Demonstrators and journalists march in a protest against hunger in the Rimal district of Gaza City on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Gaza: The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) said that the Israeli occupation forces committed one of the most horrific massacres today against starving civilians waiting for aid in the northern Gaza Strip, firing directly at them without posing any threat, killing 67 people and wounding dozens.
It indicated in a statement today that it had documented Israeli occupation soldiers opening fire on civilians as they approached an aid distribution point, in a deliberate killing that cannot be justified by any military consideration.
It noted that this reflects an unprecedented level of brutality within the genocidal crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza.
Euro-Med explained that these developments, which coincide with the peak of starvation in the Gaza Strip, with documented deaths due to malnutrition and dozens being hospitalized due to exhaustion and food shortages, confirm that the Israeli occupation is using aid and its distribution points as death traps to deliberately lure starving crowds into them, as part of an integrated system of deliberate killing, systematic deprivation, and collective humiliation, in an unprecedented violation of international law.
The monitor emphasized that the deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians, through killing and wounding while they attempt to access food, along with the use of starvation as a weapon, constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international criminal law, and constitutes war crimes under the Rome Statute, including willful killing, targeting civilians, and the use of starvation as a method of warfare, all of which are absolutely prohibited in armed conflicts.
The statement pointed out that the pattern of these violations, including their widespread and systematic nature against the civilian population, fulfills the elements of crimes against humanity, particularly murder, persecution, and inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious bodily or mental injury, as they were committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.
Euro-Med emphasized that placing these crimes in their broader context, including the systematic destruction of livelihoods, the denial of aid, and the imposition of deadly living conditions on the civilian population, along with public statements issued by various political and military levels within the Israeli entity, reveals a clear and declared intent to destroy the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, which, according to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, constitutes the crime of genocide.
The monitor called for holding accountable all heads of state and government involved in the genocide committed in the Gaza Strip, whether through direct or indirect participation in its implementation, or through providing political, military, or financial support, or facilitating its commission in any way, which constitutes criminal complicity under Article 25 of the Rome Statute.
The organization held states that failed to take serious measures to prevent or halt the crime legally responsible under their international obligations, particularly within the framework of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
