war crimes

A demonstrator protests outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City, calling attention to sexual violence against women during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, December 4, 2023. (Yakov Binyamin/Flash90)

Where’s the outrage over ‘systematic’ sexual violence against Palestinians?

Despite mounting evidence of the army’s gender-based crimes, Israeli women’s groups have largely ignored or denied the UN’s damning new report.

By Samah Salaime April 17, 2025

Palestinians who were injured from Israeli airstrikes on the town of Bani Suhaila arrive at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, July 22, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

‘I operated on more children in Gaza in one night than I do in the U.S. in a year’

American surgeon Feroze Sidhwa has volunteered in war zones around the world. But nothing prepared him for Israel bombing his hospital in Gaza.

By Michal Feldon April 9, 2025

Displaced Palestinians return their homes during the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Jabalia, in the central Gaza Strip, January 23, 2025 (Khalil Kahlout/Flash90)

A ceasefire can only bring temporary relief. It’s what comes next that counts

Any hope for Gaza's future requires not just an end to the war and 18-year siege, but accountability for Israel's crimes and Palestinian political unification.

By Mahmoud Mushtaha January 24, 2025

Latest

Israeli soldiers operating in Gaza City, July 28, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

Exterminate, expel, resettle: Israel’s endgame in northern Gaza

Debates over the details of the ‘Generals’ Plan’ distract from the true brutality of Israel’s latest operation — one that drops the veneer of humanitarian considerations and lays the groundwork for settlements.

By Idan Landau November 1, 2024

Palestinians search for martyrs and wounded in the rubble of a destroyed building after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2023. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90)

How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza

The Israeli army uses the veneer of internal accountability to fend off external criticism. But its record reveals how few perpetrators are punished.

By Dan Owen July 24, 2024

A Palestinian journalist covering the war from above the Tabaa Tower, Gaza Strip, October 23, 2023. (Mohammed Zaanoun)

‘The livestream was critical evidence’: Tracing attacks on Gaza’s press buildings

The Israeli army struck major media institutions in Gaza despite assurances of safety, and appears to have deliberately targeted cameras that were broadcasting the military offensive, a new investigation shows.

By Léa Peruchon June 26, 2024

Palestinians collect drinking water in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 23, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

In Gaza, Israel has turned water into a weapon of mass destruction

By denying Palestinians safe water since the war began, Israel has created an unparalleled health crisis and risks causing irreversible ecological damage.

By Nancy Murray and Amahl Bishara January 16, 2024

Former Supreme Court President Barak at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, December 8, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

At The Hague, Aharon Barak will play Dr. Jekyll to Israel’s Mr. Hyde

As Supreme Court president, Barak provided legal armor for Israel's occupation and façade of democracy. Now he’s back to continue the job.

By Orly Noy January 10, 2024

Prisoners inside St. Joseph’s schoolyard during the Israeli army’s invasion and occupation of Sidon, in southern Lebanon, June 1982. (Alain Mingam/Gamma, courtesy of Nurit Kedar)

Confession without consequence

A film about a 1982 war crime in Lebanon shows Israeli soldiers are more open to divulging their violent actions. But their search for exoneration without accountability says much about Israeli society's moral decay.

By Seth Anziska July 26, 2022

A young Palestinian boy walks among the debris of a house, which witnesses said was hit in an Israeli air strike, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Aug. 2, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Why does international support for the ICC stop at Palestine?

By opposing an investigation in the occupied territories, powerful states are contradicting their own positions on the ICC simply to protect a political ally.

By Matt Cannock and Solomon Sacco April 16, 2021

Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court arriving at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, 12 June 2014. (FCO via Wikimedia Commons)

With international law under siege, can the ICC bring justice to Palestinians?

As the ICC prosecutor's investigation awaits a green light, Palestinian experts reflect on what the legal battle portends for their struggle.

By Amjad Iraqi January 13, 2020

Palestinians in the city of Ramle surrender to Israeli forces during 1948 war. (Eldad David/GPO)

How I learned to stop worrying and acknowledge the Nakba

For more than seven decades, Israelis haven’t been able to come to terms with the consequences of the Nakba. To do so, they’ll have to confront the hard truths about 1948, and shed their moral superiority. By Michal Talya The first time I ever heard a testimony about the Nakba was nearly two decades ago from…

By +972 Magazine August 8, 2019

Palestinian protesters against negotiations with the Israeli government clash with Palestinian riot police on August 28, 2013, after protesters were banned from approaching Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Palestinian Authority, Hamas use torture to silence dissent, report finds

A new report by Human Rights Watch documents dozens of cases whereby the Palestinian authorities in both the West Bank and Gaza use arbitrary arrest and torture to repress critics. A new Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation published Tuesday draws on 86 cases of arbitrary arrest, abuse, and torture by Fatah and Hamas authorities in the West Bank…

By Samer Badawi October 23, 2018