Today, Friday, 3 July 2026, marks one thousand days since the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) launched their genocide against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023. For one thousand consecutive days, the IOF have continued to perpetrate this crime before the eyes of the world, while the international community—particularly the States Parties to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide—has failed to fulfil its legal obligations to protect civilians, halt the ongoing genocide, and hold its perpetrators accountable. Although a ceasefire officially entered into force on 10 October 2025 under the Trump Peace Plan, it has remained ineffective in practice. The IOF have continued their genocidal campaign throughout the Gaza Strip, while developments on the ground demonstrate that the Peace Council established under that plan has served only to institutionalize and perpetuate the genocide, maintaining conditions deliberately designed to make life uninhabitable and leaving the threat of the forcible displacement of Gaza’s entire population looming large.
The genocide in the Gaza Strip constitutes the latest chapter in a long pattern of international crimes committed by the IOF against the Palestinian people as part of Israel’s settler-colonial regime, which is founded upon the ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous Palestinian population, their displacement from their homeland, and the denial of their inalienable right to self-determination.
Since 2007, the IOF have imposed a comprehensive blockade on the Gaza Strip, creating—and continuing to create—a man-made humanitarian catastrophe that has affected every aspect of daily life. The blockade has resulted in an unprecedented deterioration in living conditions, deliberately creating a coercive environment and conditions of life that render the continued existence of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip increasingly impossible.
Alongside this unlawful and inhumane blockade, the IOF launched four major military offensives against the Gaza Strip between 2008 and 2021. These offensives claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians, and caused widespread destruction of civilian objects, including healthcare facilities, educational institutions, places of worship, residential buildings, industrial and agricultural facilities, roads, electricity networks, water infrastructure, and sanitation systems.
Investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) into each of these military offensives concluded that the IOF deliberately targeted civilians and civilian property and committed war crimes on a widespread scale. These findings were corroborated by independent international commissions of inquiry, including the United Nations Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission established following Israel’s 2008 offensive on the Gaza Strip, which concluded that: “The destruction of food supply installations, water networks and sanitation facilities, concrete factories, and residential housing was the result of a deliberate policy adopted by the Israeli armed forces. This policy was implemented not because these targets posed a military threat, nor by accident, but in order to make the daily lives and dignified existence of the civilian population more difficult.”1
From the very first moments of Israel’s unprecedented large-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, the intent to commit genocide was unmistakable. This intent was reflected in two interrelated elements. First, the genocidal intent openly expressed by Israel’s political and military leaders through public statements made before the media, coupled with official state decisions. Second, the acts perpetrated against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and their immediate and long-term consequences, including mass killings, widespread destruction, the infliction of serious bodily harm, the deliberate destruction of the means of survival, and the creation of conditions of life calculated to make the continued existence of Palestinians as a national group impossible.
Over the course of one thousand days, the IOF have relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip with thousands of tons of explosives, including bombs weighing up to one metric ton each, systematically targeting cities, residential neighbourhoods, hospitals, educational institutions, and other essential civilian infrastructure. Entire cities and neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, while thousands of homes have been destroyed with their residents still inside. Hospitals, medical centres, ambulance services, and Civil Defence facilities have been deliberately targeted and destroyed. Universities and schools have been devastated. Roads, electricity grids, water networks, and sewage systems have been systematically destroyed. Farms, factories, commercial markets, and fishing ports have likewise been bombed and destroyed.
More than two million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of relentless bombardment and hundreds of evacuation orders issued across every part of the Gaza Strip. Families have been repeatedly forced to flee in search of safety, only to find themselves confined to overcrowded shelters and makeshift tents that lack even the most basic necessities of life. Even these places, supposedly designated as safe shelters, have repeatedly come under attack, exposing displaced civilians to further death and destruction.
The IOF have also directly targeted medical personnel, ambulance crews, and Civil Defence teams while they were attempting to rescue the wounded or recover the bodies of victims trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed homes and civilian buildings.
The IOF have prevented the entry of food, medical supplies, and other essential humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip by imposing a suffocating blockade and deliberately using starvation as a method of warfare. They have also carried out widespread arrest campaigns during which thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children have been subjected to brutal torture and other forms of ill-treatment, resulting in the deaths of dozens of detainees. PCHR has documented harrowing testimonies from male and female detainees who were subjected to sexual violence, including rape, during their detention and interrogation. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians remain missing, and their fate and whereabouts remain unknown. To date, PCHR has verified more than 540 cases of enforced disappearance.
According to official figures in Gaza, one thousand days of genocide have claimed the lives of more than 73,000 Palestinians, while over 173,000 others have been injured. The overwhelming majority of those killed were civilians, including 21,500 children and 12,500 women, who together account for approximately 55 percent of all fatalities. The victims also include 1,700 doctors and healthcare workers, nearly 300 Civil Defence personnel and municipal workers, and 262 journalists, many of whom were directly targeted while carrying out their professional duties.
From the earliest days of the military offensive, official Israeli statements and government decisions converged with military operations on the ground, leaving no room for doubt that Israel’s actions formed part of a deliberate policy aimed at committing genocide against the Palestinian people as a national group. This policy has sought not only to kill Palestinians but also to destroy the conditions necessary for their present and future existence. Recognizing these alarming developments from the outset, PCHR, together with other Palestinian human rights organizations, repeatedly warned of the imminent risk of genocide and called upon the international community to take urgent and decisive action to prevent it.
On 29 December 2023, the Republic of South Africa instituted proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. South Africa requested the Court to indicate provisional measures to protect Palestinians from irreparable harm under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention 2.
On 26 January 2024, the Court issued its first legally binding Order, finding that there was a plausible basis to conclude that Israel was committing acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention during its military campaign in Gaza. The Court ordered a series of provisional measures requiring Israel, inter alia, to prevent the commission of genocide, ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, and prevent and punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide. Since the proceedings were initiated, the ICJ has issued six sets of provisional measures, all of which Israel has openly disregarded and failed to implement 3.
On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population, as well as the crimes against humanity of persecution and other inhumane acts. Despite the significance and legal implications of these decisions, Israel has remained undeterred and has continued to perpetrate genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The reality in Gaza today, after one thousand days of genocide, defies description. It resembles nothing less than a living hell. Scenes of devastation dominate every corner of the Gaza Strip. The IOF have expanded their effective control over approximately 70 percent of the territory, forcing around 2.3 million Palestinians into a narrow border area of no more than 100 square kilometres. This has resulted in an unprecedented population density of approximately 23,000 people per square kilometre. The overwhelming majority of the population now lives in makeshift tents that lack even the minimum requirements for survival.
There are virtually no functioning hospitals or healthcare facilities. Universities and schools have been destroyed, while an entire generation is being stripped of its identity and collective memory. Disease continues to spread as a result of the collapse of the healthcare system and the destruction of essential infrastructure, including water, electricity, and sanitation services. The accumulation of mountains of waste within residential areas—caused by Israel’s refusal to allow its transfer to designated landfill sites—has further aggravated the public health crisis.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian catastrophe continues to deepen as the IOF obstruct or prevent the delivery of humanitarian assistance, including food, medicine, and fuel required to operate hospital generators, water facilities, bakeries, sewage systems, and other essential civilian infrastructure. The limited aid that is allowed to enter represents no more than a drop in the ocean of overwhelming humanitarian needs.
Nearly nine months have passed since the ceasefire announced on 10 October 2025, yet no meaningful change has occurred in Israel’s genocidal campaign. In reality, the ceasefire has never taken effect. Since its announcement, the IOF have continued to carry out airstrikes and open fire across the Gaza Strip, killing more than 990 Palestinians and injuring over 3,000 others. It has become increasingly evident that the Trump Peace Plan—which led to the announcement of the ceasefire—and the Peace Council established under its framework have served only to institutionalize and perpetuate the genocide.
President Trump, through his plan, promised a peace that can never be achieved because it is fundamentally inconsistent with international law. Any peace that is not grounded in international law and respect for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is no peace at all.
Instead, his plan has effectively given the Israeli Occupation free rein to continue its campaign of killing, destruction, and forced displacement. It has failed to ensure the entry of medicines, food, or construction materials needed for reconstruction, and has prevented nearly 200,000 Palestinians from returning to the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the humanitarian catastrophe continues to deepen, and the threats of forcible displacement and ethnic cleansing remain real and imminent.
The crime of genocide is being committed in the Gaza Strip and broadcast live before the eyes and ears of the world, in a scene that brings shame upon humanity. This crime is being carried out with the full support of the United States and many Western states, which continue to provide Israel with weapons and military equipment, in addition to political support. These states are key parties to the crime of genocide, whether through direct support or complicity.
The entrenched absence of accountability within the international system, and the immunity Israel enjoys with the support of its Western allies, have encouraged Israel to persist in its blatant defiance of international law. The crime of genocide in Gaza is the result and culmination of decades of Western support for Israel and for the policy of immunity and impunity.
It is time for the international community to assume its responsibilities and put an end to this flagrant and obscene violation of international law by the Occupying Power.
