United Nations human rights experts urged on Wednesday that the international community must act immediately to end the intensifying violence in Gaza.
The experts stated that since the end of the ceasefire, which started on January 19 and ended on March 18, there have been yet harsher attacks on the population in Gaza: “Escalating atrocities in Gaza present an urgent moral crossroads and States must act now to end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza—an outcome with irreversible consequences for our shared humanity and multilateral order.”
The human rights experts claimed that the continuous attacks on civilians and health facilities enter the realm of crimes against humanity and war crimes under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute, respectively. The experts said:
No one is spared—not the children, persons with disabilities, nursing mothers, journalists, health professionals, aid workers, or hostages. Since breaking the ceasefire, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians, many daily—peaking on 18 March 2025 with 600 casualties in 24 hours, 400 of whom were children.
There is an ongoing discussion on whether the atrocities can be labelled as genocide under the Genocide Convention. For example, the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories issued a report last year proposing reasonable grounds to believe that the genocide threshold was met. However, countries are generally reluctant to label acts as genocide because it is a peremptory norm, or jus cogens, a fundamental principle of international law, mandating action under the Convention.
The UN experts warned that international law is meaningless if countries do not actively hold other countries responsible when they violate significant international obligations. For example, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif for war crimes and crimes against humanity on November 21, 2024. The arrest warrant for Deif was later withdrawn upon confirmation of his death. Yet, Hungary defied the arrest warrant against Netanyahu by inviting the Israeli prime minister to Hungary, and the country later announced its intent to withdraw from the ICC.
Ultimately, the human rights experts claimed that the effectiveness of international law depends on the willingness of the international community. They emphasized: “The decision is stark: remain passive and witness the slaughter of innocents or take part in crafting a just resolution. The global conscience has awakened, if asserted—despite the moral abyss we are descending into—justice will ultimately prevail.”
