The takeover of Gaza City: Coercive action needed to halt atrocity crimes
London, 8th August 2025 – The decision to forcibly displace around 1m Palestinians from Gaza City is wrong, illegal, and must be halted.
The occupation and clearance of Gaza City will kill thousands more Palestinians, who, malnourished and exhausted, will be unable to relocate safely to other areas. The areas designed for their relocation, the Gaza Strip’s south, are rubble alone, and it is clear that Israeli commitments to ensuring humanitarian aid availability in those areas are worthless. Israel’s deliberate disruption of humanitarian aid provision throughout the genocide has demonstrated the use of starvation as a weapon of war. This is not to mention the massive direct death toll that will inevitably come from Israel’s military operation to take over Gaza City itself.
Israel has been ordered by the International Court of Justice to prevent the commission of all acts which kill members of the Palestinian people, cause serious bodily or mental harm to them, or which deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part. The consistent failure of the international community to ensure that Israel abides by this ruling is, in part, due to continued timidity of the Western response to Israel’s crimes. Keir Starmer’s “urging” Israel to “reconsider” this plan is empty rhetoric.
Action must follow from statements of condemnation. It is important that, today, Germany for the first time acted to restrict arms shipments to Israel. ICJP continues to call for a total arms embargo on Israel, with targeted sanctions on its leaders and economic sanctions on the State. It is made clearer each day that coercive action must be taken by UN Member States to prevent atrocity crimes.
It is evident that there is no military rationale behind this decision and that Israel cannot militarily secure its war aims. Reports from Israeli military officials suggest that the plan intends to increase pressure on Hamas. ICJP would contend that such a plan conforms to a strategy of creating conditions intended to destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part. These conditions are created through perpetual forced displacement, disregard for ‘humanitarian corridors’, and at best, indiscriminate, and at worst targeting bombing of civilian populations. As Israel stands trial for violations of the Genocide Convention, Western nations must be considering their position in relation to these allegations, including potential complicity. Continued inaction, and the failure to take the coercive actions at their disposal, amounts to their tacit consent for further atrocities.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
- The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians is an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics who support the rights of Palestinians and aim to protect their rights through the law.
- For more information, to arrange an interview with a spokesperson, or to view a full copy of the letter, please contact the ICJP news desk at press@icjpalestine.com.
- Featured image, ‘Aerial view of destruction in Beach refugee camp, Gaza Strip’,
UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
