Overview
Palestinians in Gaza continue to reel under Israel’s genocide against them, despite the signing of a fragile ceasefire. The consequences of Israel’s apartheid system on Palestinians and of its unlawful occupation of Gaza and the West Bank are growing more deadly and destructive. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and seriously injured in the occupied Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023. At least 830 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. 90% of Gaza’s population are internally displaced.
Since Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, first began in June 1967, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, coupled with rampant institutionalized discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights. This military occupation is a key component of a cruel system of apartheid that oppresses and dominates all Palestinians whose rights Israel controls. This includes people living in the occupied territory, in Israel and the diaspora who are not allowed to return home.
Our team of experts work tirelessly to make sure that the truth about human rights violations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) comes to light. To document violations and establish whether violations and crimes under international law had been committed, we conduct our investigations through fieldwork and desk research, interviewing victims and witnesses. We analyse different types of evidence and use remote sensing, among other remote research methods to unveil violations.
End Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
Stop the genocide now
The human rights consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory
Israel has maintained a military and security presence in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967. This despite numerous UN resolutions rejecting Israel’s illegal annexation of parts of the OPT and construction of unlawful settlements.
Israel’s occupation of Palestine is one of the longest and deadliest military occupations in the world. For decades it has been characterized by widespread and systematic human rights violations against Palestinians. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2024 found Israel’s presence in the OPT to be unlawful and the UN General Assembly called in September 2024 for Israel to end the occupation within one year. The occupation has also enabled and entrenched Israel’s system of apartheid. And it is against the backdrop of apartheid and illegal occupation that Israel committed its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s control over Palestinians
Palestinians living under Israeli occupation are subjected to a myriad of human rights violations, maintained by an institutionalized regime of systematic domination and oppression. Everyday life in Palestine requires navigation through a complex system of military checkpoints, fences, walls and military bases. Israel’s tight grip over all matters of life in Palestine, from the population registry to the supply of water and electricity, allows it to implement a draconian system of control over Palestinians.
This control has reached unprecedented levels of cruelty in the Gaza Strip where Israel has maintained a 16-year illegal blockade which has been further tightened since 9 October 2023. The blockade, coupled with Israel’s recurrent military operations have plunged the Gaza Strip into one of the gravest humanitarian and human rights crises of modern times.
Since the occupation first began, Israel has been forcing thousands of Palestinians off their land in the occupied West Bank, illegally confiscating it to create settlements to exclusively house Jewish Israeli settlers. The very existence of such settlements violates international law and is a war crime. Israel’s policy of constructing and expanding illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land isone of the main driving forces behind the mass human rights violations resulting from the occupation.
End Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
Stop the genocide now
Israel’s system of apartheid
For over 75 years, Israel has created and maintained laws, policies, and practices that deliberately oppress Palestinians. This system works to ensure Jewish Israeli domination across Israel and the OPT and affects Palestinian refugees as well. They fragment people into distinct territorial, legal and administrative domains to silence dissent and segregate Palestinians into restricted enclaves away from Jewish Israelis. These practices violate international law and constitute apartheid.
In July 2024, the ICJ issued a historic advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, stating that the occupation and annexation are illegal, and their associated policies and practices against Palestinians violate international law.
The term “apartheid” was originally used to refer to a political system in South Africa which explicitly enforced racial segregation, and the domination and oppression of one racial group by another. It has since been adopted by the international community to condemn and criminalize such systems and practices wherever they occur in the world, through the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
How does Israel impose apartheid against Palestinians?
Israeli authorities have created and maintained an institutionalized system of oppression and domination to control Palestinians. It’s a system that operates through four main strategies:
- fragmentation into domains of control
- dispossession of land and property
- segregation and domination
- deprivation of economic and social rights
Palestinians are confined to enclaves in Israel, and across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, namely the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. There are also many Palestinian refugee communities, where they are subject to different legal and administrative regimes depending on their location. This has the effect of undermining family, social and political ties between Palestinian communities and suppressing any form of dissent against the apartheid system.
Israeli authorities issue massive and cruel land seizures, forcing Palestinians to leave their land and homes. Over time, as Israel claims more land to benefit Jewish Israelis, displaced Palestinians are trapped in increasingly overcrowded enclaves.
Decades of discriminatory treatment and restricted resources have created a reality of compounding inequalities and repression. Palestinians living under Israel’s control have fewer opportunities to earn a living and engage in business than Jewish Israelis. They experience discriminatory limitations on access to and use of farmland, water, gas and oil amongst other natural resources, as well as restrictions on the provision of health, education and basic services.
Israel’s policy of arbitrarily arresting Palestinians, including children, and holding them without charge or trial is another cruel tool of its apartheid system, aimed at breaking the fabric of Palestinian society and silencing any form of dissent.
Automated Apartheid
Israeli authorities entrench their system of apartheid through an ever-expanding surveillance network, which includes facial recognition technology. This network operates alongside a discriminatory and maze-like travel permit regime that creates physical restrictions, including checkpoints, roadblocks and separation walls and fences.
Movement around Palestinian territory is severely limited by Israel’s ‘closure system’ which is made up of a complex network of checkpoints. In the occupied West Bank, checkpoints and other points of Israeli military infrastructure are armed with a facial recognition system called Red Wolf. This system is used to track Palestinians and automate draconian restrictions on their freedom of movement.
When a Palestinian goes through a checkpoint where Red Wolf is operating, their face is scanned, without their knowledge or consent, and compared with biometric entries in databases which exclusively contain information about Palestinians.
End Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
Stop the genocide now
Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Following the deadly attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023 in which an estimated 1,139 people were killed, the majority civilians, and over 200 were taken hostage, the Israeli military launched a devastating onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza. As of 11 February 2025, this offensive killed at least 48,219 people, and wounded 111,665 others, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Thousands of others remain missing, presumed dead under the rubble. Over 90% of the population were displaced, many on multiple occasions . According to conservative estimates by the United Nations Protection Cluster, hostilities, displacement and explosive ordnance have left 20% of Gaza’s population with permanent disabilities.
Israeli forces have also arbitrarily arrested thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, including hundreds of health workers. In some cases, Palestinians were forcibly disappeared or held incommunicado. Palestinians in Israeli custody have routinely been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.
Palestinians, especially those living in the Gaza Strip, continue to face unparalleled bloodshed and suffering at the hands of Israeli forces. The ongoing impact of this offensive on Palestinians is unspeakable, with entire families wiped out by Israeli attacks and entire cities and neighbourhoods levelled. Tens of thousands of children have lost one or two parents and people have yet to start rebuilding their lives and homes.
Our investigations into violations by all parties in Gaza have found evidence of war crimes, as well as concluding that Israel’s actions in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amount to genocide.
Israel launches direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks that leave Gaza’s residents in a constant state of fear. Those who survive the constant onslaught from Israeli attacks must then contend with a dire humanitarian crisis brought on by mass displacement, obstruction of humanitarian assistance and limited access to food, water and health services. We have also spoken out against crimes committed by Hamas and other armed groups, such as deliberate killings of civilians, hostage-taking and indiscriminate attacks.
Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here.
Mohammed who fled with his family from Gaza City to Rafah in March 2024 and was displaced again in May 2024
Genocide
In December 2024, we released a landmark report concluding that there is sufficient evidence to determine that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The report detailed the unprecedented scale and magnitude of death and destruction in Gaza, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites.
The report analysed Israel’s overall pattern of conduct during the conflict and genocidal statements by senior Israeli officials. It considered both the pattern of conduct and the statements within the context of Israel’s illegal and inhumane blockade on Gaza, decades of illegal military occupation and the apartheid system against Palestinians to assess Israel’s specific intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza.
We concluded that Israel committed three out of the five acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention:
- killing members of the group;
- causing them serious mental or bodily harm;
- deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
What is genocide?
The Genocide Convention states that genocide is “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:
- killing members of the group;
- causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Evidence of intent to destroy
One of the primary components of the definition of genocidal acts relies on the specific intention to destroy a national, racial, or religious group. In the context of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Amnesty International assessed specific intent through investigating direct and indirect evidence.
- Indirect evidence: The overall pattern of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
- Direct evidence: Dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials.
We then looked at both types of evidence against the backdrop of Israel’s system of apartheid, its inhumane blockade of Gaza and the unlawful 57-year-old military occupation of Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Our researchers and other human rights experts identified an overall pattern of the government of Israel’s conduct in Gaza that indicated an intent to destroy. This included
- repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and deliberately indiscriminate attacks;
- misleading “evacuation” orders;
- the torture and incommunicado detention of Palestinians;
- the destruction of cultural and religious sites and
- the systematic and repeated nature of acts and omissions designed to make Gaza uninhabitable and cause the slow death of Palestinians.
Such acts and omissions were carried out despite Israel’s knowledge of their anticipated catastrophic consequences and despite numerous orders by the IC J to adopt provisional measures to prevent genocide in Gaza.
Israeli government and military officials repeatedly issue dehumanizing statements against Palestinians, including calls for genocidal acts and other crimes against them. These statements provide direct evidence of genocidal intent.
Mass displacement
2 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced. There is mass destruction of civilian property and infrastructure in the occupied Gaza Strip. This reality puts a spotlight on Israel’s appalling record of displacing Palestinians and its longstanding refusal to respect their right to return.
The Israeli military has repeatedly issued evacuation orders forcibly displacing civilians to internally displaced person (IDP) camps in the south, particularly in areas surrounding Rafah. This meant Palestinian civilians were squeezed into ever-shrinking pockets of Gaza in unsafe, inhumane conditions. Famine and diseases rapidly spread across the population causing further loss of lives.
In May 2024, Israeli forces began a large-scale ground invasion of Rafah, causing cataclysmic destruction, and disruption to vital, life-sustaining humanitarian operations. This was despite being specifically ordered by the ICJ not to do so. The images and extent of the destruction and its toll are beginning to surface following the ceasefire agreement.
With the closure of the Rafah Crossing, the sole crossing point from Gaza into Egypt, and intense Israeli military operations across Gaza, Palestinians living there have nowhere left to turn.
Blocked humanitarian aid
The Gaza Strip is facing a devastating humanitarian crisis. Even before the latest military offensive, Israel had maintained a suffocating blockade on Gaza, that severely limits access to aid, including food, medical care and shelter.
Despite repeated orders by the ICJ that humanitarian access must be granted to prevent genocide, Israel continued to defy its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law by preventing or severely restricting life-saving aid from entering Gaza.
Experts monitoring the situation warned that famine is imminent, as half of the population in Gaza experience catastrophic food insecurity. As the humanitarian situation worsens, it becomes increasingly clear that the Israeli military has been weaponizing famine to further its control over Gaza.
What is Amnesty International doing to help?
Amnesty International is committed to bringing the truth to light. For decades our researchers and campaigners have been rigorously documenting the systematic violations that have resulted from Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. We craft strategic advocacy campaigns to expose violations and demand justice and reparation for victims and mobilize our global membership of over 10 million people to elevate our calls for dismantling apartheid, ending the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s illegal occupation of the OPT.
Stop Genocide
In December 2024, we released a report which presented concrete evidence that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The research highlighted the persistent and intentional nature of Israel’s crimes and genocidal acts and the irreparable harm it has inflicted on Palestinian people.
This work also launched our global campaign to stop the genocide in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already issued arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. We’re calling for them to investigate the genocide in Gaza as well. Our campaign also demands that governments around the world act on their obligations to prevent genocide and to secure justice and reparation for crimes under international law, including by supporting the ICC and by arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC.
End Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
Stop the genocide now
Stop Arming Israel
Many of the weapons, munitions and other military equipment that Israel uses to bombard Gaza are transferred from other countries. While public information on these arms transfers is limited, we know that many of them come from the United States, the United Kingdom and many EU countries, including Czech Republic, Germany, France, Italy and Slovakia.
The Arms Trade Treaty prohibits exports of weapons when there is a clear risk that they could be used to commit serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law. There is a vast collection of evidence, documented by Amnesty as well as other human rights organizations and UN experts and fact-finding commissions asserting that this risk is undoubtedly present in any transfer of weapons to Israel.
For this reason, Amnesty members around the world are calling for states to halt arms transfers to Israel. States that continue to send arms to Israel must be aware that they may become complicit in genocide and other atrocity crimes.
Ceasefire now
In January 2025, a ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Hamas which brought a glimmer of hope to Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide. This deal followed more than a year of dedicated campaigning by human rights activists and organizations around the world, including Amnesty.
The ceasefire must be sustainable and has to be accompanied by unfettered and safe access to humanitarian aid across the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities must allow human rights investigators and international journalists access into Gaza to investigate, document and report on the situation there.
The deal is fragile and temporary, which is why our team is continuing to monitor the situation and call for an enduring ceasefire, the release of all civilian hostages and of arbitrarily detained Palestinians.
Justice and accountability for all crimes
Decades of impunity for violations by all parties in Israel and the OPT are at the heart of the recurrent human rights violations we continue to witness.
Despite growing evidence of Israeli authorities’ crimes against Palestinians, true avenues to accountability and justice are sparse. Amnesty and other human rights organizations around the world are working tirelessly to make sure these crimes are documented and reported to hold Israel accountable for their litany of crimes in the OPT.
In the wake of Israel’s genocide and destruction in Gaza, numerous international legal institutions have taken positive steps to hold those responsible to account. In December 2023, South Africa filed a case against Israel before the ICJ under the Genocide Convention. The Court in January ordered Israel to adopt provisional measures due to the plausible risk of irreparable harm to Palestinians in Gaza. These orders were reiterated in March and again in May 2024.
In July 2024, the ICJ made a historic finding that Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory are unlawful. Only a few months later, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel; Yoav Gallant, former Israeli Minister of Defence and al-Qassam brigades commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These developments are a positive step towards justice, but only account for a small portion of the crimes committed over the course of Israel’s five decades of occupation.
