A permanent ceasefire, the free and safe flow of aid, and the lifting of the blockade are needed now – all could be achieved with political will
Nick Maynard is a volunteer surgeon at Nasser hospital
Where is the military advocate general? The IDF chief of staff? The attorney general? The leader of the opposition in the Knesset? The speaker of the Knesset? The president? Quiet. We are massacring.
16 July 2025 – In the most ambitious multilateral action since the start of Gaza genocide 21 months ago, a coalition of cross-regional states gathered in Bogotá has agreed to six coordinated diplomatic, legal and economic measures to restrain Israel’s assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and defend international law at large.
A month after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, I believed there was evidence that the Israeli military had committed war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity in its counterattack on Gaza. But contrary to the cries of Israel’s fiercest critics, the evidence did not seem to me to rise to the crime of genocide.
In ancient Greece, the Ekecheiria — a sacred truce — was meant to suspend warfare during the Olympic Games, honoring the spirit of peace, competition, and shared humanity. In the twenty-first century, however, neither Russia nor Israel has shown any willingness to halt their campaigns of destruction, even during international events meant to celebrate youth and excellence, such as the Olympic Games in Paris (2024).
“This is a shameless and transparent attack on the fundamental principles of international justice.” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard
We, the undersigned human rights and legal organizations, are extremely concerned with the recent replacement of impartial United Nations (“UN”) agencies and well-established humanitarian organizations with the newly-created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (“GHF”), which is working in collaboration with the Israel government and U.S. private military and security companies (“PMSC”) in the famine-struck occupied Gaza Strip. This new model of privatized, militarized aid distribution constitutes a radical and dangerous shift away from established international humanitarian relief operations,[1] and, as we have seen during the three weeks of GHF’s operations in Gaza, one that is dehumanizing, repeatedly deadly and contributes to the forced displacement of the very population it purports to help.
Oxfam and over 170 other NGOs operating in Gaza call for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme (including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) in Gaza, revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies. The 400 aid distribution points operating during the temporary ceasefire across Gaza have now been replaced by just four military-controlled distribution sites, forcing two million people into overcrowded, militarized zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties while trying to access food and are denied other life-saving supplies.
The International Sociological Association (ISA) has suspended the collective membership of the Israeli Sociological Society, pointing to its failure to condemn the dramatic situation in Gaza.
Worldview from Israel: The EU has sent the implicit message that it is fine with what Israel is doing to Palestinians
