Dedicated to promoting accountability and justice for Palestinian communities, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), issued a statement on Wednesday evening as reports came in for Qatar.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal raising the possibility of winding down the deadly and destructive bombardment on Gaza.
The deal, coming after weeks of painstaking negotiations in the Qatari capital, promises the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in phases, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and would allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Gaza to return to what remains of their homes.
It also would flood badly needed humanitarian aid into a devastated territory.
Three officials from the US and one from Hamas confirmed that a deal had been reached, while a senior Israeli official said details are still being ironed out.
The ICJP said: “For the last 466 days, a genocide of a greater scale than even the Nakba has been carried out against Palestinians in Gaza.
“World-leading medical journal The Lancet released a report last week estimating that 64,260 Palestinians had been killed by Israel in Gaza from October 2023 to June 2024, and 59.1% of those killed were children, women and the elderly. This figure includes traumatic injuries only.
“We are unlikely to ever know the true figure, when accounting for epidemics and illnesses exacerbated by forced displacement, malnutrition and starvation brought on by the blockade of food, death by exposure to the elements from electricity being cut off and hastily made refugee tents. People will continue to die from these conditions even with a ceasefire. More still are now amputees, refugees, torture and sexual assault survivors, widows, widowers, orphans, and utterly traumatised, both individually and collectively.
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“Whilst a ceasefire is a crucial step to ending the genocide, the work begins now to ensure humanitarian organisations are allowed unhindered access to Gaza in an attempt to begin to alleviate the suffering.”
The group added: “The ceasefire must also be a permanent one, this cannot become a glorified humanitarian pause, allowing Israel to regroup before launching yet another onslaught against the Palestinian people. Further, the perpetrators and architects of this genocide must be brought to justice, and accountability must take place to ensure that another more brutal onslaught of Palestinians in not carried out.”
The ICJP went on to reference the arrest warrants issued at the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and called for more to be issued down the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) chain of command.
The group called for countries to “play their part” by committing to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant when they set foot in their country and for officials from other states who “aided and abetted this genocide to be held accountable for their complicity”.
The statement concluded: “”Simply put, there must be an end to these two fundamental, unique exemptions in the international order: Israel’s complete impunity from accountability for their war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the consensus that self-determination applies to all people, except for the Palestinians. Until these two issues are resolved, there may be a ceasefire, but there cannot be true peace and justice.
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“For years to come, Palestinians in Gaza, will suffer the overarching effects of the massive destruction and genocidal actions committed in Gaza. A ceasefire may have been agreed today, but scenes of genocidal violence will live in Palestinians’ collective memory for generations.
“Blood-stained flour, amputated limbs, grieving mothers, a decimated medical system, people collecting the remains of their deceased loved ones in bags, dozens of Palestinian men detained and stripped naked en masse in humiliation rituals, and much, much more shall haunt Palestinians forever.
“They will haunt our collective consciousness, too, until accountability is delivered and until Palestinians’ long-deprived rights are attained.”