States must demonstrate their commitment to international justice to ensure genuine accountability for victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for all those in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and in Israel, said Amnesty International following the recent conclusion of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Assembly of States Parties in the Hague.
“The international justice system is under attack and faces existential threats. There is no greater litmus test for this than in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. States must demonstrate their commitment to international justice by supporting institutions such as the ICC and protecting their ability to pursue accountability,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Amnesty International has extensively documented how Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, even despite the ceasefire, and how its ongoing system of apartheid amounts to crimes against humanity. Today the organization has also published in-depth research documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Hamas and other armed groups during and after the attacks launched on 7 October 2023.
“World leaders hailed last month’s UN Security Council resolution setting out a plan for Gaza as a blueprint for sustainable peace. But decades of international crimes cannot be swept under the carpet with deals that ignore accountability and entrench injustice. Truth, justice and reparations are the bedrocks of lasting peace,” said Agnès Callamard.
“Amnesty calls on all those in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well the international community concerned about the evident flaws of the UN Security Council Resolution, to develop and commit to a roadmap for justice and reparations. This roadmap should aim to end Israel’s genocide, its system of apartheid and unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, while also addressing crimes under international law by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.”
To guarantee genuine, effective and meaningful justice and non-recurrence, Amnesty International recommends that the roadmap be predicated on the complementarity of a variety of justice institutions and mechanisms.
These include ICC investigations into Israeli and Palestinian crimes, which must take place free from any obstruction and with access to investigators and other justice actors. Such investigations should consider Israel’s genocide and crimes against humanity of apartheid, as well as crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups before the 7 October 2023 attacks, during the attacks and since, with a view to ensuring that all individuals, including – where they are still alive – those most responsible, are brought to justice.
The roadmap should commit states to support and fully cooperate with bodies such as the UN Commission of Inquiry and the ICC. They should enforce ICC arrest warrants and take all necessary steps to ensure the lifting of sanctions and restrictions imposed on Palestinian human rights organizations, which for decades have been documenting violations of international law and representing victims regardless.
In parallel to international mechanisms, states can chart a new course for peace rooted in justice by exercising domestic, universal or other forms of extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction for international crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.
“Victims of atrocities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory deserve genuine justice. This does not just mean seeing perpetrators prosecuted and convicted but ensuring adequate and effective remedy and delivering guarantees of non-repetition. There is no escaping the reality that these are crucial steps towards lasting peace and security,” said Agnès Callamard.
Israel’s ongoing genocide, apartheid and unlawful occupation
Two months since the ceasefire was announced and all living Israeli hostages were released, Israeli authorities are still committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with total impunity by continuing to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction, without signalling any change in their intent.
Amnesty International recently published a legal analysis of the current situation showing how the crime of genocide continues, along with testimonies from local residents, medical staff and humanitarian workers highlighting the dire ongoing conditions for Palestinians in Gaza. The organization found that despite a reduction in the scale of Israeli attacks, and some limited improvements, there has been no meaningful change in the conditions Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza and no evidence to indicate that its intent has changed.
At least 370 people, including 140 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire was announced on 9 October. As part of its genocide for more than two years, Israel deliberately starved Palestinian civilians, restricting critical aid and relief provisions, including medical supplies and equipment necessary to repair life-sustaining infrastructure, despite some limited improvement. It has subjected them to wave after wave of inhumane forced displacement compounding their catastrophic suffering. Overall, more than 70,000 Palestinians were killed and over 200,000 injured, many of whom have sustained serious, life changing injuries.
The objective probability that the current conditions would lead to the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza persists. Yet Israeli authorities have not signalled a change in their intent: they have ignored three sets of binding decisions by the International Court of Justice; they have failed to investigate or prosecute those suspected of responsibility for acts of genocide or hold accountable officials who have made genocidal statements. Israeli officials responsible for orchestrating and committing genocide remain in power, effectively granting them free rein to continue to commit atrocities.
Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has taken place in the context of pervasive impunity for its ongoing crime against humanity of apartheid alongside decades-long unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory.
“It is against this backdrop of apartheid and unlawful occupation that Israel deliberately unleashed mass starvation, unprecedented bloodshed, apocalyptic levels of destruction, massive, forced displacement and placed a deliberate stranglehold on humanitarian aid – all illustrations of the ongoing crime of genocide,” said Agnès Callamard.
In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israel’s cruel apartheid system and unlawful occupation have exacted a heavy toll on Palestinians. Israeli military operations, including aerial attacks, have killed at least 995 Palestinians including at least 219 children, displaced tens of thousands and caused extensive damage to essential civilian infrastructure, homes and agricultural land. The last two years have been marked by an escalation in state-backed settler attacks, leading to the killing, injuries and displacement of Palestinians. OCHA has documented more than 1,600 settler attacks that resulted in casualties and/or property damage since January 2025. And Palestinian herding communities in Area C are particularly affected by this wave of unrelenting state-backed violence. Despite international condemnations and some restrictive measures adopted by third states against individual settlers and settler organizations, settler violence continues to increase due to Israeli government backing and virtually total impunity.
The Trump peace plan is the latest in a series of fatally flawed initiatives, which seek to propose ‘solutions’ that sideline international law, implicitly rewarding Israel for its unlawful occupation, illegal settlements, and its system of apartheid, which are the root causes of the continuous atrocities Israel inflicts upon Palestinians.
The conditions established during the current ceasefire further entrench Israel’s system of apartheid and its unlawful occupation and compound injustice. Israel’s imposition of a ‘security perimeter’ (buffer zone) in Gaza risks making Israel’s unlawful occupation permanent and deprives Palestinians of their most fertile land. It also risks perpetuating the territorial fragmentation that underpins Israel’s system of apartheid by failing to ensure freedom of movement for Palestinians with the rest of the occupied territory.
Similarly, impunity is enjoyed by Israeli forces responsible for arbitrarily detaining, forcibly disappearing and systematically torturing Palestinian detainees. In a recent review of Israel’s record the UN Committee against Torture described “a de facto state policy of organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment, which had gravely intensified since 7 October 2023” and expressed grave concerns over “widespread allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees, both men and women, amounting to torture and ill-treatment.”
“The international community’s wilful inaction towards holding Israel accountable for its crimes under international law and the failure to press it into adhering to the recommendations of UN mechanisms and international human rights organizations have entrenched Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid and have directly enabled Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza today,” said Agnes Callamard.
Crimes against humanity committed by Hamas and other armed groups
It is critical to also ensure accountability for crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups. More than two years after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, accounts of the atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups on that day and their subsequent treatment of those held in captivity in Gaza are still emerging. Survivors of the attacks, including former hostages, as well as their families, continue to shed light on their own experiences, while calling for justice and redress.
Amnesty International is publishing a report today that sets out how Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during their assault on southern Israel, and against hostages held in Gaza thereafter.
Amnesty International has documented how, in the early hours of 7 October 2023, Hamas forces and other Palestinian armed groups conducted a coordinated attack targeting mostly civilian locations. Around 1,200 people were killed – more than 800 of them civilians, including 36 children. The victims were primarily Jewish Israelis, but also included Bedouin citizens of Israel, and scores of foreign national migrant workers, students and asylum seekers. More than 4,000 people were injured, and hundreds of homes and civilian structures were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.
Through the analysis of the patterns of the attack, evidence and the specific content of communications between fighters during the attack, as well as statements by Hamas and leaders of other armed groups, the organization found that these crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population. The report found that fighters were instructed to carry out attacks targeting civilians.
“Our research confirms that crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during their attacks on 7 October 2023 and against those they seized and held hostage were part of a systematic and widespread assault against the civilian population and amount to crimes against humanity,” said Agnès Callamard.
“Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups showed an abhorrent disregard for human life. They deliberately and systematically targeted civilians in locations such as their homes, or while at a music festival, with the apparent goal of taking hostages, which amounted to war crimes. They deliberately killed hundreds of civilians, including by using gunfire and grenades to drive terrified people, including families with young children, out of their safe rooms and hiding places or attacked them while they fled. Amnesty International also documented evidence that some Palestinian assailants beat or sexually assaulted people during the attack and mistreated the bodies of those they had killed.”
Hamas has claimed that its forces were not involved in the targeted killing, abduction or mistreatment of civilians during the 7 October 2023 attacks and that many civilians were killed by Israeli fire. However, based on extensive video, testimonial and other evidence, Amnesty International has concluded that, while some civilians were indeed killed by Israeli forces as they sought to repel the attack, the vast majority of those who died were intentionally killed by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters who targeted civilian locations far from any military objectives. Palestinian fighters, including Hamas forces, were likewise responsible for abducting civilians from multiple locations and committing physical, sexual and psychological abuse against people they captured.
Another 251 people – mostly civilians, including older people and young children – were taken as hostages to Gaza on 7 October 2023. The majority of these 251 people were seized alive and held in captivity, but reportedly 36 of them were already dead when captured. They were held for weeks, months or, in some cases, over two years, with some hostages who returned alive describing to Amnesty International or in public forums being chained in underground tunnels for some or all of their captivity and enduring intense violence, deprivation and psychological abuse, including threats of execution. Some hostages were subjected to sexual violence, including sexual assault, threats of forced marriage or forced nudity. At least six hostages were killed by their captors.
Amnesty International interviewed 70 people, including 17 people who survived the 7 October 2023 attacks, victims’ family members, forensic experts, medical professionals, lawyers, journalists and other investigators. Researchers visited some of the sites of the attacks and reviewed over 350 videos and photos of scenes from the attacks and of people held in captivity in Gaza.
Amnesty International’s investigation found that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed the crimes against humanity of “murder”; “extermination”; “imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law”; “enforced disappearance”; “torture”; “rape… or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity”; and “other inhumane acts”.
“Israel’s appalling record of violations against Palestinians including decades of unlawful occupation, apartheid against Palestinians and its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, can in no way excuse these crimes. Nor does it relieve Palestinian armed groups of their obligations under international law. The violations by Palestinian armed groups in the context of the 7 October 2023 attacks must be recognized and condemned as the atrocity crimes that they are. Hamas must also unconditionally return the remaining body in Gaza of a person killed during the attacks as soon as it is located,” said Agnès Callamard.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a committee to examine the government decision-making surrounding the 7 October 2023 attacks. However, this move has been widely criticized, including by survivors of the attacks, and families of those killed, for a lack of independence and a failure to follow precedents of judge-led commissions of inquiry.
The authorities of the State of Palestine should publicly acknowledge and denounce the serious violations of international law committed by Palestinian armed groups. They should also conduct independent, impartial and effective investigations to identify those suspected of violations and crimes and fully cooperate with international investigative mechanisms, including by sharing evidence.
International justice needed for all victims
The ongoing ICC investigation into the “situation in Palestine” and the arrest warrants the court has issued against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity remain critical to the prospect of ensuring genuine accountability.
Taking steps to hold senior Israeli officials accountable for their crimes under international law is an essential step in the path towards bringing Israel’s genocide in Gaza to an end, to restore faith in international law as well as ensuring that all victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity are granted access to justice, truth and reparations.
The ICC should also continue to investigate crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups before, during and after the 7 October 2023 attacks, with a view to ensuring that individuals suspected of responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes, are brought to justice.
“Accountability is non-negotiable. The perpetrators of international crimes must face justice and the institutions they represent must commit to a new path rooted in human rights and international law, including by adopting legislation to prevent recurrence of future violations,” said Agnès Callamard.
“All parties must acknowledge their responsibility and cooperate with investigative bodies and international justice mechanisms such as the UN Commission of Inquiry and the ICC by implementing their recommendations and allowing them to collect, preserve and analyse evidence for accountability. Victims must be heard, acknowledged, and granted effective remedy, including reparations. Without such concrete steps to ensure truth and justice there can be no lasting peace.”
