Statement: Grave Concern Over Conditions of Life Threatening Palestinians’ Survival

Amidst unprecedented threats to the ‘continued existence’ of the Palestinian people, the IHL Centre calls for urgent protective measures to ensure their survival.

On 15 May each year, Palestinians mark Nakba Day, which commemorates the forcible displacement and dispossession of Palestinian communities as well as the destruction of Palestinian villages during the 1947-1949 war in which the State of Israel was established. Palestinians’ continued experience of dispossession and displacement in the ensuing decades has prompted reference to an ‘ongoing Nakba’. Since the start of the hostilities in October 2023, conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) have deteriorated even further, giving rise to grave concern that Palestinians are being deliberately deprived of resources necessary to sustain life.  

Gaza: Conditions of life threatening survival  

The small enclave on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, once home to an important port and a rich heritage of mosques, churches, and palaces, has been transformed into a landscape of ruins by almost 19 months of hostilities.  

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that between 7 October 2023 and 14 May 2025, at least 52,928 persons were killed and 119,846 others were injured. It is estimated that more than 11,000 persons are missing; they are feared to be trapped underneath the debris of collapsed buildings. 

Around 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of over 2 million has been displaced amidst catastrophic humanitarian conditions – for many an acutely painful reliving of intergenerational trauma, since a majority of Gaza’s population are refugees or descendants of refugees from the Nakba. 

According to the Shelter Cluster of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the oPt, 92 per cent of housing units have been damaged or destroyed. Gaza’s healthcare system lies in ruins; it may take more than a decade just to clear away the rubble.  

Since 2 March 2025, for more than 10 weeks, an Israeli blockade has completely halted the import of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies into the Gaza Strip. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released an assessment earlier this week indicating ‘high levels of acute food insecurity’ among all of Gaza’s population, with 20 per cent ‘facing starvation’. Parents have run out of food for their emaciated children. Israel has further announced that it seeks to control any delivery of aid going forward, drawing sharp criticism from the United Nations.  

On 5 May, the Israeli cabinet adopted a plan pursuant to which Israel would expand its military operations in Gaza, seize long-term control over the territory, and instruct Palestinian residents to move to the south of the Strip. According to reports, Israeli and US officials have also been in contact with foreign counterparts to discuss a relocation of Gaza’s population to third countries, reinforcing grave concerns over intentions to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza.  

With much of the Strip uninhabitable and amidst conditions of life threatening their very survival, Palestinians in Gaza face either permanent displacement with little prospect of return – or death, serious injury, illness, and starvation if they stay.  

The ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank  

In the towns and villages nestling around the rugged hills, valleys, and deserts of the West Bank, Israel has been inflicting mass displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure in patterns that increasingly resemble its conduct in Gaza.  

According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 9 May 2025, 910 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; as of 12 May 2025, 8,014 others were injured.  

Since 21 January this year, the Israeli military has been carrying out a large-scale operation in the northern West Bank, which has displaced around 40,000 persons. The impoverished refugee camps in the area have been specially afflicted and emptied of residents, with refugees from 1948 and their descendants once again rendered homeless.  

Israel also resumed carrying out airstrikes in the West Bank, a pattern not seen in two decades, and at the end of February Israeli tanks were deployed to Jenin for the first time since the Second Intifada. 

Critical civilian infrastructure has been destroyed and scores of residential buildings demolished in what Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, referred to as ‘collective punishment’. At the end of February, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz indicated that Israeli forces would stay in the West Bank ‘for the coming year’.  

The IHL Centre has previously raised concern that Israel appears to be employing means and methods of warfare pursuant to a conduct of hostilities logic in the West Bank, far exceeding what is permissible under the applicable law enforcement framework rooted in international human rights law.  

Incidents of settler violence – which are at best tolerated and at worst instigated by the Israeli authorities – have been drastically increasing; earlier this month, Israeli forces demolished a large number of structures in the Masafer Yatta area in the South Hebron Hills, paving the way for settlement expansion.  

Additional checkpoints and movement restrictions have sprung up across the West Bank, all but grinding daily life to a halt. In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces have stormed UNRWA schools or forced them to shut down. This comes against the backdrop of Israeli legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and East Jerusalem as well as interdicting contact between the agency and Israeli authorities.  

Increasingly deprived of vital services and critical infrastructure, Palestinians in the West Bank are coerced into ever-smaller areas amidst a takeover by Israeli forces and settlements.  

Challenges to documentation and accountability  

At a time of immense humanitarian needs and systematic disregard for the law, documenting patterns of conduct and pursuing pathways for accountability is more crucial than ever. The catastrophic situation in the oPt is compounded by various measures taken by the Israeli authorities precisely to obstruct such efforts. 

In Gaza, more than 100 Palestinian journalists have been killed while foreign journalists are barred from reporting. Since 7 October 2023, Israel has stopped issuing work visas for international staff employed by humanitarian organisations, and Palestinian employees from the West Bank cannot enter East Jerusalem. The International Committee of the Red Cross has not been able to visit detainees for the entire duration of the hostilities, creating an environment conducive towards torture and ill-treatment. Independent monitors such as UN Special Rapporteurs and a Human Rights Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry have long been denied access to the oPt. The Israeli government has declared that it will not cooperate with the ongoing investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and has reportedly engaged in a years-long campaign to interfere with its work. 

The challenges facing civil society and humanitarian organisations only stand to be further exacerbated by a multi-pronged attack on different actors.  

In December last year, the Israeli government issued new guidelines governing the registration process for international NGOs as well as the issuance of work visas for foreign staff. All international NGOs, even those already registered, are required to (re-)apply for registration by September this year. Amongst other concerns, this process would entail disclosing a range of detailed personal information about an organisation’s employees, and registration or work visas can be denied on the basis of overly broad and political criteria, including activities that advocate for respect of international law.  

Furthermore, draft legislation currently under consideration by the Knesset seeks to impose an 80 per cent tax rate on Israeli NGOs that receive a majority of their funding from a ‘foreign state entity’ while severely curtailing their ability to petition and seek redress from Israeli courts.   

Another draft law would criminalise various forms of cooperation with the ICC – including the provision of information – and impose draconian penalties ranging from five years to up to life imprisonment in case the information is classified.  

These measures are designed to silence critics of Israel and to ensure impunity for serious violations of international law.  

The IHL Centre calls upon States and the international community to bring all ongoing violations of international law in Israel and the oPt to an end and to ensure accountability for past violations. They must secure full compliance with the Advisory Opinion rendered by the International Court of Justice on 19 July 2024, which determined that Israel’s continued presence in the oPt is unlawful and must be brought to an end as rapidly as possible. Urgent protective measures are needed to ensure the survival of the Palestinian people. 

Cover photo: Feda Hassanat (Khan Younis, Gaza, March 2025). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.