of Gaza’s population, leaving civilians with only two choices: death by bombardment or starvation.

The occupation’s justifications for its war crimes—targeting shelters, displacement camps, homes, and civilian infrastructure—demonstrate its blatant disregard for all humanitarian principles and international legal norms. These attacks violate international humanitarian law and United Nations resolutions, including rulings by the International Court of Justice, which mandate adherence to principles of distinction and proportionality in military actions. According to international law, the principle of military necessity and collateral damage requires an occupying power to avoid any military action if civilian casualties exceed the anticipated military advantage—a principle Israel continues to systematically violate.

ICSPR: The U.S. is Complicit in Israeli War Crimes, and International Inaction is a Disgrace

ICSPR strongly condemns the United States’ direct complicity in Israel’s war crimes and denounces the shameful international failure to halt this genocide, which constitutes clear complicity in the extermination of the Palestinian people. This will remain an indelible stain on the reputation of all those who fail to act.

ICSPR calls on global civil society, the United Nations, and state parties to the Geneva Conventions and the Genocide Convention to fulfill their moral and legal obligations by taking serious and immediate action to provide international protection for civilians and enforce urgent humanitarian interventions. The international community must pressure Israel to halt its genocide, allow the flow of humanitarian aid, and comply with international humanitarian law.

Furthermore, ICSPR urges nations worldwide to impose diplomatic and economic sanctions on Israel, boycott its institutions, and support legal actions to hold its leaders and military personnel accountable for war crimes. The United Nations Security Council and General Assembly must invoke the “Uniting for Peace” resolution to deploy an international peacekeeping force to protect civilians and prevent further massacres.