UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, International Criminal Court Prosecutor, International Court of Justice President: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Indigenous Palestinian People.
GENEVA – The targeted destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system by the Israel Defense Forces amounts to “medicide,” UN experts* said today, accusing Israel of deliberately attacking and starving healthcare workers, paramedics and hospitals to wipe out medical care in the besieged enclave.
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/08/un-experts-appalled-relentless-israeli-attacks-gazas-healthcare-system
Israeli forces and foreign military contractors continue to open indiscriminate fire on people seeking aid at so-called “distribution sites” operated by GHF, since it was set up to take-over functions previously performed by United Nations agencies, most notably UNRWA, the UN’s aid agency for Palestinian refugees. Nearly 1400 people have been killed and more than 4000 injured while seeking food. At least 859 people have been killed around GHF sites since the beginning of GHF’s operations in late May 2025. The sites are especially difficult to access to the most vulnerable conditions, such as women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons. Calling it “humanitarian” adds on to Israel’s humanitarian camouflage and is an insult to the humanitarian enterprise and standards.
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/08/un-experts-call-immediate-dismantling-gaza-humanitarian-foundation
GENEVA – UN experts* today expressed alarm at Israel’s deliberate withholding of access to safe drinking water from Palestinians in Gaza, calling it a serious violation of international law and a crime against humanity.
… “Israel’s acts right now in Gaza are barbaric, and the related actions of Government officials constitute crimes under the Rome Statute: extermination is committed by cutting off the supply of medicine, food and water,” the experts said.
“These intentional, widespread and systematic attacks against Palestinians are a deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a population – another act of genocide.”
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/thirst-weapon-un-experts-condemn-israels-deliberate-dehydration-and
This report, submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health on 10 January 2025, outlines a two-pronged framework of Israel’s Genocide Enablement Apparatus, which has accelerated the annihilation of Palestinian people since October 2023 through the Israeli-led destruction of the healthcare sector in Gaza, and the simultaneous repression of healthcare workers implemented by American, British and Canadian (hereafter ‘Western’) medical and cultural institutions. Additionally, this report establishes a medical denition of genocide, built from lessons from the ongoing genocide in Gaza, to enable and support the role of healthcare workers both as key frontline protectors of the right to health and life, and as meaningful actors in the early prevention of genocide.
The report highlights the urgent need for a medical denition of genocide to enable timely interventions by healthcare workers, particularly those who witness the systematic destruction of human lives in real time. Current legal frameworks, often slowed by political considerations and the prolonged process of establishing intent, delay critical action. A medical framework, rooted in observable impacts on health and life, empowers healthcare workers to act swiftly, preventing escalation and saving lives. Without a medical denition, healthcare workers are left without the tools to act decisively in the face of unfolding atrocities, hindering efforts to prevent further death and destruction.
Continue reading at https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/genocide-un-health-report
Read the full reportt at https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/health/sr/cfis/health-and-care-workers/subm-health-care-workers-ind-43-rupa-marya.pdf
- “Under occupation, intentional assaults on healthcare facilities have the potential to expose individuals to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and may constitute a war crime. In Gaza, this is clearly part of a well-established pattern of genocide, for which Israeli leaders will have to be held accountable,” the experts said.
- “We urge Israel to end its current assault on Gaza and cease its attacks on healthcare facilities. They must also ensure the immediate release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, and all other arbitrarily detained healthcare workers. May they be the last arbitrarily arrested Palestinians, and may the new year begin under different auspices,” they said.
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/01/un-experts-horrified-blatant-disregard-health-rights-gaza-following-deadly
- The scale of destruction of Palestinian landscape and urban fabric, including schools and universities, hospitals, the violations of housing, land and property, the pollution and degradation of the environment, and exploitation of natural resources, is extreme in Gaza and spreading across the rest of the occupied territory, prompting allegations of domicide, urbicide, scholasticide, medicide, cultural genocide and, more recently, ecocide. Extreme violence and intimidation against Palestinians in the West Bank, and military assaults against the cities of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem Tubas, and in rural areas, where Palestinians practise pastoralism, are all escalating.
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/09/un-experts-warn-international-order-knifes-edge-urge-states-comply-icj-advisory
- Countless testimonies by men and women speak of detainees in cage-like enclosures, tied to beds blindfolded and in diapers, stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals, blackmail and cigarette burns. In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence.
- … “Torture practices are irredeemably unlawful and constitute international crimes, yet form part of the modus operandi of Israel’s notorious detention and torture system,” they warned. “These practices are intended to punish Palestinians for resisting occupation and seek to destroy them individually and collectively.”
- “Israel’s genocidal destruction in Gaza, which is spreading across the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, serves as the backdrop to its abusive detention programme today,” the experts said.
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/israels-escalating-use-torture-against-palestinians-custody-preventable
- GENEVA (9 July 2024) – The recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition leaves no doubt that famine has spread across the entire Gaza strip, a group of independent experts* said today.
… “We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza. We call upon the international community to prioritise the delivery of humanitarian aid by land by any means necessary, end Israel’s siege, and establish a ceasefire.”
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/un-experts-declare-famine-has-spread-throughout-gaza-strip
- In line with recent calls from the Human Rights Council and the independent UN experts to States to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, arms manufacturers supplying Israel – including BAE Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Oshkosh, Rheinmetall AG, Rolls-Royce Power Systems, RTX, and ThyssenKrupp – should also end transfers, even if they are executed under existing export licenses.
- “These companies, by sending weapons, parts, components, and ammunition to Israeli forces, risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian laws,” the experts said. This risk is heightened by the recent decision from the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah, having recognised genocide as a plausible risk, as well as the request filed by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. “In this context, continuing arms transfers to Israel may be seen as knowingly providing assistance for operations that contravene international human rights and international humanitarian laws and may result in profit from such assistance.”
- Financial institutions investing in these arms companies are also called to account. Investors such as Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, Amundi Asset Management, Bank of America, BlackRock, Capital Group, Causeway Capital Management, Citigroup, Fidelity Management & Research, INVESCO Ltd, JP Morgan Chase, Harris Associates, Morgan Stanley, Norges Bank Investment Management, Newport Group, Raven’swing Asset Management, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, State Street Corporation, Union Investment Privatfonds, The Vanguard Group, Wellington and Wells Fargo & Company, are urged to take action. Failure to prevent or mitigate their business relationships with these arms manufacturers transferring arms to Israel could move from being directly linked to human rights abuses to contributing to them, with repercussions for complicity in potential atrocity crimes, the experts said.
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/states-and-companies-must-end-arms-transfers-israel-immediately-or-risk
- GENEVA (14 June 2024) – UN human rights experts* today strongly condemned the umpteenth massacre by Israeli forces in Gaza during a hostage rescue operation in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, which killed at least 274 Palestinians, including 64 children and 57 women, and injured nearly 700.
- … “According to survivors, the streets of Nuseirat were filled with bodies of dead and injured people, including children and women, lying in pools of blood. Walls were covered in body parts scattered by multiple explosions and bombed houses,” the experts said.
Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/un-experts-condemn-outrageous-disregard-palestinian-civilians-during-israels