A ceasefire means witnessing first-hand the sheer scale of destruction, pain, suffering, and loss. Yet, despite it all, the most important thing is that the killing has stopped. We love life as much as we possibly can.
This week, the first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced. This will offer people in Gaza respite from 15 months of relentless bombardment, displacement and deprivation, and the welcome release of hostages. Yet Christian Aid's partners in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory won’t be under the illusion that this ceasefire alone will deliver a sustained and just peace.
Tragically, it comes almost a year after world leaders received the clearest possible warning that the Palestinian people could be facing genocide. In January 2024, The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that, based on the Israeli state’s actions following Hamas’s brutal attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023, there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza. The ICJ demanded that Israel stop the indiscriminate killing of civilians and support humanitarian relief. It compelled other states, including the UK, to ensure the measures are followed.
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And yet the bombardments and displacement has continued.
Vital aid has been consistently restricted or blocked. In northern Gaza, the entire population is still at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence; they are effectively being erased. This is partly why, in November 2024 a United Nations Special Committee concluded that Israel’s warfare in Gaza was consistent with the characteristics of genocide.
Throughout this war the UK and others have remained seemingly paralysed, rendering them complicit as Israel has acted with impunity. The UK has suspended just 10% of its licences to export arms to Israel and has declined repeated opportunities to hold Israel to account in key international spaces, including on the United Nations Security Council
Why the law and accountability matter
The ICJ has the unique power to determine whether what Palestinians in Gaza have faced, and are facing, legally constitutes genocide, as defined by the Genocide Convention. The process may take years.
No ruling will turn the clock back on the colossal suffering since the start of this war. More than 46,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Gaza. 1200 have been killed in Israel and 251 taken hostage. Over 700 have been killed in the West Bank.
And yet the court’s opinion matters. The ICJ’s provisional measures compel the international community to act in order to prevent the destruction of a people. The final ruling may enable other states – with the right political will – to told hold Israel to account.
Increasingly, leading bodies are concluding that laws to protect the rights of people to exist are being violated in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, along with Hamas leaders Mr Ismail Haniyeh and Mr Yahya Sinwar now reportedly killed, charging leaders with a litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A month earlier, a UN commission found that Israeli actions in Gaza constituted the crime against humanity of extermination – accusing Israeli security forces of deliberately killing, detaining, and torturing medical personnel. The United Nations has consistently warned international governments that civilians are being starved as a method of war in Gaza.
Israel also stands accused of crimes beyond the latest war. Prior to 7 October 2023 an independent legal opinion found that the 16-year closure of Gaza constitutes the crime of persecution. In July 2024, the ICJ ruled that Israel must end its broader occupation and settlement activity in the West Bank must cease. It prohibited any state from supporting the occupation. The UK continues to allow trade with and investment in Israeli settlements.
The last 100 years are littered with extreme violence against innocent Palestinians and Israelis. The historic atrocities against the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks against Israelis on 7 October 2023. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of millions of Palestinians and the slaughter of tens of thousands.
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Abandoned
The international community has effectively abandoned Palestinians as Israel has waged a war against a people who are treated as an inconvenience of history. They remain largely unprotected wherever they are while Israel denies both their right to self-determination and effectively claims all the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea for itself. A ceasefire will do little to change that reality.
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A just peace is only possible if nations stand against all war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The UK must work for a Just Peace by
- Ensuring those responsible are held to account. This includes a full arms ban on Israel to secure a durable ceasefire.
- Challenging the occupation. This includes a ban on any trade and investment with Israeli Settlements
- Increasing support for aid and humanitarian access in Gaza. This includes substantially increase funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine and boldly resist Israel’s attempts to stop the agency from operating.
