“We work amid ongoing, ceaseless bombardment…I meet with those who have lost their entire families, women, children, the elderly. Hearing about the horror of the crimes, I can no longer write. I go away for a while to take a breath and cry, and then resume my work.”
Amnesty’s fieldworker in Gaza
 

As Gaza faces a potential genocide and famine, states must stop fueling the crisis and prevent further humanitarian catastrophe and loss of civilian life.

Israel’s military campaign has destroyed a substantial portion of Gaza’s homes, schools, hospitals, water infrastructure, shelters, and refugee camps. 

More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment and at least 31 have starved to death, 28 of them children. Almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced, many repeatedly. Over two million people in the occupied Gaza Strip remain at risk of genocide and famine. Nowhere is safe.

In January, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel is committing a potential genocide in Gaza. There is a clear risk that weapons and military equipment directly or indirectly exported to Israel will be used to commit serious crimes against civilians in Gaza. Any state continuing to transfer military equipment violates international rules on arms trade and risks becoming complicit in violations of international humanitarian law – including war crimes – and a plausible genocide. 

In February, UN experts warned that any sale and supply of weapons to Israel that risk being used in Gaza would violate international humanitarian law and must be stopped immediately. In early April, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution calling on states to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel.

Over 250 humanitarian and human rights organisations have called on states to stop arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups.

Although Canada reportedly stopped issuing new permits for military exports to Israel as of January 8, 2024, transfers continue on existing permits. Between October 7 and December 6, 2023, $28.5 million of new military exports to Israel were approved – more than the value all export permits issued in 2022. Canadian parts, components and other military materials are also exported to the USA, which in turn are integrated into US military equipment such as F-35 aircraft supplied to the Israel Defense Force.

Amnesty International has documented damning evidence of war crimes by Israeli forces in their intense bombardment of Gaza, including direct or indiscriminate attacks as well as other unlawful attacks and collective punishment of the civilian population. 

One Amnesty investigation found that US-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) were used by the Israeli military in two deadly, unlawful air strikes on the al-Najjar and Abu Mu’eileq family homes in Deir al-Balah in the occupied Gaza Strip. Amnesty did not find any indication that there were any military objectives at the sites of the two strikes or that people in the buildings were legitimate military targets. The air strikes – which killed a total of 43 people (19 children, 14 women and 10 men) – were either direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks and must be investigated as war crimes.