Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Geneva – Over the course of the two months that followed the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, Israel did not abide by the order and continued to commit genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The genocide has been ongoing since 7 October 2023, amid a total lack of accountability and a complete international failure to protect the Palestinian people from the crime.
Israel has in fact committed more violations in some instances than it did in the time leading up to the Court’s ruling
A newly released report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor titled “Two Months after the International Court of Justice’s Ruling on Gaza: Escalation in Genocide and Absence of Accountability” contains documentation of Israel’s ongoing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Strip. The report examines Israel’s lack of response to the Court’s ruling, which ordered Israel to take six provisional measures.
The ICJ issued a decision on 26 January 2024 ordering Israel to take specific provisional measures to prevent the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Stating that it was convinced that Israel’s actions in the Strip posed a real and immediate threat to the Palestinian people, the ICJ cited the possibility of irreversible effects and harm to Palestinian rights protected under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Based on efforts to monitor and document the crimes and violations that Israel has committed in the Gaza Strip, as well as on investigations into and assessments of its level of compliance during the two-month period following the ruling, Euro-Med Monitor believes that Israel has not complied with the ICJ ruling. The majority of the provisional measures outlined in the ruling were violated, and the crime of genocide was carried out on the same scale. Various forms and acts of genocide were committed with the intent of destroying the Palestinian people.
Two months after the ICJ’s ruling, Israel proceeds to carry out its crime of genocide at the same scale, including killing civilians, targeting civilians through systematic and widespread military attacks, and using illegal, indiscriminate, and highly destructive weapons.
Targeting civilian gatherings around humanitarian aid trucks with direct gunshots, quadcopters, and Israeli tank shells is one of the most well-documented examples of the unlawful killings and executions carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians over the past few weeks. These incidents, which have become known as the “Flour Massacres”, resulted in the deaths of 563 citizens and the injury of 1,523 others. This figure includes civilians awaiting aid and workers in charge of planning, securing, and distributing aid.
The report also addressed the crimes that Israel continued to commit with the aim of inflicting severe physical and psychological harm on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, particularly through deprivation of healthcare, torture, inhumane treatment, sexual violence, and the use of prohibited, indiscriminate, and highly destructive weapons.
Furthermore, the report outlined the ongoing crimes committed by Israel aimed at deliberately causing material destruction to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including forced displacement, starvation, rendering the area uninhabitable, and eradicating the Palestinian identity of the region. This is achieved through the systematic destruction of sources of income, infrastructure, civilian objects, and private property, as well as deliberate military attacks on buildings designated for religious, educational, scientific, and historical purposes, hospitals, and places where patients and wounded gather. Additionally, Israel persists in committing other crimes aimed at destroying the unity of Palestinian families and preventing procreation.
Israel has in fact committed more violations in some instances than it did in the time leading up to the Court’s ruling, particularly in relation to the entry of humanitarian relief aid and the threats and persecution of Palestinians in the Rafah Governorate, which is thought to be the last safe haven for survivors and internally displaced people in the Strip. The ICJ ruled on 16 February that any Israeli military action in Rafah under the current circumstances would worsen the already tragic situation and put the lives of Palestinian civilians in further jeopardy.
The report also provides evidence of Israel’s failure to adhere to other provisional measures included in the ICJ ruling, including ensuring that its army does not commit acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip, preventing and punishing public incitement to genocide, and protecting evidence related to alleged crimes.
As for Israel’s commitment to providing humanitarian aid, the report concludes that Israel has used starvation not only as a tactic of war, but also as a means of carrying out the crime of genocide against the Palestinian People in the Strip, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, continuously and severely for six months now. As part of its starvation campaign, Israel commits other serious crimes, including imposing a strict siege on the entire Strip, i.e. cutting off fuel, electricity, and water; demolishing local food production sources by destroying crops and bulldozing agricultural land; and repeatedly obstructing and even halting the entry or distribution of humanitarian aid.
International humanitarian law states that Israel, as the occupying force, is responsible for supplying the civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory with food, medicine, clothing, bedding, shelter, and other necessities for survival. However, Israel persists in committing grave crimes and breaching its international obligations, putting the lives of all Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip at risk of famine and extreme hunger.
In light of the aforementioned, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urges, among other recommendations, the international community to uphold its legal and moral duties to the people living in the Gaza Strip, to guarantee that the International Court of Justice ruling is carried out, and to end the genocide that the Court declared in January was likely taking place in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med Monitor also calls on all states to fulfill their international obligations by halting all military, financial, and political support for Israel’s attack against the Gaza Strip, and in particular, all arms transfers to Israel. Otherwise, these states will be held accountable for their complicity in Israel’s ongoing crimes, including genocide.
