"Good morning from Gaza. Good morning from Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital... People are treated as a herd of sheep that is being herded by a shepherd who has no mercy whatsoever and who is dictating whatever he wants or she wants, because they have the ultimate power to do things, and they have the ultimate power to destroy anything they want, with the most sophisticated technology they have been using. Mothers are killed with their sons. Fathers are killed with their daughters and sons, whole families wiped out, and even now in Rafah area, in the east, west, south now and north in Rafah. In the Gaza south area, in the Gaza north area, in the Gaza central area, nonstop bombardment. And people who were asked to leave Rafah are now in Gaza central area or in Khan Younis, and they are still seeing with their own eyes — I mean, again, the lucky ones who are surviving the bombardments are seeing with their own eyes that there is no safe haven in Gaza Strip. Death is the one major risk enveloping the lives of the people of Gaza"
– Akram Al-Satarri
Akram Al-Satarri (2024) Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and Juan González, May 14. https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/14/akram_al_satarri
"Mere statements alone are insufficient to halt the invasion of Rafah or address Israel’s genocidal military campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. What is urgently required are tangible, decisive actions. Our organizations urgently implore the international community to take immediate and decisive action, utilizing all available means, to prevent further atrocities, including applying and imposing economic sanctions, arms embargo, and other countermeasures until Israel adheres to its obligations under international law. Lastly, we once again urge the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to immediately issue arrest warrants for every member of the Israeli war cabinet, who are deemed responsible for orchestrating the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza."
– The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al Mezan and Al-Haq
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al Mezan and Al-Haq (2024) Urgent Call: Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Demand Concrete Action to Halt Impending Massacre Amid Rafah Ground Invasion, Al-Haq, May 8. https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/22990.html
"The Israeli military’s “evacuation orders” are unlawful and amount to forcible transfer, a grave violation of international humanitarian law (IHL)... The Israeli military ground invasion of Rafah is disrupting the humanitarian response, in breach of the UN Security Council resolutions 2720 and 2728 as well as the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures ordering Israel to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance... Every hour during which Israeli forces occupy the crossings of Rafah and Kerem Shalom / Karm Abu Salem condemns more Palestinians to starvation and denial of medical care."
– Amnesty International and 19 Other NGOs
ActionAid, Action Against Hunger, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Amnesty International, A.M. Qattan Foundation. Anera, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), DanChurch Aid (DCA), Humanity & Inclusion/ Handicap International (HI), IM Swedish Development Partner, INTERSOS, Médecins du Monde International Network, Mennonite Central Committee , Mercy Corps, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Norwegian People’s Aid, Oxfam, Plan International, Relief International, War Child Alliance (2024) World Leaders Fail to Act as Israeli Invasion of Rafah Worsens Humanitarian Catastrophe, Amnesty International, May 15. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/05/world-leaders-fail-to-ac…
"The graphic images and cell phone video recordings that have been circulating on social media — a headless child, charred bodies of children, women and children frantically running in all directions trying to escape the fires — are painful to watch. They bring Israeli atrocities in Gaza to a new level of unspeakable cruelty and horror.I don’t know how anyone can recover from this gruesome monstrosity. Do we mourn the dead infants or weep for those who have just been orphaned? Do we scream for those children who have been maimed, or for the parents who had to wrap their loved ones in white shrouds?"
-- Michael Mourshabeck
Michael Mourshabeck (2024) Rafah Invasion Was Once Biden’s “Red Line” — But Israel Continues to Cross It, Truthout, May 28. https://truthout.org/articles/rafah-invasion-was-once-bidens-red-line-b…
"Judges at the top United Nations court ordered Israel to halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and withdraw from the enclave, in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, citing 'immense ris'” to the Palestinian population... Friday’s decision marked the third time this year the 15-judge panel has issued preliminary orders seeking to rein in the death toll and alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza. While orders are legally binding, the court has no police to enforce them... Israel must 'immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,' [Nawaf] Salam said, and called the humanitarian situation in Rafah 'disastrous'"
– Al Jazeera Staff
Al Jazeera Staff (2024) ICJ Orders Israel to Halt Its Offense on Rafah, Gaza i New Ruling, Al Jazeera, May 24. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/24/icj-orders-israel-to-halt-its-…
"'The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,' said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel]. 'It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention... Explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities and the pattern of conduct of the Israeli security forces indicate that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group.'"
– UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel
UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (2025) Israel has Committed Genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission Finds, United Nations Office of the High Comissioner on Human Rights, September 16. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-ge…
"Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip... The assault on Palestinians in Gaza cannot be separated from the escalating violence being inflicted, at varying levels and in different forms, on Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the West Bank and within Israel. The violence and destruction in these areas is intensifying over time, with no effective domestic or international mechanism acting to halt them. We warn of the clear and present danger that the genocide will not remain confined to the Gaza Strip, and that the actions and underlying mindset driving it may be extended to other areas as well. The recognition that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the deep concern that it may expand to other areas where Palestinians live under Israeli rule, demand urgent and unequivocal action from both Israeli society and the international community, and use of every means available under international law to stop Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people."
– B'Tselem
B'Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (2025) Our Genocide, B'Tselem, July. https://www.btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide