Six Months on ICJ Order: International Community Fails to Stop Israel’s 295-Day Genocide

On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined the plausibility that Israel is carrying out genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and ordered Israel to:

1. prevent the commission of genocidal acts.
2. prevent and punish public incitement to genocide.
3. ensure aid and services reach Palestinians.

We note that since the January Order, the Court has issued another two modified provisional measures based on South Africa’s urgent requests on 6 March and 10 May:

• On 29 March, the Court ordered Israel to ensure unhindered provision of aid, and avoid military actions violating Palestinians’ rights under the Genocide Convention.
• On 24 May, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah, and open the Rafah crossing for unhindered provision of services and aid.

Summary  

Since the ICJ binding ruling on 26 January, Israel has continued its genocide on Gaza, including ongoing ground invasions, such as in Rafah since May, and bombardment and massacres targeting shelters, hospitals, and designated “safe zones” across the Strip. In the six months since the ruling, Israel has killed around 13,175 Palestinians, and injured around 26,100 others bringing the total number of killings since 7 October 2023 to around 39,258, including 15,000 children, and the injuries to 90,589. While nowhere is safe in Gaza, ongoing mass forced displacement continues, with nine out of ten Palestinians internally displaced, many multiple times. Furthermore, Israel continues to obstruct the delivery of aid, with a 56% decrease since April. UN experts declared that Israel’s targeted starvation campaign has resulted in famine across all of Gaza. Infectious diseases continue to spread, with a  high risk of variant poliovirus type 2 spreading across Gaza. 

Ongoing Genocidal Acts – Killings and Causing Serious Bodily or Mental Harm

Ongoing Massacres 

• In the past month, Israel has continued its ground invasions and bombings across Gaza, killing around 1,540 Palestinians and injuring 4,212 others between 27 June to 26 July.

Below are some of the most horrific Israeli killing incidents from the past month: 

1. 27 June: attack on displaced tents in Al Mawasi, Rafah, killing at least 13 Palestinians, and injuring 30 others.
2. 2 July: attack on a house in a “safe zone” area in Deir Al Balah, killing 12 Palestinians, including Dr. Hasan Hamdan of Nasser Medical Complex, and eight of his family members in their home.  
3. 4-6 July: in three separate incidents, Israel killed six journalists in Gaza City and Deir al Balah. As of 21 July, the number of journalists killed since October in Gaza has increased to 162 journalists.
4. 9 July: Israel killed 53 Palestinians in three incidents:
   • 27 Palestinians in Al Awda school, Khan Younis, where displaced people were sheltering. Footage captured the moment the school was bombed as Palestininans were playing football with dozens watching them. A witness who lost relatives in the massacre, described how she saw body parts flying in the wind.
   • 17 Palestinians, including 12 children, in a home in An Nuseirat New, Deir al Balah.
   • 9 Palestinians, including four children, in Al Bureij Refugee Camp, Deir al Balah.
5. 13 July: in a span of three hours, Israel committed two horrific massacres, killing over 110 Palestinians: 

Al-Mawasi Massacre: Israeli airstrikes bombed al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, including tents of internally displaced people, killing 90 Palestinians, and injuring 300 others, in what Israel had designated as ‘a safe humanitarian zone’. Bombings lasted for over an hour, with no prior warning, and bodies of displaced Palestinians were found buried in the sand and under the rubble, with many blown into pieces and limb amputations among the injured. Survivors compared what they witnessed to what they imagined the day of judgment would look like and said it was worse than being killed. One survivor explained how the bombing suddenly started as they were having breakfast, emphasizing how Al-Mawasi area should be a “safe area”, and asked: “Where to go, should we dig our own graves and bury ourselves?” Palestinian human rights groups found that an Israeli drone fired a missile in front of a Palestinian civil defense vehicle, which was trying to evacuate the injured. This resulted in the killing of two civil defense personnel and the injuring of eight. The massacre resulted in a mass casualty influx at the Nasser Medical Complex, which was already operating beyond capacity. UNRWA described the hospital conditions and scenes on 13 July as “the most horrific” since October, where “many patients were treated on the ground without disinfectants” and there were “not enough beds, hygiene equipment, sheeting, or scrubs,” while “ventilation systems were switched off due to a lack of electricity and fuel, and the air was filled with the smell of blood.”

Al-Shati Camp Massacre: hours after the Mawasi massacre, Israeli warplanes attacked a makeshift prayer site while tens of Palestinians were performing the noon prayer, in Ash Shati’ Refugee Camp, west of Gaza city, killing 22 Palestinians. A video after the bombing showed dismembered Palestinian bodies on the carpet of the prayer site, which the residents had set up after Israel destroyed the local mosque. 

6. 14 July: the UNRWA An Nuseirat school, where displaced Palestinians were sheltering, was attacked, killing 15 Palestinians, and injuring 80 others.

7. 16-17 July: in three separate incidents, Israel killed 51 Palestinians in two schools hosting displaced persons at Nuseirat refugee camp, and Al Rimal, in Gaza city, as well by attacking Al Attar Street in Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis, where many displaced Palestinians were gathering, including to buy food from a market of street vendors. UNRWA noted that at least eight schools, including six UNRWA schools, were attacked between 7 and 17 July.  

Ongoing Torture 

• On 1 July, about 50 Palestinian prisoners were released into Gaza from Israeli detention and testified of torture and ill-treatment. Among them, the director of Al Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, who was arrested in November 2023 without charge or trial. Abu Salmiya testified how guards broke his fingers and caused his head to bleed during beatings with batons and dog attacks. He described how detainess are subjected to “all kinds of torture behind bars,” stating that “there was almost daily torture.”
• On 18 July, Amnesty International detailed how the Israeli Unlawful Combatants Law is used “to arbitrarily round up Palestinian civilians from Gaza and toss them into a virtual black hole for prolonged periods” without any evidence and without minimum due process. Amnesty documented 27 torture testimonies of former detainees, under this law, including five women and a 14-year-old boy. Many were detained for months without any contact with the outside world, in what amounts to enforced disappearance. 

Ongoing Genocidal Acts – Inflicting Conditions of Life to Bring about Physical Destruction

• On 5 July, the Lancet found that applying “a conservative estimate”, the cumulative deaths in Gaza could reach 186,000 people (8% of Gaza population). This includes indirect deaths due to the collapse of the healthcare system, disruption of aid delivery, the destruction of the infrastructure, and severe shortages of food, water and shelter. The study stated that even if the war ends immediately, “there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years” from causes like diseases.

Ongoing Mass Forced Displacement

• More than nine months on the genocide, 2.1 million Palestinians reside in the Gaza Strip, down from the 2.3 million people. More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, while 10,000 are estimated to be under the rubble. About 110,000 Palestinians are now refugees outside Palestine and the number of people internally displaced within Gaza has risen to 1.9 million people.
• Over the past month, the Israeli military has issued various evacuation orders for Palestainians, many of whom displaced multiple times, to move to so called “humanitarian zones”:

1. 27  July: ordering residents of 28 residential blocs east of Gaza City to evacuate to southern Gaza, resulting in the forced displacement of around 70,000 Palestinians.
2. 1 July: ordering residents of 71 residential blocs in eastern Khan Younis and Rafah to move westwards to Al Mawasi, displacing them to western Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah.
3. 7 and 8 July: ordering tens of thousands of Palestinians residing in 19 blocs in Gaza city, including in areas where people had fled to a day earlier, to evacuate to western Gaza city and southwards to Deir al Balah.
4. 10 July: ordering residents of Gaza city to move southwards to Deir al Balah city and Az Zawayda area, displacing a few hundred people.
5. 22 July: ordering Palestinians residing in eastern and central Khan Younis to move westwards. The evacuation area encompasses areas already placed under evacuation orders on 1 July and newly designated areas, including parts of the “humanitarian zone” in Al Mawasi. This reduced the “humanitarian zone” by 14.8%.  Between 22 and 25 July, over 180,000 Palestinians were displaced from central and eastern Khan Younis to the already overcrowded Al Mawasi area. Hundreds were carrying minimal belongings, with many having to spend nights in the streets exhausted and in need of water and food.

• As of 22 July, around 83% of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as “no-go zones” by the Israeli occupying authorities.
• On 29 June and 12 July, the UN conducted assessments in Gaza city of over 4,000 displaced Palestinains, who face overcrowding, unsafe conditions, lack of shelter materials, water scarcity, degrading sanitation, food insecurity, and poor health access.
• On 19 July, the UN Human Rights Office said that Israel’s repeated evacuation orders force families into an impossible choice of staying under deadly airstrikes or leaving to other unsafe areas, where everything is under attack including the roads, shelters, hospitals, and the so-called humanitarian zones.

Attacks on the Health System 

• Israel’s repeated eveaction orders this month has not only forced repeated displacement, but also severely impacted the healthcare system. After the 1 July evacuation, all 320 patients and medical staff from the European Gaza Hospital were forced to move to the Nasser Medical Complex and other health facilities. The evacuation of the European Hospital, which has 650-bed-capacity, has effectively reduced southern Gaza’s hospital bed capacity to 1,334. On 5 July, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that all departments at Nasser Hospital were overwhelmed by patients, describing how patients lie on blankets in the corridors, and sit on stairs, and health workers are forced to place nails on the walls to hang the intravenous fluid and medication bags that patients need. MSF warned that should the facility, which is the last tertiary hospital available in southern Gaza, be left without electricity, several field hospitals would also cease functioning. By 8 July, Nasser Hospital was fully occupied and facing severe shortages of supplies. On 23 July, Nasser Hospital announced that due to lack of medicines and  medical essentials, several injured Palestinians succumbed to their wounds.

• Furthermore, the 7 and 8 July evacuation orders affected 13 health facilities and resulted in the evacuation of two hospitals: Al Ahli Baptist Hospital and the Patients Friends Association Hospital. Following these, the Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals have been absorbing a large influx of patients while continuing to face severe scarcity of fuel, beds and medical supplies. On 8 July, the World Health Organisation stated that the Indonesian Hospital is operating at three times its capacity. On 10 July, the hospital’s administration called on citizens to urgently donate blood to allow it to cope with the high casualty caseload.
• Following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Shuja’iyeh neighborhood in eastern Gaza city on 11 July, the Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD) declared the area a disaster zone, stating that 85% of residential buildings have been destroyed and rendered uninhabitable and infrastructure was massively damaged. This included the destruction of a medical clinic, which served more than 150,000 people, and was the only laboratory in the Strip performing public health tests for the prevention of diseases. PCD emphasized that many lives could have been saved if they were allowed to reach the injured in time, noting that it has retrieved 60 bodies in the neighborhood.

• Between 7 October and 12 July, there were 486 attacks on healthcare across Gaza, resulting in the killing of 746 Palestinians and the injury of 967 others, detention and arrest of 128 health workers, while affecting 106 health facilities and 113 ambulances.  As of 26 July, there are no fully functional hospitals in Gaza, with 16 out of 36 hospitals only partially functional, but some of them provide only minimal health-care services and 12 are only partially accessible. As of 19 July, about 1,500 hospital beds were available across Gaza to serve more than two million people.  On 17 July, the World Health Organization warned that the lack of bed capacity, compounded by the lack of medical supplies and equipment, and obstruction of aid delivery, lead to “unnecessary deaths, infected wounds and unnecessary amputations.”
• The ongoing fuel shortages continue to further undermine the functioning of health, water, and food production facilities. Between 1 and 21 July, only about 2,165,590 litres of fuel entered Gaza, which constitutes a quarter of the minimum daily requirement of about 400,000 litres necessary to sustain humanitarian activities in Gaza.

Famine 

• On 9 July, UN experts declared 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,” referencing ongoing deaths of children due to hunger and malnutrition.  On 9 July, WHO, citing the Ministry of Health, reported that 34 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration since October. As of 15 July, the Ministry of Health reported the admission of 108 patients due to severe acute malnutrition.

Diseases 

• Infectious diseases continue to spread due to shortages of clean water, overcrowding, abysmal sanitation and hygiene conditions, heat, and damage to sanitation infrastructure. Between 7 October and 7 July, WHO monitored 995,000 cases of acute respiratory infections, 577,000 of acute watery diarrhea, 107,000 of jaundice syndrome and 12,000 of bloody diarrhea, with the real number of infections likely much higher. WHO emphasized that rates of diarrheal infections are 25 times higher than prior to October.
• In a particularly worrying development, on 19 July, WHO reported the detection of variant poliovirus type 2 in samples collected on 23 June from Khan Younis and Deir al Balah.  More than nine months of genocide, including the severe lack of food, water, and the dire hygiene and sanitation conditions, have lowered routine immunization rates and increased the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. WHO assessed that there is a high risk of the virus spreading across Gaza, and potentially also beyond. 

Disrupting Humanitarian Aid 

• Less aid has gone daily into Gaza as compared to the average daily trucks entering Gaza before 26 January. Before 7 October, the average number of aid trucks that entered Gaza daily was 500. The closure of the Rafah Crossing since 7 May has exacerbated the disruption of aid cargo entering Gaza from a daily average of 169 aid trucks in April to 94 in May, 77 in June, and 75 between 1 and 24 July. This amounts to a 56% decrease since April. 

No Prevention of Public Incitement to Genocide

• In his speech to the US Congress on 24 July, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau openly asked the US Administration to give Israel more weapons, to “finish the job faster”, referring to the destruction of the Gaza Strip, where more than 2 million Palestinians are endruing an ongoing genocide. Netanyahu praised Israeli soldiers who are committing ongoing war crimes, and claimed that the number of civilians who have been killed in Rafah is “practically none,” 

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This brief has been prepared by the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD). For related inquiries, please reach out to us at: info@thepipd.com.