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b'tselem
Israel Killing West Bank Children at Highest Rate in Decades 'With Virtually No Accountability'
"The system does not merely back those who pull the trigger—it effectively grants them a license to kill," said the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
Jun 29, 2026
Between October 2023 and June 2026, Israel's military killed Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank at the highest rate since 1967, according to a report published Monday by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.
The report, titled Unshielded Childhood, argues that "the unprecedented scale of killing of Palestinian children and teenagers by Israeli forces is the result of a reckless open-fire policy, expanded to be even more permissive than in the past, that is currently being implemented in the West Bank." Between October 7, 2023 and June 28, 2026, Israeli forces killed more than 240 children and teenagers, with 54 killed in 2025 alone.
The report, which tells the story of each child killed by Israeli forces last year, quotes Israel's top West Bank commander, Avi Bluth, who recently boasted that Israeli forces are "killing like we haven’t killed since 1967"—a reference to the Six-Day War in which Israel seized the West Bank. Among those killed between the start of 2025 and June 7, 2026 were two brothers—one 5 years old, the other 6—and a seven-month-old baby.
Yuli Novak, executive director of B'Tselem, said in a statement that "the widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability."
"When the military commander of the area boasts that Israel is killing Palestinians ‘like we haven't killed since 1967,’ he is confirming exactly that: The system does not merely back those who pull the trigger—it effectively grants them a license to kill," Novak added.
Citing fellow Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, B'Tselem noted that "no indictments are known to have been filed in cases involving killings in the West Bank" since October 2023.
"Yet the immunity guaranteed in advance and the absence of any real demand for accountability after these crimes are committed are not confined to the legal sphere," the report states. "They are also reflected in 'public impunity' that stems from the Israeli public’s indifference to the killing of Palestinian children."
בשנת 2025 הרגה ישראל הרגה 54 ילדים ובני נוער פלסטינים בגדה המערבית.
הדו״ח החדש שלנו מספר את סיפורם של כל אחד ואחת מהם.
מאז אוקטובר 2023 נהרגו בידי ישראל בגדה המערבית 1,086 פלסטינים, בהם 241 ילדים ובני נוער – ובהם גם סאם אבו הייכל, תינוק בן שבעה חודשים. אלה אינם מקרים חריגים,… pic.twitter.com/j96gyE3dAQ
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) June 29, 2026
B'Tselem linked the spike in Israeli forces' killing of Palestinian children in the West Bank to "the military's declared easing of open-fire regulations at the end of 2021, reportedly permitting soldiers to use lethal fire against stone throwers in a departure from previous rules."
"The new regulations permitted use of lethal fire even at individuals fleeing after suspectedly throwing stones, who no longer posed a danger—in violation of international law," the group noted. "After 7 October 2023, the rules of engagement were further expanded, leading to another sharp rise in fatalities."
B'Tselem's investigation found that just two of the 54 Palestinian children and teenagers killed in the West Bank last year were armed with guns at the time they were killed by Israeli forces.
The group continued:
Thirteen were shot while throwing stones at roads or at armored Israeli forces, with no injuries reported from the stone-throwing. By contrast, at least 21 were not involved in any clashes, even when clashes were taking place nearby that included stone-throwing, hurling explosives or live fire. Regarding 12 minors, the military claimed they had tried to injure forces by throwing Molotov cocktails, IEDs ,or stones; B’Tselem’s investigation could neither verify nor refute this claim. Another teen was the object of a targeted killing. Forty-seven of the children and teenagers were killed by gunfire, and the remaining seven in airstrikes.
B'Tselem emphasized that the West Bank killings "cannot be separated from Israel's killing of more than 21,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip."
"By allowing Israel to kill on such a scale in Gaza without consequences, the international community has effectively given it a green light to pursue the same lethal policy in the West Bank," the group said in a statement. "As long as Israel continues to enjoy near-total impunity in the world, the lives of Palestinians—including children—will remain unprotected and exposed."
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'Shameful Assault on Human Rights': Trump Sanctions Palestinian Orgs That Called for UN to Investigate Israeli War Crimes
The former executive director of Human Rights Watch said Trump's "answer to Israeli atrocities is to censor reporting on them rather than to stop them."
Sep 05, 2025
Human rights groups around the world are reacting with horror after the Trump administration sanctioned three leading Palestinian human rights monitors who sought to bring evidence of Israeli war crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The three groups—Al-Haq in the West Bank and the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights—are considered among the leading human rights monitors in the region.
In an announcement on Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the sanctions were imposed on these groups because they "directly engaged in efforts by the international criminal court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent."
In November 2023, the three groups petitioned the ICC to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials—including President Isaac Herzog and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
They cited Israel's widely documented use of indiscriminate airstrikes against densely populated civilian areas and its near-total blockade of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip—acts that, over the next nearly two years, have made Gaza virtually uninhabitable and brought it to the point of mass starvation.
The ICC would eventually issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024, which was met with threats of sanctions by the administration of then-President Joe Biden, who called the warrants "outrageous." Despite Netanyahu and his officials having visited multiple ICC member countries, which are obliged to carry out the court's warrants, no arrests have been made.
Since retaking office, US President Donald Trump has followed through on threats against the ICC, placing sanctions on the court as a body and threatening to sanction anyone who assisted in its prosecution or investigation into Israel or other US allies.
In August, as much of the world had begun to isolate Israel as it moved forward with an explicit ethnic cleansing campaign, the administration also sanctioned four of the ICC's judges, including the one who authorized the warrants against Israel's leaders.
Now, just days after the world's leading group of genocide scholars voted overwhelmingly for a resolution stating that Israel's actions meet the legal definition for the crime, the Trump administration is attempting to cripple the groups that are documenting those actions.
Former BBC radio journalist Sangita Myska noted that "this type of action is normally reserved for terrorists and drug traffickers," adding that it will "severely damage the organizations' ability to advocate for Palestinians."
It is not the first time the Trump administration has sanctioned a Palestinian human rights group. In June, it sanctioned Adameer, a Ramallah-based group focused on the rights of prisoners in Israel's brutal detention system.
At the time, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said the sanctions "would make day-to-day operations harder and harder, including for their employees, assisted communities, and service suppliers. This will also negatively affect their engagement with their partner organizations, locally and internationally, including US-based groups."
Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said that the administration was acting "as if the answer to Israeli atrocities is to censor reporting on them rather than to stop them."
In a joint statement issued Thursday, Al Haq, Al Mezan, and the PCHR described it as "a coward[ly], immoral, illegal, and undemocratic act."
"As the world moves to impose sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel," the groups said, "its ally, the US, is working to destroy Palestinian institutions working tirelessly for accountability for the victims of Israel's mass atrocity crimes."
(Video: Al Jazeera)
"They want to silence Palestinian voices," said PCHR's Basel Al-Sourani in an interview with Al Jazeera. "They want to silence anyone who stands up to Israeli crimes, anyone who tries to advocate for Palestinian rights, anyone who tries to bring perpetrators to justice."
Other human rights groups around the world have joined them in condemning the decision.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, a director at Amnesty International, described the sanctions against these groups as a "shameful assault on human rights and the global pursuit of justice."
"These organizations carry out vital and courageous work, meticulously documenting human rights violations under the most horrifying conditions," Guevara-Rosas continued. "They have steadfastly continued to do so in the face of war, genocide, and the oppressive reality of Israel's apartheid regime, as well as malicious attempts to discredit their findings and cripple their funding with spurious terrorism accusations. They are the voice of Palestinian victims, amplifying stories of human suffering and injustice that would otherwise remain unheard."
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which in July joined the growing international consensus that Israel is perpetrating a genocide, said it stands "in full solidarity with our colleagues and partners working for human rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea."
The group described the US sanctions as "yet another move aimed at erasing fundamental norms of protecting human beings designed to enable Israel to continue harming Palestinians without restraint."
Al-Sourani said that the sanctions were "not a surprise, given the US administration being a partner in Israel's genocide."
Trump has endorsed Israel's stated goal to permanently displace most Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, with reporting earlier this week detailing plans to replace the destroyed enclave with a sprawling real-estate development.
Some of the developers of the plan are Israelis involved in the administration of the US-Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), where over a thousand Palestinian aid seekers have been killed, often in deliberate massacres by Israeli troops, in recent months.
Despite the new dangers they will impose, Al-Sourani said, "these sanctions, they will not deter us."
"We will continue documenting the Israeli crimes that are happening on the ground," Al-Sourani said. "We will continue our engagement with the ICC. We will continue advocating for justice, for the rule of law, and for the protection of the ICC judges and the prosecutors."
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3 in 4 Gaza Detainees Held Without Trial by Israel Are Civilians, Military Database Says
Jessica Montell, director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, said Israel's "unlawful combatants" law "has been used to facilitate the forced disappearance of hundreds and even thousands of people."
Sep 04, 2025
The vast majority of the Palestinians being held in Israel's brutal detention centers are civilians, according to data from a classified Israeli military database.
An investigation published Thursday by The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call reveals that of the more than 6,000 so-called "unlawful combatants" detained by Israel during the first 19 months of its military campaign in Gaza, just 1,450 of them were considered by the army to be Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
In its public statements, the Israeli government and media often describe every Palestinian detained or killed in Gaza as a "terrorist." But according to The Guardian:
Those jailed for long periods without charge or trial include medical workers, teachers, civil servants, media workers, writers, sick and disabled people, and children.
Among the most egregious cases are those of an 82-year-old woman with Alzheimer's jailed for six weeks and of a single mother separated from her young children. When the mother was released after 53 days she found the children begging on the streets.
Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law enacted in 2002, allows the military to hold people in detention if they have "reasonable grounds" to believe they participated in "hostile activities against the state of Israel" or are a member of a group that has.
The law allows them to be held for 75 days without access to a lawyer and another 45 days without being brought before a court. After October 7, 2023, those periods of internment were extended to 180 and 75 days, respectively.
Their detention periods are often extended automatically based on "secret evidence" that is not shared with detainees or their lawyers. According to the joint report, "There have been no known trials of anyone captured in Gaza since October 7."
This detention method is described as a way to subvert due process without declaring the detained to be prisoners of war, which entitles them to protection from violence under international law.
"If Israel were to put all [the detainees] on trial, they'd have to draft indictments on specific charges and present evidence of those allegations," Jessica Montell, director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, told +972. "Due process can be cumbersome. That's why they created the Unlawful Combatants Law, to bypass all of that."
Montell said that the law "has been used to facilitate the forced disappearance of hundreds and even thousands of people."
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, shortly after the war kicked off, Israel began the "rushed transformation of more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, military and civilian, into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates as a matter of policy."
Testimonies from dozens of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank who were arbitrarily detained revealed in August 2024 that the prisoners "were subjected to harsh arbitrary violence on a frequent basis, sexual assault, humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation, forced lack of hygiene, sleep deprivation, restriction and punishment of religious worship, confiscation of all group and personal belongings, and denial of adequate medical care."
Those who have been released from detention often come back in horrendous health, as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor found out when it documented the conditions of the roughly 2,000 detainees released during January's brief ceasefire period between Israel and Hamas. A report released by the group in February stated that:
The majority appeared to be in a serious state of decline, with each of them losing several kilograms of weight due to what appears to be intentional starvation.
Following their release, many of the inmates and detainees required immediate hospital transfers for critical medical examinations. One in particular seemed incapable of recognizing his future after being denied treatment while in custody.
These circumstances demonstrate how Israel has transformed its jails into institutionalized torture facilities for Palestinian detainees and prisoners, including those who were convicted and imprisoned prior to October 7, 2023.
Until the final moments before their release, most of the detainees endured psychological torture in addition to mistreatment and beatings.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office, 77 Palestinians have died while in Israeli detention since the start of the war.
HaMoked says Israel is currently detaining more than 11,000 Palestinians as "security" inmates, including 2,662 people designated as "unlawful combatants"—the most since the designation was created. They are also holding 3,577 people in administrative detention, which allows people to be held without charge on the grounds that they may have broken the law in the future.
At least 360 children ages 12-17 are currently being held in Israeli detention, according to the latest figures from the Israel Prison Service released on June 30.
"These children are languishing in overcrowded Israeli prisons, fed rotten food, and beaten on a daily basis by Israeli guards, all while they are completely isolated from the outside world, including from their families and lawyers," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at the Defense for Children International-Palestine.
A record number of these children, 147 of them, are being held under administrative detention without charge or trial.
The investigation by The Guardian, +972, and Local Call comes two weeks after the three outlets published a report on classified Israel Defense Forces data that showed 5 in 6 Palestinians killed in the first 19 months of the war were civilians, despite persistent claims by Israel and its Western allies that the military is targeting Hamas.
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'Evidence of Genocidal Intent': Israeli General Calls for Killing 50 Palestinians for Every Oct. 7 Victim
Aharon Haliva, the former head of military intelligence in Israel, said in his vengeful remarks that it "doesn't matter now if they are children."
Aug 18, 2025
Those who listened to the 22-minute speech given by a South African attorney as part of the country's genocide case against Israel at the United Nations' top court in January 2024 have long been well aware that Israeli officials have openly made genocidal statements about their military assault on Gaza—but a recording broadcast by an Israeli news channel on Sunday revealed what The Guardian called an "unusually direct description of collective punishment of civilians" by a high-level general.
Aharon Haliva, the general who led Israel's military intelligence operations on October 7, 2023 when Hamas led an attack on the country, was heard in a recording broadcast by Channel 12 that "for everything that happened on October 7, for every person on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die."
"The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations," said Haliva in comments that were made "in recent months," according to Channel 12. "It doesn't matter now if they are children."
More than 62,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's airstrikes and ground assault on Gaza since October 7, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, with more than 250 people having died of malnutrition due to Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid. The official death toll figures put out by officials in Gaza is believed by many to be a severe undercount.
The Israel Defense Forces' own data recently showed that only about 20,000 militants are among those who have been killed by Israeli forces—even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and both Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States, the top international funder of the IDF, continue to insist that the military is targeting Hamas.
Haliva, who stepped down from leading military intelligence in April 2024, added in his comments that Palestinians "need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price"—a reference to the forced displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, the killing of about 15,000 people, and the destruction of more than 500 Palestinian towns when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Notably, The Guardian reported that Haliva is "widely seen as a centrist critic of the current government and its far-right ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir," whose genocidal statements about Gaza and the West Bank have been widely reported.
When arguing South Africa's genocide case at the International Court of Justice in January 2024, attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi catalogued a number of statements made by Netanyahu, the IDF, and his top Israeli ministers, including:
- A call from Netanyahu for Israelis to "remember what Amalek has done to you," a reference to God's command that the Israelites massacre their ancient enemy, the Amalekites, in the Old Testament;
- A demand from Knesset Deputy Speaker Nissim Vaturi that the IDF "burn Gaza" to the ground, and a statement from him that "the people of Gaza cannot be described as animals because animals are better than humans"; and
- A chant made by Israeli soldiers, who had been told early in the war to "release all restraints" as they bombarded Gaza, that there are "no uninvolved civilians" in the enclave.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which said last month that it had determined Netanyahu's government is committing genocide in Gaza, said Haliva's remarks "are part of a long line of official statements that expose a deliberate policy of genocide."
"For 22 months, Israel has pursued a policy of systematically destroying Palestinian life in Gaza," said B'Tselem. "This is genocide. It is happening now. It must be stopped."
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor added that Haliva openly admitted "what Israel tries to deny: genocide is not a byproduct of war but the goal."
Haliva's remark about the necessity of repeating the Nakba in Gaza "reveals a clear intention: The bloodshed is not meant to stop, but to be repeated."
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Haliva's statement "is not just evidence of genocidal rhetoric, it is a blueprint for genocidal action" that must push the US government to end its support for Israel.
"The Trump administration and the international community can no longer turn a blind eye," said Awad. "President [Donald] Trump and Congress cannot continue to claim they do not know or deny what the entire world is seeing every hour of every day. The United States must immediately halt all military aid and support to Israel and demand accountability for war crimes committed in Gaza. Silence is complicity."
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'Unequivocal': Israeli Human Rights Orgs Describe Gaza Assault as 'Genocide' for the First Time
"Genocide is never supposed to happen," said the executive director of B'Tselem, one of Israel's leading human rights groups. "Not here. Not anywhere. Not at all."
Jul 28, 2025
As Israel's military campaign in Gaza inflicts unprecedented levels of human destruction, two leading Israeli human rights organizations have at last called their nation's actions in the enclave a "genocide."
Many international human rights groups—such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch—have long described Israel's 22-month assault on Gaza in such grave terms, as have several bodies within the United Nations.
In two reports released Monday, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel became the first within the country to reach the same conclusion.
"We never thought we'd write this report," said Yuli Novak, the executive director of B'Tselem. "But we also never believed this would be our reality."
The U.N.'s 1948 Convention on the Crime of Genocide defines it as the intent to destroy—in whole or in part—a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
As Dr. Shmuel Lederman, a genocide researcher for B'Tselem, describes it, "The victims of genocide are not only the individual members, but the group as a group."
Following the examination of 20 months of data, the group wrote that Israel's "military onslaught on Gaza" has "included mass killing, both directly and through creating unlivable conditions, serious bodily or mental harm to an entire population, decimation of basic infrastructure throughout the strip, and forcible displacement on a huge scale, with ethnic cleansing added to the list of official war objectives."
Over 59,000 Palestinians have been directly killed—the overwhelming majority uninvolved civilians—since October 2023, according to official estimates. However, indirect deaths due to hunger and disease likely put the death toll much higher.
B'Tselem's report states that "Israel is destroying Gaza's food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people."
A blockade on food entering the strip has contributed to mass starvation that has resulted in at least 127 deaths, including 85 children since, October 2023. Half of those deaths have occurred over the past month.
According to a statement from UNICEF on Sunday: "The entire population of over two million people in Gaza is severely food insecure. One out of every three people has not eaten for days, and 80% of all reported deaths by starvation are children."
Virtually all of Gaza's population of 2 million has been displaced, with 92% of residential buildings destroyed or damaged. The people of Gaza overwhelmingly live without water and electricity as infrastructure has been destroyed.
"Soldiers who served in the Strip have testified that the systematic demolition of homes, public buildings, infrastructure, and farmland...has become a goal in and of itself," the report said.
Meanwhile, Gaza's health infrastructure lies in ruin. "In the very first weeks of the assault," B'Tselem's report said, "most hospitals and clinics in Gaza could no longer provide even basic medical care."
The report from Physicians for Human Rights expands upon these findings.
"Over the past 22 months, Israel has systematically targeted medical infrastructure across the Gaza Strip, attacking 33 of 36 of Gaza's hospitals and clinics, depriving them of fuel and water," the report states. "More than 1,800 of Gaza's medical staff have been killed or detained."
The report concludes:
This is not a temporary crisis. It is a strategy to eliminate the conditions needed for life. Even if Israel stops the offensive today, the destruction it has inflicted guarantees that preventable deaths—from starvation, infection, and chronic illness—will continue for years.
This is not collateral damage. This is not a side effect of war. It is the systematic creation of unlivable conditions. It is the denial of survivability. It is a genocide.
B'Tselem's report cites statements from the highest levels of the Israeli government to demonstrate that these acts were carried out not incidentally, but as part of a plan to force the permanent removal of Palestinians from Gaza.
Israeli leaders have openly endorsed this plan, which was first floated publicly in February by U.S. President Donald Trump, who suggested permanently removing the Palestinians from Gaza in order to turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
The report cites evidence of intent from Israel's leaders to use mass destruction to hasten the removal of Palestinians, saying that "Beginning in May 2025, senior Israeli officials explicitly declared Gaza's ethnic cleansing as a central objective of the war, stating that the destruction of the Strip and Israel's control over humanitarian aid were means of realizing this goal."
The report quotes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said in early May: "We are destroying more and more homes, and Gazans have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip."
It also quotes Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also an official in Israel's defense ministry, who last week hosted a gathering in the Israeli parliament to discuss the forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza in order to make room for Israeli settlers.
"Gaza will be completely destroyed," Smotrich said in May. "Its civilians will be concentrated... and from there, they'll depart in large numbers to third countries."
Earlier this month, Israel's defense minister Israel Katz revealed plans to corral more than 600,000 Palestinians into a so-called "humanitarian city"—a tent city built on the ruins of Rafah—which they would not be allowed to leave except to go to other countries. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has described it as "a concentration camp."
"An examination of Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip," B'Tselem's report says. "In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
The report comes as a small but growing number of Israelis have come out in opposition to the war, including the atrocities against Palestinians, according to The New York Times. However, they still appear to represent a vocal minority.
According to a June survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem, three-quarters of Jewish Israelis thought that Israel's military planning should not take into account the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, or should do so only minimally.
Over the years, B'Tselem has been one of relatively few voices in Israel to advocate for equal treatment of Palestinians, previously decrying Israel as a practitioner of "apartheid" and a "regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea."
"For decades, Gaza has been built up as a black hole in Israelis' minds," Novak said. "The people who live there can be blockaded and indiscriminately bombed."
As the report says, the past 22 months have only hardened that instinct further:
The widespread public support in Israel for this initiative made it clear that the practice of forced displacement, or expulsion, is now perceived as a legitimate and desirable solution to the "Palestinian problem," that problem being the very presence of Palestinians in areas under Israeli control.
B'Tselem urged the international community to take swift action, using all available mechanisms of international law to intervene to stop the genocide.
"This isn't the first time the world has stood by while genocide is happening," said Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem's international advocacy director. "World leaders are well aware. But they still have not demanded from the government of Israel: Stop!"
"Preventing genocide is not just a moral duty. It's also a legal obligation," she continued. "So the leaders cooperating with Israel's policies are accomplices to this crime."
"Genocide is never supposed to happen," Novak said. "Not here, not anywhere, not at all."
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US- and Israel-Backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Must Be Shut Down, Say 165+ Charities
Distribution points run by the group, warns the NGO coalition, "have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law."
Jul 01, 2025
More than 165 nongovernmental organizations on Tuesday issued a joint call to shut down the "deadly Israeli distribution scheme" for humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip, return to relief efforts coordinated by the United Nations, and end Israel's blockade on aid and commercial supplies into the destroyed Palestinian enclave.
The U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations in late May, over widespread objections. As the joint statement explains, "The 400 aid distribution points operating during the temporary cease-fire across Gaza have now been replaced by just four military-controlled distribution sites, forcing 2 million people into overcrowded, militarized zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties while trying to access food and are denied other lifesaving supplies."
"Starved and weakened civilians are being forced to trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race to reach fenced, militarized distribution sites."
"The weeks following the launch of the Israeli distribution scheme have been some of the deadliest and most violent since October 2023," the statement notes. The Gaza Health Ministry says Israel's nearly 21-month assault has killed at least 56,647 Palestinians—and, as of Sunday, at least 583 of those deaths occurred while people sought food at GHF sites.
Another 4,186 Palestinians have been injured at the aid sites, according to the ministry. Overall, at least 134,105 have been wounded by the Israel Defense Forces' campaign since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. Some IDF troops told Haaretz last week that commanders ordered them to shoot and shell aid-seeking Palestinians, even when they posed no threat.
"For 20 months, more than 2 million people have been subjected to relentless bombardment, the weaponization of food, water, and other aid, repeated forced displacement, and systematic dehumanization—all under the watch of the international community," the NGOs detailed. "The Sphere Association, which sets minimum standards for quality humanitarian aid, has warned that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's approach does not adhere to core humanitarian standards and principles."
"Under the Israeli government's new scheme, starved and weakened civilians are being forced to trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race to reach fenced, militarized distribution sites with a single entry point," the groups wrote. "There, thousands are released into chaotic enclosures to fight for limited food supplies."
"These areas have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law," the coalition continued. "Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, with children harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites. With Gaza's healthcare system in ruins, many of those shot are left to bleed out alone, beyond the reach of ambulances and denied lifesaving medical care."
Today, over 130 NGOs have called for the restoration of unified, UN-led aid coordination and distribution in #Gaza based on international humanitarian law, inclusive of UNRWA.👉 www.oxfam.org/en/press-rel...@oxfaminternational.bsky.social @nrc-global.bsky.social @savechildrenintl.bsky.social
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— UNRWA (@unrwa.org) July 1, 2025 at 7:53 AM
The NGOs asserted that "the humanitarian system is being deliberately and systematically dismantled by the government of Israel's blockade and restrictions, a blockade now being used to justify shutting down nearly all other aid operations in favor of a deadly, military-controlled alternative that neither protects civilians nor meets basic needs."
The organizations also stressed that "experienced humanitarian actors remain ready to deliver lifesaving assistance at scale."
In addition to calling on other countries to "uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law," and to "reject the false choice between deadly, military-controlled food distributions and total denial of aid," the groups reiterated their demands for "an immediate and sustained cease-fire, the release of all hostages and arbitrarily detained prisoners, full humanitarian access at scale, and an end to the pervasive impunity that enables these atrocities and denies Palestinians their basic dignity."
Signatories include ActionAid, American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, B'Tselem, Greenpeace, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Jewish Network for Palestine, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam International, PAX, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Save the Children, War Child Alliance, and War on Want.
Their statement follows a similar one released last week by a coalition of 15 leading human rights and legal organizations, which urged all parties involved in GHF, including countries, corporations, donors and individuals, "to immediately suspend any action or support that facilitates the forcible displacement of civilians, contributes to starvation or other grave breaches of international law, or undermines the core principles of international humanitarian law."
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New Illegal Settlements Show Israel Is 'Blatantly Working to Destroy the Palestinian People'
"The international community is enabling Israel's crimes by standing aside while millions of Palestinians are subjected to this racist and brutal regime of the Israeli government," said the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
May 30, 2025
Israeli government officials confirmed Thursday that they have approved the largest expansion of unlawful settlements in the occupied West Bank in decades, including the construction of new settlements and the "legalization" under Israeli law of existing outposts in the Palestinian territory.
The decision, reportedly made during a secret Israeli security cabinet meeting last week, drew sharp backlash from Israeli human rights organizations. A spokesperson for B'Tselem said the latest expansion of settlements—which the International Court of Justice has condemned as part of an illegal annexation campaign—shows that "Israel continues to promote Jewish supremacy through the theft of Palestinian land and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank."
"The Israeli government is openly and blatantly working to destroy the Palestinian people, and any chances for a normal future for the people living between the Jordan River and the sea," the spokesperson said. "The international community is enabling Israel's crimes by standing aside while millions of Palestinians are subjected to this racist and brutal regime of the Israeli government."
Israeli settlements in the West Bank have grown rapidly since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, with the United Nations Human Rights Office estimating that Israel moved ahead with plans to build more than 20,000 housing units in new or existing settlements between November 2023 and October 2024.
"This extremist Israeli government is trying by all means to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters on Thursday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that's the government's objective, declaring that settlement expansion "prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel."
"The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: The annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal."
The new expansion will add nearly two dozen settlements, according to far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement and vocally supports annexation of the Palestinian territory.
"This is a great day for settlement and an important day for the state of Israel," Smotrich wrote in a social media post on Thursday.
The announcement came amid continued Israeli raids and home demolitions in the West Bank, alongside the Israeli military's devastating assault on the Gaza Strip. Israel's attacks have displaced tens of thousands of people in the West Bank and virtually the entire population of Gaza.
It's unclear where the new settlements will be located in the West Bank, given that the expansion decision was made in secret. The Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now suggested that the secrecy could stem from "concerns about the proceedings in the International Criminal Court, which has begun investigating Israel's settlement construction and development as possible war crimes."
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was considering arrest warrants against Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for their roles in expanding West Bank settlements.
"The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: The annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal," Peace Now said in a statement Thursday. "The cabinet's decision to establish 22 new settlements—the most extensive move of its kind since the Oslo Accords, under which Israel committed not to establish new settlements—will dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further."
"At a time when both the Israeli public and the entire world is demanding an immediate end to the war, the government is making clear—again and without restraint—that it prefers deepening the occupation and advancing de facto annexation over pursuing peace," the group added.
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Condemnation of Israel's Starvation and Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza Intensifies—Even From Within
"A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population," said one formerp Israeli lawmaker.
May 20, 2025
International outrage over Israel's intensified Gaza onslaught is mounting along with the death toll from airstrikes and forced starvation as a trio of Western leaders threatened "concrete actions" if the genocidal assault and siege on the Palestinian enclave don't stop—and as even prominent Israeli voices denounced their country's actions.
On Monday, the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, and Canada issued a rare joint statement strongly opposing the expansion of Israel's latest offensive, dubbed Operation Gideon's Chariots, which aims to conquer and indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and ethnically cleanse much of its population, possibly to make way for Jewish recolonization as advocated by many right-wing Israelis.
"Yesterday's announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate," the statement asserted. "We call on the Israeli government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza."
Five truckloads of humanitarian aid entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Monday, The Times of Israel reported. Israeli authorities gave the United Nations permission for about 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza on Tuesday. This is a mere fraction of the at least 500-600 daily trucks needed to fulfill Gaza's tremendous humanitarian needs.
"Yesterday's announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate."
"The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching international humanitarian law," the leaders added. "We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law."
Numerous Israeli officials have endorsed the forced starvation of Palestinians as a means to coerce them into leaving parts of Gaza. After calling for the "total annihilation" of Gaza earlier this month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sought to soothe those who decried his government's decision to allow a trickle of aid into the strip by assuring them Monday that "we're destroying Gaza."
The three leaders' statement stresses that "we will not stand by" while the government of fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "pursues these egregious actions."
"If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response," the leaders warned.
Shifting to the illegally occupied West Bank—where Israel is pushing ahead with a major land grab and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and civilian settler-colonists are killing, wounding, and forcibly displacing Palestinians—the joint statement added: "We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank. Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians."
"We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions," the leaders vowed.
"Further action" was afoot Tuesday as the U.K. announced it is suspending negotiations with Israel on a free trade agreement, explaining that "it is not possible to advance discussions on a new, upgraded FTA with a Netanyahu government that is pursuing egregious policies in the West Bank and Gaza."
U.K. Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer reiterated the "government's opposition to the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza and emphasize that the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible."
The U.K. also announced sanctions targeting three far-right Israeli extremists, including settler leader Daniella Weiss, as well as three illegal settlement outposts and two groups "that have supported, incited, and promoted violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank."
The British move stands in stark contrast with the Trump administration's reversal of sanctions imposed on a handful of Israeli settlers during the tenure of former President Joe Biden. Both Trump and Biden have lavished Israel with billions of dollars in armed aid and staunch diplomatic support. Trump has proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza and the transformation of the razed strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Netanyahu hit back at France, the U.K., and Canada on Tuesday, accusing the allies of "offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities."
More than 1,100 Israelis and others were killed and over 250 people taken hostage by Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023. An unknown number of Israelis were also killed by so-called "friendly fire" and under the Hannibal Directive, which authorizes lethal force against IDF soldiers in order to prevent them from being taken prisoner by enemy forces.
Also on Tuesday, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin urged Western governments to "economically and strategically isolate" Israel over Operation Gideon's Chariots.
"After the reoccupation of Gaza, the second step will be deportation," de Villepin said. "The political objective of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government is the deportation of the population of Gaza, which is the hallmark of ethnic cleansing."
De Villepin said that "there are three things that must be done immediately," including the suspension of the European Union's trade and cooperation agreement with Israel, an arms embargo, and referral of Israeli officials to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"If you want to stop what is happening today, you must make it clear to Israel that there will be a before and an after," de Villepin added.
The Hague-based ICC has already issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including extermination and forced starvation. Israel is also facing a genocide case before the International Court of Justice.
The E.U.—which is Israel's largest trading partner— said Tuesday that it would review the wide-ranging trade and cooperation pact, citing a provision stating that relations "shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles."
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said she would push for more punitive measures, including "sanctions against individual Israeli ministers."
"Israeli forces have begun a full-scale invasion to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from Gaza."
In the United States, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress,
said Monday on social media that "Israeli forces have begun a full-scale invasion to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from Gaza."
"War criminal Netanyahu announced plans to forcibly expel the entire population and permanently occupy the land," she added. "This is the final stage of their genocide. World leaders must impose sanctions and a full arms embargo."
More Israelis are also condemning their country's actions in Gaza. On Monday, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem accused Israel of "carrying out a deliberate, systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip" in a
social media post showing that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent days.
Overall, more than 53,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 121,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since October 2023, with at least 14,000 others missing and believed dead and buried beneath rubble, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Millions more have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened by Israel's assault and siege.
Israeli Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh said Monday that Israel's planned location of humanitarian aid distribution centers suggests a more sinister motive:
The idea... is that anyone who comes from the north of the Gaza Strip to the dividing center will not be able to return north of the Netzarim corridor, but will be forced to stay south of the Netzarim corridor. This will be a "one-way ticket," and it will effectively force the Gazan population to come south of the Netzarim axis if they want to receive food. In this way, Israel intends to expedite and promote the evacuation of the Gazan population from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south. In this way, Israel believes, it will be possible to completely empty the northern Gaza Strip of its population.
"Despite dozens of evacuation notices, there always remained in the northern Gaza Strip a hard core of 200-300 thousand Gazans who refused to leave the south of the Netzarim axis," Kadosh added. "This time, Israel believes, it is a plan that will leave the Gazans no choice—and will force them to evacuate south."
Progressive former Israeli lawmaker Yair Golan—a decorated general who once served as deputy IDF chief of staff—faced sharp rebuke Tuesday after calling for the ouster of Netanyahu's "vengeful, unintelligent, and immoral" government.
During an interview with public broadcaster Kan, Golan said that Israel is "on the path to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa once was, if it does not return to acting like a sane country."
"A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population," Golan asserted.
Netanyahu responded by calling IDF troops "the most moral in the world."
"Golan and his friends on the radical left are echoing the most despicable antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the state of Israel," the prime minister added.
Meanwhile, United Nations experts warned that Israel's forced starvation—which has already killed at least scores of Gazans, mostly children and the elderly—could kill as many as 14,000 infants in the next two days unless the amount of aid entering the strip increases dramatically.
"We are witnessing, in real time, the deliberate starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare," Human Rights Watch
said Monday. "Over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine."
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Outrage as Israeli Police Raid Beloved Palestinian Bookstores in Occupied East Jerusalem
"The attempt to crush the Palestinian people includes harassment and arrest of intellectuals," said the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.
Feb 10, 2025
The leading Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem was among those voicing outrage Monday in response to an Israeli police raid on a pair of renowned Palestinian-owned bookstores in illegally occupied East Jerusalem over the weekend.
Haaretz reported that after confiscating books they claimed were "inciteful," Israeli officers on Sunday arrested the owners of the two branches of the Educational Bookshop.
"The Educational Bookshop chain is the most well-known bookstore chain in East Jerusalem, with three locations on Salah al-Din Street and in the American Colony Hotel complex," the Israeli newspaper noted. "The stores specialize in Arabic and English books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the history of Jerusalem, and they are well-known to researchers, diplomats, journalists, and tourists."
Mourad Muna, the brother of Mahmoud Muna—one of the shop owners who was detained—said Israeli police "used Google Translate" to determine which books to seize. Among the books confiscated was one titled, "From the River to the Sea: A Colouring Book."
"They even found a Haaretz newspaper with a picture of the hostages and asked what it was, saying it was incitement," said Mourad Muna. "They took every book with a Palestinian flag on it."
The owners were arrested on suspicion of "violating public order."
B'Tselem said in response to the raid that "Israel is continuing its war on the entire Palestinian people."
"The attempt to crush the Palestinian people includes harassment and arrest of intellectuals," the group said. "Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna, well-known figures in the Jerusalem cultural scene, run the Educational Bookshop—a meeting point for cultural and political discussion. Israel must immediately release them from detention and stop persecuting Palestinian intellectuals."
In the wake of the raid and arrests of the Educational Bookshop owners, Haaretz reported that "protesters gathered outside the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court" in a show of opposition ahead of a hearing on the detention of Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna.
"Diplomatic representatives from the Netherlands, the U.K., Belgium, Brazil, France, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, and the E.U. all visited the courthouse in Jerusalem where the hearing is due to take place, to show support for the bookshop owners," the Israeli newspaper added.
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Cease-Fire 'Only the First Step' for Gaza Plunged Into 'Horrifying Abyss' by Israel
Human Rights Watch warned that "continued weapons sales to Israel by its partners despite vast evidence of its unchecked atrocity crimes are putting those countries and officials at risk of direct complicity."
Jan 17, 2025
While people around the world welcomed Wednesday's announcement of an agreement to pause Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip and free the remaining hostages held by Hamas, human rights defenders stressed that the only way to truly end the suffering of Palestinians is to address the root causes of their oppression and for countries to stop arming Israel.
"The news that a cease-fire deal has been reached will bring some glimmer of relief to Palestinian victims of Israel's genocide. But it is bitterly overdue," Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard said Thursday. "For Palestinians—who have endured more than 15 months of devastating and relentless bombardment, have been displaced from their homes repeatedly, and are struggling to survive in makeshift tents without food, water, and basic supplies—the nightmare will not be over even if the bombs cease."
"Israel's continuous and deliberate denial and obstruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza has left civilians facing unprecedented levels of hunger and children have starved to death," Callamard continued. "The international community, which has thus far shamefully failed to persuade Israel to comply with its legal obligations, must ensure Israel immediately allows lifesaving supplies to urgently reach all parts of the occupied Gaza Strip to ensure the survival of the Palestinian population."
"Unless Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza is promptly lifted, this suffering will only continue," she added. "Israel must dismantle the brutal system of apartheid it imposes to dominate and oppress Palestinians and end its unlawful occupation... once and for all."
Human Rights Watch (HRW)—which highlighted Israel's alleged "unchecked crimes against humanity and war crimes" in its annual World Report published Thursday— asserted that "all countries which provide weapons to Israel, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, should suspend weapons transfers due to the Israeli military's repeated, unlawful attacks on civilians."
HRW added that nations should defend the International Criminal Court—which last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense chief—as well as the International Court of Justice, which is weighing a genocide case against Israel and has ordered its forces to prevent genocidal acts and allow the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into besieged Gaza. Critics have accused Israel of ignoring the ICJ orders.
"Israel's decadeslong systematic repression of Palestinians worsened dramatically and plunged civilians in Gaza into a horrifying abyss, but possibilities for international justice are emerging," HRW Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih said on Thursday. "Continued weapons sales to Israel by its partners despite vast evidence of its unchecked atrocity crimes are putting those countries and officials at risk of direct complicity."
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem welcomed the cease-fire—which was approved by Israel's Security Cabinet on Friday and, if agreed upon by the country's full Cabinet as expected, is set to take effect Sunday—but stressed that "the catastrophe persists" in Gaza.
"Millions of people in Gaza remain destitute, starving, and homeless," the group said in a statement. "A cease-fire is only the first step, and one that should have happened long ago. There is a real concern that Israel will resume fighting after the first phase of the deal is complete."
As Common Dreams reported Thursday, Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians in Gaza following Wednesday's cease-fire announcement.
"The international community must do everything in its power to demand Israel stop the war completely and permanently," B'Tselem said. "Beyond a lasting cease-fire that includes enough humanitarian aid for the entire Gaza Strip, its residents must be allowed to return to all parts of Gaza."
"Israeli decision-makers responsible for serious violations of the laws of war and for crimes against humanity must be held accountable, and all Israeli violence against the Palestinian people in the entire area between the Jordan [River] and the Mediterranean must cease," the group stated.
"The only way to break the cycle of bloodshed is to end the occupation, oppression, and apartheid regime and ensure the human rights of everyone living in this space," B'Tselem added.
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