After Three Years of Devastating Hostilities, Accountability Cannot Wait

Today marks three years since the attacks by Hamas-led armed groups in Israel and the inception of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

Israeli sources report that more than 1,200 people were killed and around 5,400 were injured in the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. The attacks entailed a wide range of unlawful acts that may implicate those responsible in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

Since then, more than 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and over 175,000 others have been injured, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Large swathes of Gaza’s built-up landscape have been systematically razed to the ground. Israel’s conduct throughout the hostilities has entailed serious violations of IHL and possibly other internationally wrongful acts such as crimes against humanity and genocide; it may also implicate the responsible individuals in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide. 

Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem too have been enduring escalating levels of oppression. These developments form part of the wider context of Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory. 

The systematic disregard of fundamental rules of international law over the past three years and, indeed, the preceding decades raises the question of how the law can be enforced and what prospects exist for accountability.  

This publication addresses the obligations of the parties to the conflict and third States with regards to holding individual perpetrators of alleged international crimes – notably, war crimes, the crime of torture, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide – in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel accountable.  

Photo Credits: Feda Hassanat, Gaza. All rights reserved.