A man carries a child wounded in a recent Israeli airstrike on Gaza. AFP
In a new legal briefing and accompanying press statement, the rights group said Israeli authorities are still deliberately imposing conditions of life “calculated to bring about the physical destruction” of Palestinians — a central element of genocide under international law. This includes severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, obstruction of medical evacuations, and the prevention of critical infrastructure repairs.
Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said Israel has shown “no evidence” of a change in intent since the ceasefire was announced on 9 October. “The world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over,” she said, accusing Israel of sustaining policies that leave Palestinians facing “slow death” from hunger, disease, exposure, and displacement.
Municipal engineers interviewed by Amnesty described the near-total collapse of Gaza’s water system. Gaza City is producing only one-third of its pre-war water capacity due to destroyed desalination plants, damaged wells, and Israel’s refusal to allow spare parts needed for repairs. Large parts of the city still have no running water at all, the documents said.
The Amnesty report comes as Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out deadly strikes daily across Gaza, killing and wounding hundreds since 9 the truce, brokered by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US, went into effect on 9 October. It also comes as Israel restricts the entry of humanitarian aid to the strip, leaving 2.3 million Palestinians on the brink of famine.
The rights group, which formally accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in its Gaza war in December 2024, warned that winter rainfall had already flooded thousands of makeshift shelters, leaving families soaked and exposed. A 28-year-old widow told Amnesty she could not find dry clothes for her two-year-old daughter after their tent was inundated.
Amnesty said medical shortages remain “extremely dire”. More than 55 percent of essential medicines in Gaza have run out, including 74 percent of chemotherapy drugs and all supplies for open-heart surgery. Doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital reported that patients with treatable chronic conditions — diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease — are dying because life-saving medication and equipment cannot enter.
While the World Health Organization evacuated 165 patients in the month following the ceasefire, Amnesty noted that 16,500 critically ill Palestinians — nearly 4,000 children — still require urgent care outside Gaza, but Israeli permit delays and bans on treatment in the West Bank remain in place.
Amnesty’s legal briefing says Israel continues to enforce mass displacement by maintaining a military cordon across 54–58 percent of Gaza, marked in places by concrete blocks and referred to as the “yellow line”. Palestinians are prevented from returning to their homes and farms in these areas, and 93 people have been shot while attempting to cross back.
The organization said “this expulsion risks becoming permanent,” as Israeli forces have flattened wide areas beyond the line and established military outposts. The result, it added, is that “Palestinians remain held within less than half of the territory, in the areas least capable of supporting life,” entirely dependent on aid Israel continues to restrict.
People with disabilities face especially harsh conditions. A wheelchair user displaced from Jabalia told Amnesty: “There are no toilets I can use. Every day is torment… Are we doomed to stay in tents for the rest of our lives?”
The briefing notes that Israel has failed to prosecute or investigate any acts of genocide, while political and military leaders continue to publicly support wartime abuses, including torture and sexual violence against Palestinian detainees. Proposed new death-penalty legislation, Amnesty said, would be applied “primarily against Palestinians.”
Israel also continues to bar international investigators, forensic experts, and journalists from Gaza, preventing the collection of evidence necessary for future accountability.
Amnesty warned that recent international actions — including Germany lifting restrictions on certain arms export licences to Israel — suggest a weakening of global pressure. The group said this risks enabling Israel to continue its “genocidal design” under the cover of a ceasefire.
“Now is not the time to ease pressure on the Israeli authorities,” Callamard said, urging states to halt all arms transfers to Israel and push for “unfettered” humanitarian access. She added that the ceasefire “must not become a smokescreen” masking ongoing atrocities.
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