As a summer of horrors unfolds in Gaza, IBAHRI asks the international community: if not now, when will it be time to act?
Death, starvation, displacement and destruction continue to engulf Gaza as the summer of long horrors unfolds. The announced ten-hour ‘tactical pauses’ from Israeli military operations in certain parts of the Strip are wholly inadequate to address the scale of the crisis. What is urgently needed is a permanent ceasefire and unrestricted access for international humanitarian agencies. The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) therefore asks the international community: if not now, when will it be time to act? States have a legal and moral duty to halt what is rapidly becoming the defining atrocity of our time.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza, already catastrophic, is deteriorating at an alarming pace. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is baselessly denying the existence of a starvation crisis, clear and consistent evidence from independent and neutral humanitarian agencies confirms that starvation is intensifying across the territory. Among others, the World Health Organization has reported a surge in malnutrition-related deaths in July and warned that one out of five children under five in Gaza City is now acutely malnourished. Famine remains an imminent threat across the territory. Critical infrastructure and services are nearing total collapse. Life in Gaza is being extinguished day by day and the minimal flow of aid reaching the Strip falls far short of meeting the overwhelming humanitarian need. Moreover, trying to access food and essential supplies continues to be a life-threatening exercise. According to the United Nations, as of 13 July, in the preceding six weeks, 875 people have been killed in desperate attempts to receive lifesaving aid. The resumption of airdrops of aid on Sunday 27 July 2025 is providing a minimal and negligible amount of supplies. As humanitarian experts have repeatedly warned, airdrops are dangerous, ineffective and undignified to people on the ground. They cannot serve as a substitute for safe land routes.
The IBAHRI has already condemned the deliberate starvation of Gaza’s population as an inhuman method of warfare and grave breach of international law. The May 2025 outsourcing of humanitarian aid delivery to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – a private entity working in partnership with a private security firm, Safe Reach Solutions – also runs contrary to Israel’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions. According to international humanitarian law, aid in occupied territories must be provided by entities that offer the institutional safeguards of neutrality, independence and impartiality. A mechanism like the GHF, dominated by private actors with political affiliations and close ties to the occupying power, cannot meet these standards. Israeli unverified claims that aid is being diverted by Hamas have recently been debunked by a US Agency for International Development analysis, and in no way justify bypassing international humanitarian norms.
On top of that, there are the ongoing attacks on homes, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, as well as systematic attempts to forcibly displace the population of Gaza. Currently, Israeli evacuation orders and inaccessible military zones cover 88 per cent of Gaza. Nearly 70 per cent of all buildings, including 92 per cent of all housing units, have been destroyed or damaged. The announced Israeli plan to relocate the remaining approximately two million Palestinians into a so-called ‘humanitarian city’ on the ruins of Rafah is not just untenable – it reveals a longer-term goal of mass deportation of the Palestinian population outside the Strip, leading to ethnic cleansing.
As in all conflicts, the children suffer most. On 16 July, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council: ‘Over the past 21 months of war, more than 17,000 children have reportedly been killed and 33,000 injured in Gaza. An average of 28 children have been killed each day – the equivalent of an entire classroom. Consider that for a moment. A whole classroom of children killed, every day for nearly two years.’
All these military actions constitute violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention (the ‘Convention’). The Convention clearly prohibits the destruction of private property, except when rendered absolutely necessary by military operations (Article 53), and protects hospitals from attack unless they are used to commit acts harmful to the enemy (Articles 18 and 19). The permanent displacement of the population is strictly prohibited (Article 49). Violations of these provisions are considered grave breaches of the Convention, amounting to war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In addition, the Convention imposes positive obligations on Israel as the occupying power to ensure that food and medical supplies are available to the population in Gaza, as well as to maintain medical services and public health infrastructure in the occupied territory (Articles 55 and 56).
The IBAHRI utterly condemns the atrocities committed on 7 October 2023 and Hamas’ continued refusal to release all the hostages. However, the scale and nature of Israel’s subsequent military operations go far beyond what can be considered a legitimate response. Heinous war crimes have become everyday tools in a sustained campaign of annihilation that has been widely recognised by legal experts and observers as amounting to genocide. The cumulative impact is the systematic eradication of any chance of Palestinian life in Gaza, an outcome that aligns with statements made by senior Israeli officials about the objectives of the military campaign. This is occurring alongside Israeli government’s plans for a de facto annexation of further territories in the West Bank through reintroduction of the E1 settlement plan. The proposed construction plan would dramatically increase the number of illegal Israeli settlements and nearly bisect the West Bank, further jeopardising any possibility for Palestine to have an adequate contiguous piece of land to create a state.
The IBAHRI strongly reiterates its urgent call for an end to hostilities, a permanent ceasefire and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. An international protection force must be deployed to enable an independent Palestinian administration in Gaza to be brought to life in safety and security. Israel must immediately remove all obstacles to the delivery of food, medicine and aid from neutral international agencies. Israeli military forces are urged to abide by international humanitarian law and comply with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice. In calling for a ceasefire, the IBAHRI also urges Hamas to release all remaining Israeli hostages without delay.
The international community – and all those with leverage over Israel – must act now. Political and economic pressure must be applied immediately to end the ongoing carnage and prevent further loss of civilian life. This includes the immediate recognition of the State of Palestine, the suspension of all arms exports and military cooperation with Israel and the activation of all bilateral and multilateral mechanisms to compel an end to this genocidal campaign.
Mark Stephens CBE, IBAHRI Co-Chair
Hina Jilani, IBAHRI Co-Chair
Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, IBAHRI Director
ENDS
Contact: IBAHRI@int-bar.org
Notes to the reader:
- The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), established in 1995 under Founding Honorary President Nelson Mandela, is an autonomous entity working to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.
- Find the IBAHRI on social media here:
- The International Bar Association (IBA), the global voice of the legal profession, is the foremost organisation for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Established in 1947, shortly after the creation of the United Nations, with the aim of protecting and promoting the rule of law globally, the IBA was born out of the conviction that an organisation made up of the world's bar associations could contribute to global stability and peace through the administration of justice.
- Find the IBA on social media here:
Website page link for this news release:
Short link: https://tinyurl.com/2rrz9cka
Full link: https://www.ibanet.org/As-a-summer-of-horrors-unfolds-in-Gaza-IBAHRI-asks-the-international-community-if-not-now-when-will-it-be-time-to-act