- More than 100 Palestinians have died of hunger in Gaza. This estimated toll is rising rapidly as people suffering from extreme cases of malnutrition flood the few remaining overwhelmed health centers.
- If Israel is allowed to continue its policy of mass killing and starvation, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will die within weeks.
- Inaction by States in the face of this genocide is complicity. Government leaders and State officials are liable to be held personally responsible.
Paris, 25 July 2025. Gaza is at a tipping point. According to the United Nations (UN), more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have already died of hunger while the health crisis deepens rapidly. If left unopposed, Israel’s policy of mass starvation will result in the imminent death of tens and potentially hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. This means hunger as a cause of death could very rapidly overtake the current dreadful toll from Israeli military attacks, currently at 59,000, a figure that is already considered a gross underestimate.
The Israeli government is bent on pursuing its genocidal policy, actively preventing external assistance to the people of Gaza. Subdued public statements and meek condemnations from governments and European Union officials are meaningless given the scale and severity of the situation on the ground. Only immediate and decisive action by states with the political will to act can offer hope of saving as many lives as possible among the remaining survivors of the over 2 million Palestinians who have been trapped in Gaza since October 2023.
Our thoughts are with our human rights defender colleagues in Gaza, who have not eaten in days and whose lives, along with those of their families and everyone around them, are in grave danger. Exhaustion prevents them from doing their work and documenting the ongoing crimes.
Today, as it has been for months, a massive quantity of aid ready to be delivered by the United Nations and international NGOs is stalled right outside Gaza. The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation(GHF) that overtook humanitarian relief efforts, falls dangerously short of all humanitarian principles and standards. For starving Palestinians seeking food for their families, it resembles a death trap: according to the UN over 875 have been killed by Israel while trying to access food and humanitarian aid since it started its operations. The GHF must be immediately disbanded and replaced with a credible, large-scale humanitarian mechanism capable of meeting urgent needs and led by the UN, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Those with the capacity to act must do so without delay. This is not only a fundamental obligation to protect life and rights, but a legal obligation for every State under the Genocide Convention, and in direct accordance with the multiple provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which require in particular Israel to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid at scale in "conformity with its obligations". Every hour of delay deepens the suffering of Gaza’s population. Inaction at this stage is not just negligence, it amounts to complicity in mass atrocities.
This situation has only been made possible by the complicity – active and passive – of many states and governments across the world. For almost two years, a cohort of State leaders and senior officials with converging interests have worked toward the systematic dismantling of international law and accountability. Actors such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, as well the European Union and others bear direct and ongoing responsibility for the current genocide in Gaza. Their continued military, logistical, economic, financial, and diplomatic support sustains Israel’s machinery of destruction and international crimes.
The killing by starvation of human beings, including children, can only occur when all legal, moral, and human norms have been suspended. Unless, like many of today’s world leaders, we are prepared to accept that crimes against humanity have become the new norm, impunity must end now. These crimes cannot and will not be allowed to continue unchecked. It may take years, but the lives of those responsible will be permanently cast under the shadow of our pursuit for justice. To the perpetrators, and accomplices, we say clearly: we, human rights defenders and lawyers, will make sure you are personally held accountable.
