Israel’s plan to “take control” of Gaza City will inevitably entail the commission of further atrocity crimes and must be stopped without delay, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said today.
On 7 August 2025, Israel’s State Security Cabinet, a sub-committee of Israel’s cabinet, approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for the complete military “takeover” of Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Ahead of the meeting, Mr Netanyahu said Israel would “take control” of all of the Gaza Strip, and later “hand control” to unnamed “Arab forces” that are neither Hamas nor the Palestinian authority.
The ICJ warns of the consequences that the implementation of such a plan will likely have on the Gazan civilian population. The ground offensive required for a military occupation of Gaza City would inexorably lead to the forcible transfer of its civilian population, around one million inhabitants, to a devastating toll on civilian life, and to further extensive destruction, entailing the commission of additional war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Instead of further escalating its offensive into additional senseless extermination and devastation, the Israeli authorities must agree to a lasting ceasefire that protects the rights of civilians in Gaza,” said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme Director. “The remaining hostages must be released without delay,” he added.
Mr Netanyahu also announced the establishment of additional aid distribution sites through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel- and United States-backed body that operates under the Israeli military’s control, which has been widely condemned as a militarized model that undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. According to the UN, since 27 May 2025, 1,373 Palestinians, at least, have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the proximity of GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys. With respect to this, the ICJ further warns that such a dehumanizing approach is not only wholly inadequate to address the ongoing starvation, but is also very likely to worsen in the case of a siege on Gaza City.
The ICJ also warns that any additional plans to extend the illegal occupation, impose an external administration or annex the Gaza Strip would be contrary to the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the prohibition of acquisition of territory by the use of force and, therefore, violate Israel’s international law obligations in this regard.
The ICJ urges all States – pursuant to their international law obligations, including under the UN Charter, customary international law, the Geneva Conventions and the Genocide Convention – to do their utmost to prevent Israel from carrying out its plan for the complete occupation and potential annexation of the Gaza Strip and to refrain from rendering any aid or assistance, including arms transfers, to Israel that would enable the implementation of the plan and the ongoing commission of grave violations of international law.
The ICJ also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages still held in Gaza. Their ongoing detention constitutes a grave violation of international law and must end without delay.
Background
In its Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, which concerned the “legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”, to the exclusion of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, the International Court of Justice considered that, the violations by Israel of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force, and of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination rendered the continued presence of Israel, as an occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful. Accordingly, the Court underscored that all States are “under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and to “ensure that any impediment resulting from the illegal presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the exercise of the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination is brought to an end”.
In its Order of 24 May 2024 in the case South Africa v. Israel on the application of the Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Court ordered Israel, as part of provisional measures based on its obligations under the Genocide Convention, to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” as it entails a further risk of irreparable prejudice to the plausible right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide.
In its Order of 30 April 2024 in the case initiated by Nicaragua against Germany regarding alleged breaches of certain international obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian territory, the Court, while declining to order provisional measures in the case, recalled that States Parties to the Geneva Conventions have the obligation to ensure respect of the Conventions in all circumstances, an obligation that “does not derive only from the Conventions themselves, but from the general principles of humanitarian law to which the Conventions merely give specific expression”. It further recalled that States Parties to the Genocide Convention have the obligation to “employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide so far as possible”. Lastly, it reminded “all States of their international obligations relating to the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict, in order to avoid the risk that such arms might be used to violate the above-mentioned Conventions.”
In February 2025, during a press conference with Mr Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump declared that the United States would “take over the Gaza Strip, … level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, [and] create an economic development” called the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
On 23 July 2025, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, voted for “applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley (i.e., the West Bank)”. The motion is declarative and is not legally binding.
Contact
Saïd Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; t: +41 22 979 3800, e: said.benarbia@icj.org
Nour Al Hajj, Communications & Advocacy Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme; e: nour.alhajj@icj.org
