GAZA, (PIC)
Today, Friday, marks a full 1,000 days since the war of genocide launched by the Israeli occupation forces on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, in full view and hearing of the world without the international community moving, specifically the states parties to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to stop it or punish its perpetrators.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), the ceasefire that entered into force on October 10, 2025, within the framework of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, has not been translated on the ground, as the occupation forces continue their military campaign, while the reality of the so-called Peace Council emerging from that plan reveals a path that consecrates the continuation of genocide instead of stopping it, with the danger of forced displacement remaining over the heads of more than two million Palestinians.
Roots of the crime: From blockade to successive wars
The ongoing war of genocide does not constitute an isolated event from a longer historical context, but is, according to a statement issued by the PCHR, a link in a long chain of international crimes committed by the occupation forces against the Palestinian people, within the framework of a settler-colonial system based on the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous owners of the land, expelling them from it, and denying their right to self-determination.
Since 2007, the occupation forces have imposed a comprehensive blockade on the Gaza Strip, causing a man-made humanitarian catastrophe that has affected every detail of the daily life of its population, and led to an unprecedented deterioration in their living conditions, in the context of a systematic policy to create an expelling environment in which it is difficult for Palestinians to continue existing in their Strip.
In parallel with this blockade, the occupation forces launched four consecutive wars on the Strip between 2008 and 2021, causing thousands of casualties, the majority of whom were civilians, and extensively destroying hospitals, schools, places of worship, residential buildings, economic facilities, and infrastructure.
Field investigations conducted by the PCHR in those wars concluded that the occupation forces deliberately targeted civilians and civilian property, which was also confirmed by independent international fact-finding committees, including the fact-finding mission formed by the UN Human Rights Council following the 2008 aggression, which documented that the destruction of food facilities, water networks, health facilities, concrete factories, and residential units came as a result of a deliberate policy pursued by the Israeli forces, not because they represent a military threat, but to make the daily life of the civilian population more difficult.
Declared intent and documented acts
From the first moments of the wide-scale military attack on October 7, 2023, the intention to commit the crime of genocide was not hidden, according to the PHRC, which points out that it was reflected in two parallel paths: the first, public statements made by Israeli political and military leaders to the media, coupled with official decisions taken by the state; and the second, the actual acts on the ground and their direct and long-term repercussions, of killing, destruction, inflicting bodily harm, and systematic destruction of the means of life, making the continued existence of Palestinians as a national group in Gaza impossible.
One thousand days of destruction: Numbers summarizing the tragedy
Over the course of 1,000 days, the occupation forces dropped thousands of tons of bombs, the weight of some reaching 1,000 kilograms, on cities, residential neighborhoods, and vital health, educational, and service facilities, so entire cities and neighborhoods were destroyed, thousands of homes were leveled to the ground over the heads of their residents, hospitals, ambulance and civil defense centers were targeted, universities and schools were erased, and road, electricity, water, and sewage networks were demolished, while farms, factories, commercial markets, and fishing ports were subjected to bombardment and destruction.
The occupation forces displaced more than two million Palestinians from their homes as a result of the bombardment and hundreds of evacuation orders that affected all areas of the Strip, and they were forced into repeated displacement in search of a safe haven they did not find, as they were subjected to bombardment even inside shelter centers and tents that were supposed to provide them with protection.
The occupation forces also directly targeted medical crews, ambulance, and civil defense teams while they were trying to rescue the wounded and recover bodies from under the rubble.
The occupation forces prevented the flow of food and medical aid and basic necessities, used starvation as a tool of war, and carried out wide arrest campaigns during which thousands of men, women, and children were subjected to brutal torture methods that claimed the lives of dozens of them inside detention centers. The PCHR documented horrifying testimonies of female and male detainees who were subjected to sexual assaults and rape during their interrogation, while thousands of Palestinians remain missing, after the center documented more than 540 cases of enforced disappearance.
According to official data in Gaza, the war of genocide over the 1,000 days has claimed the lives of more than 73,000 Palestinians, and injured more than 173,000 others, and civilians formed the vast majority of the victims, including 21,500 children and 12,500 women, representing 55% of the total martyrs, in addition to about 1,700 doctors and workers in the health sector, 300 civil defense personnel and municipality crews, and 262 journalists, many of whom were directly targeted while performing their work.
International justice condemns, and impunity continues
Since the first days of the attack, the PCHR, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations, believed that the official Israeli statements and decisions intersect with the facts on the ground in an unambiguous way, to demonstrate a clear approach to implementing a crime of genocide targeting Palestinians as a national group, not through killing alone, but through destroying the means of life in the present and the future, and these organizations sounded the alarm early, demanding a firm international stance to stop the crime.
On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of committing acts of genocide in Gaza, and requested the court to indicate provisional measures to protect the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention.
On January 26, 2024, the Court issued a binding decision in which it considered that there is a reasonable basis to believe that Israel is committing crimes of genocide against the Palestinians, and imposed provisional measures obligating Israel to prevent genocide, ensure the access of basic services and humanitarian aid, and prevent and punish incitement to commit it. Since then, the Court has issued six provisional measures, all of which the occupation state has defied without compliance.
On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued two arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his minister of army at the time, Yoav Gallant, on charges of committing war crimes, including using starvation as a weapon, deliberate attack on civilians, the crime of persecution, and other inhumane acts. However, these decisions, despite their symbolic and legal importance, did not deter the occupation state, which continued its military campaign on the Strip.
Gaza today: A hell without hospitals or universities
The current scene in Gaza, after 1,000 days of war, resembles no description other than hell, as the occupation forces expanded their actual control on the ground to reach about 70% of the area of the Strip, while about 2.3 million people are crowded into a strip whose area does not exceed 100 square kilometers, with a population density reaching about 23,000 people per square kilometer, which is a percentage unprecedented globally, the majority of whom live in tents lacking the most basic elements of survival.
There are no hospitals or health facilities to speak of, no universities or schools, and an entire generation whose identity is being effaced and its memory erased. Epidemics are spreading due to the collapse of the health system and water, electricity, and sewage networks, and garbage is accumulating inside residential neighborhoods after the occupation prevented its transfer to collection sites, while the humanitarian crisis worsens with the continued obstruction of the arrival of food, medicine, and fuel necessary to operate hospitals, water stations, and bakeries, as nothing reaches from the aid except a drop in an ocean of needs.
A ceasefire on paper, and the Peace Council consecrates the genocide
About nine months have passed since the ceasefire entered into force on October 10, 2025, without any fundamental change occurring in the campaign of genocide, as the PCHR confirms that the ceasefire does not actually exist on the ground, where the occupation forces continued bombardment and shooting operations in various areas of the Strip, which has resulted in the martyrdom of at least 990 Palestinians and the injury of more than 3,000 others since that date.
The center believes that the peace plan put forward by Trump, and what emerged from it of a “Peace Council” headed by him, means in reality nothing but the institutionalization and continuation of the crime of genocide, as it gave free rein to the occupation forces to continue killing, destruction, and displacement, did not allow the entry of medicine, food, or reconstruction materials, and did not allow about 200,000 Palestinians, who were displaced outside the Strip, to return to it, while the dangers of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing remain existing and real.
Absent international responsibility
The PCHR concludes that the crime of genocide in Gaza is being committed and broadcast live on air before the entire world, with full support from the United States and several Western countries that supply Israel with weapons and equipment alongside political support, which makes them, according to the center, a primary party to the crime, whether through direct support or complicity.
The center attributes Israel’s continued blatant defiance of international law to the absence of accountability inherent in the international system, and the immunity provided to it by allied countries, considering that what is happening in Gaza today is the harvest of decades of Western support for the policy of impunity.
The center calls on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities to put an end to this flagrant violation of the international law.