UN experts: Gaza faces genocidal escalation as aid blocked and deaths soar

A group of United Nations independent experts condemned what they called Israel’s “escalation of its genocidal campaign” in Gaza and urged states to stop enabling the assault as ceasefire talks stall. Their statement highlights displacement orders that have hemmed civilians into shrinking pockets of the Strip, lethal strikes on aid providers, and policies that restrict food, water, and medicine to the point of mass starvation. 

What the UN experts are alleging

The experts say recent evacuation and displacement orders have “targeted the last vestiges” of humanitarian operations—citing deadly attacks on aid workers, including the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS)—and argue that airdrops and brief “humanitarian pauses” are cosmetic fixes for a catastrophe that demands sustained land access. They warn that Israel’s restrictions on aid have created “conditions of life” leading to the physical destruction of Palestinians, acts punishable as genocide under international law. 

Documented strikes on aid workers

Concerns about attacks on medics and aid convoys intensified after a 23 March 2025 incident in Rafah in which marked ambulances and a UN vehicle were hit, killing at least 15 aid workers—including eight PRCS members—according to compiled accounts. While details remain contested, the reported pattern has fed UN experts’ claims that aid delivery sites and responders have been repeatedly endangered. 

Rising civilian death toll and famine conditions

Gaza’s health authorities reported at least 61,158 Palestinians killed and 151,442 wounded as of 7 August 2025, with daily fatalities continuing amid bombardments and aid-route closures. Independent reporting has long noted that official figures may undercount deaths—especially from secondary causes such as disease and hunger—due to the collapse of civil registries and health services. 

Starvation-linked deaths, including those of children, have mounted in recent weeks as access to food, clean water, and medical care remains severely constrained across the Strip. Analysts and legal scholars note that the deliberate deprivation of food to civilians can amount to a war crime and, when intended to destroy a group “in whole or in part,” a genocidal act. 

Legal backdrop: ICJ orders and the genocide case

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued multiple provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel, ordering Israel to enable humanitarian assistance and prevent acts of genocide. The Court reaffirmed and expanded those measures on 24 May 2024 and has issued further orders since then. UN experts argue that persistent impediments to aid and ongoing civilian harm indicate non-compliance with these binding directives. (Israel rejects genocide allegations and says it is targeting Hamas while seeking to minimize civilian harm.) 

UN special procedures mandates have, over the last year, repeatedly warned that evacuation orders and mass transfers have confined civilians into ever smaller areas, amounting to forcible transfer and creating unliveable conditions. 

International reaction is shifting—but still divided

The experts criticized governments that continue arms transfers and diplomatic cover for Israel, calling this “complicity.” Their warning comes as some officials in Europe voice sharper concerns: on 7 August 2025, a senior European Commission vice president said the Gaza situation “looks very much” like genocide—one of the bluntest statements yet from an EU leader—while Brussels weighs leverage over research funds and trade ties. 

Earlier UN expert statements have pressed member states to suspend arms sales, restore full aid access, and pursue accountability—including through domestic prosecutions and support for international investigations—arguing that, without swift action, Gaza’s civilian population faces “endless decimation.”

What the experts are demanding now

• Unrestricted, sustained land access for humanitarian convoys—far beyond intermittent airdrops or limited pauses.

• Protection of aid workers and sites, with credible investigations into strikes on medical and relief personnel.

• Immediate compliance with ICJ measures and international humanitarian law, including the prohibition on starvation of civilians.

• Accountability mechanisms, from arms embargoes to legal proceedings, to deter further violations. (Mirage News, International Court of Justice, Middle East Eye)

The bottom line

As ceasefire talks sputter and displacement orders compress civilians into slivers of territory, UN experts say the world is at a moral and legal tipping point. They argue that without decisive international measures—opening land crossings at scale, protecting aid operations, halting arms transfers, and enforcing court orders—the promise of “never again” risks becoming a eulogy for Palestinian life in Gaza.