"The most difficult scene you can experience is seeing your neighbors burning alive and not being able to do anything to rescue them,” said Abed Musleh. (Bilal Shbair and Erika Solomon, 2024).

Israeli forces struck tents sheltering displaced civilians near al Aqsa hospital, in an area where people from northern Gaza were told to relocate. At least four people were burned to death, and scores of others, including women and children, suffered severe burns.

Just hours earlier, another strike on a school turned shelter in Nuseirat killed more than 20 people and injured scores of others, according to local reports. (United Nations, 2024).

The aggression is only intensifying, the suffering only compounding. Our government has refused to do anything. We must use our voices and continue our pressure, it is the only way our government will ever change.

Context:

In July 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is unlawful. It declared that Israel must end its illegal occupation immediately, including its occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Furthermore, the ICJ determined that:

• Israel’s actions amount to the annexation of large parts of the OPT;

• Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians;

• Israel is obligated to provide reparations for damages caused, and this includes returning land and property, evacuating all settlers, and allowing Palestinians to return to their homes;

• All states, including Canada, have an obligation not to aid or assist in maintaining this illegal occupation, including through trade or investment relations. (CJPME, 2024)

This ICJ advisory opinion comes on the heels of the January 2024 advisory opinion that Israel is plausibly committing genocide and must take action to prevent genocide. The ICJ has since made several, unheeded, declarations that Israel must cease genocidal activity. In an address to the House of Commons in May, Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly declared that “decisions of the [ICJ] are binding.” However, Canada has continuously failed to act.

These ICJ advisory opinions come at a time when Palestinians, both those in Gaza and those elsewhere in the OPT, are experiencing some of the most horrendous, inhumane, and insidious crimes of recent history.

• The Lancet estimates, conservatively, that 186,000 people will be killed by Israel. This amounts to approximately 8% of the population of Gaza. (This is from an article published in July).

• One Palestinian child in Gaza has been killed approximately every 15 minutes since Israel launched its attack. Euromed monitor states that at least 15,000 children have been murdered.

• UN Women reports that two mothers are killed every hour.

• At least 91,073 more people have been injured since Israel launched its attack. Many of these people are in critical condition.

• In the Gaza Strip, Euromed Monitor estimates that 3,890 people have been detained or forcibly disappeared.

• 90 percent of the population, at least 1,900,000 people, is displaced.

• Israel has maintained a 75-year-long system of apartheid, a 56-year-long occupation of Palestine, and a 16-year-long blockade of Gaza

• The Integrated Food Security Phase Calculation (IPC) has classified the entire population in the Gaza Strip (2.2 million people) as a class 3 (Crisis or worse) or above. It is the highest proportion of high-level food insecurity that the IPC has ever classified in one area. At least one in four (more than half a million people) are facing catastrophic conditions (Phase 5).

• At least 400 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7. This is in addition to at least 199 Palestinians whom Israel killed in the West Bank before this date. 2023 was the deadliest year in the West Bank since the UN began reporting in 2005.

• Palestinians in the West Bank are subjected to routine violence by Israeli soldiers and armed settlers. Israel has raided refugee camps, attacked healthcare, and barred ambulances from reaching injured civilians.

• Israel has detained more than 3,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and increased the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention without charge or trial. The number of Palestinians held in detention is well over 10,000. Leaked footage from Sde Teiman shows victims blindfolded and cuffed. Testimonies confirm that victims are kept in these conditions of psychological and physical torture to the point where amputations or commonplace.

• Israel has committed uncountable numbers of massacres against civilians and aid workers.