The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) strongly condemns Israel’s continuous forcible displacement of Palestinians and its direct attacks against civilians in internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) camps and in humanitarian aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip. The organization urges Israel to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip in compliance with the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence, accountability and neutrality and Israel’s legal obligations under international humanitarian law.
“The Israeli authorities must end mass killings of civilians, extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure and starvation as a method of warfare,” said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme Director. “There is clear and ample evidence that such actions are deliberately aimed at rendering life in Gaza unsustainable and forcing Palestinians to leave. The international community must ensure that the Israeli authorities’ stated goal of permanently displacing Palestinians out of their land, which would amount to an international crime, be unequivocally abandoned.”
Since breaching the ceasefire on 18 March 2025, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have intensified their bombardment and expanded ground operations across the Gaza Strip. The renewed escalation of Israeli military operations killed 5,833 and injured 20,198 Palestinians, respectively, as of 25 June 2025, bringing the total number of Palestinian reported fatalities since 7 October 2023 to 56,156, including 17,121 children as of 15 June. The number of reported deaths continues to rise by dozens each day and now corresponds to about 2.63 per cent of the population of the Gaza Strip.
Since 18 March 2025, the IDF have issued 47 “evacuation orders” through which they have effectively forcibly displaced 684,000 Palestinians into an ever-shrinking space. As of 25 June 2025, the Israeli authorities had placed 82.6 per cent of the territory of the Gaza Strip within “Israeli-militarized zones”, where Palestinians cannot circulate, and/or under displacement orders. Since March, the IDF have also expanded the so-called buffer zone, an area where the military has razed Palestinian homes, farmland and infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability.
As a result, Palestinians can only seek refuge in makeshift shelters and overcrowded displacement sites. And, even there, the displaced Palestinians are targeted, as the IDF have adopted a pattern of striking displaced people in tents. On the night of 16 April 2025, at least 37 people were killed in a strike on several tents housing displaced families in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, an area designated by Israel as a “humanitarian zone”. On 17 May, Israeli military strikes on IDPs tents in al-Mawasi killed at least 36 Palestinians. Between 18 March and 16 June 2025, the OHCHR recorded 112 attacks killing 380 people, including at least 158 women and children, highlighting that “many of these [attacks] appear to target directly makeshift tents with deadly consequences for those inhabiting them”.
Furthermore, Israeli officials have expressed their intention to make Gaza uninhabitable and leave Palestinian only with a choice: being forced to leave the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly said that Israel is willfully “destroying more and more houses [in Gaza, and Palestinians accordingly] have nowhere to return”, adding that “[t]he only inevitable outcome will be the desire of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip.” On 5 May, one day after the Israeli cabinet adopted a plan to seize all of the Gaza Strip, members of the Israeli government publicly declared their intention to “entirely destroy” Gaza and make Palestinians “leave in great numbers to third countries”. On 23 March 2025, the Israeli security cabinet had already announced the creation of a bureau for “Voluntary Emigration”.
The forcible displacement of all or parts of the population within or outside the occupied territory may amount to a war crime and a crime against humanity, including when there is no genuine choice for the population but to leave.
The Israeli authorities’ policy of forcibly displacing the Palestinian population is also carried out by Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, including through the instrumentalization of humanitarian aid.
After having imposed a total humanitarian aid blockade for close to three months, on 21 May 2025, Israel announced it would allow limited humanitarian aid, that is, “basic food”, to enter the Gaza Strip and be distributed through the newly established “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), an Israel- and United States-backed body that operates under Israeli military’s control, purportedly to prevent aid from falling into Hamas’ hands. On the same day, Mr Netanyahu further announced that Israel would establish a “sterile zone”, free of Hamas in the south of the Strip, where Palestinians would be moved to receive supplies. As there are no aid distribution sites in the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are compelled to move south to access aid, compounding Israel’s forcible transfer policy.
Under international humanitarian law, while humanitarian aid may be subject to the control of the parties to the armed conflict, they “must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need”, and distribution of aid “must be impartial in character and conducted without any adverse distinction”.
“The provision of humanitarian aid cannot be used as a tool to forcibly displace the very population it purports to help,” said Benarbia.
The United Nations, NGOs, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross, have denounced the privatized and militarized humanitarian aid distribution imposed by Israel through the GHF as not complying with the core humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality, and falling far short of meeting the Gaza Strip’s current massive needs. Furthermore, the ICJ has recently joined 14 other NGOs in warning all individuals and entities involved in the GHF’s dehumanizing and deadly operations of potential complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide.
Since 27 May, when the GHF started operating, the IDF opened fire against people queuing to receive humanitarian aid on almost a daily basis, including, e.g., on 1 June, 3 June, 11 June and 17 June 2025, killing 30, 15, 30 and 59 people respectively. As of 26 June 2025, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported 549 fatalities and more than 4,066 people being injured as they tried to get humanitarian aid. IDF soldiers reportedly said they were ordered to deliberately fire at unarmed Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid despite the absence of a threat, using unnecessary lethal force. The reports prompted the opening of an IDF investigation into possible war crimes on 27 June.
The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme have recently warned that the entire population of Gaza is projected to face “crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity”, while 470,000 are projected to face a “catastrophe level” – the worse level of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s (IPC) five-level scale of food insecurity – through September 2025.
“People in the Gaza Strip are starving and are now being killed while trying to get humanitarian aid. The International Criminal Court must promptly investigate the mass killings of people waiting for aid and hold those responsible to account,” added Benarbia.
The ICJ calls on Israel to:
- Agree to and respect an immediate, lasting ceasefire;
- Allow unimpeded humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip and take measures to stop and prevent starvation;
- Refrain from taking any measures that entail the forcible transfer or deportation of all or parts of the population of the Gaza Strip;
- Respect the principles of distinction, proportionality, precautions in attack and the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks;
- Immediately stop the extensive wanton destruction of property and protected infrastructure;
- Immediately stop, prevent and punish direct attacks against, and willful killings of civilians and protected persons;
- Promptly, independently and effectively investigate the mass killings in IDPs camps and at humanitarian aid delivery sites and hold those responsible to account; and
- Comply with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice on 26 January 2024, 28 March 2024 and 24 May 2024.
The ICJ calls on Hamas to:
- Agree to and respect an immediate, lasting ceasefire;
- Release all the remaining hostages; and
- Return the remains of those who have died since being taken hostage on 7 October 2023.
The ICJ calls on all States to:
- Take all steps to stop and prevent Israel from unlawfully seizing and annexing Palestinian territory or from forcibly displacing the Palestinian population;
- Take immediate action to press Israel to protect, respect and fulfill the rights to life and dignity of civilians through effective access to humanitarian assistance;
- Cease all sales and delivery of weapons or military equipment to Israel;
- Cooperate with the International Criminal Court, including by complying with the warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former Minister of Defence; and
- Ensure accountability, including through the exercise of universal jurisdiction over suspected perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide.
The ICJ also calls on the GHF and all the entities and individuals involved in its operations to immediately suspend any action or support that facilitates the forcible displacement of civilians, contributes to starvation or other gross violations of international law and/or that otherwise undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence and accountability.
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
