Following two days of witnesses and experts presenting harrowing testimonies, the Right to Resist: International People’s Tribunal (IPT) on Palestine pronounced the Israeli occupation guilty of having committed genocide, ecocide and forced starvation against the Palestinian people. Endorsed by over 240 organizations, the Tribunal materialized in light of the disheartening inaction and complicity of the international community in the long-standing war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the occupation against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. 

The Israeli occupation’s most recent wave of genocidal violence occurs in the context of the historical and continued colonisation of Palestine, exploitation of its resources and dispossession of its people. Third parties have maintained their unabated political protection, deepening financial ties and continued military assistance to Israel across history and throughout the recent onslaught, resulting in the deliberate obstruction of international legal frameworks that has impeded both the halting of violence against Palestinians as well as the enforcement of just accountability. Consequently, while identifying the Israeli occupation as the principal perpetrator, the Tribunal found the US, the UK, Germany and France guilty of having aided, abetted and enabled the Israeli occupation’s crimes against Palestinians. 

The Tribunal’s verdict differs from prior international pronouncements in that it restitutes power to the hands of the people, exacting an objective judgement of Israeli crimes and Western complicity. Crucially, the verdict was formulated with the awareness of international law’s many failures in supporting the Palestinian right to self-determination, acknowledging that the crimes it finds Israel guilty of emerge “from a long-standing matrix of domination, racial segregation, land dispossession, and international endorsement” (p.6). 

Across the two days of Tribunal, the testimonies of 16 witnesses presented findings on the Israeli occupation’s crime of genocide, ecocide and deliberate starvation of the civilian population. Amongst them were the deliberate, widespread, and systematic killing of Palestinians, with at least 71,667 killed in Gaza and over 1,000 killed in the West Bank in the past three years. The extreme escalation of violence by the IOF in Gaza compounded the severe trauma, mutilation, repeated displacement and psychological terror experienced by Palestinians, while the West Bank saw increased settler violence, arrests and intimidations, including arbitrary destruction of homes and growing restriction of movement. 

The Israeli occupation’s intentional policy of mass starvation of the people of Gaza as a tool of collective punishment has constituted a genocidal strategy perpetrated with the clear intent of destroying Palestinians in Gaza. Caused by repeated total blockades of food, aid supplies and energy, a man-made famine was formally declared by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in August 2025 – a deliberate policy that has killed at least 463 (including 157 children) as of October 2025. The Israeli occupation’s weaponisation of food has a long-standing precedent, including a 19-year blockade that has denied Palestinians sovereignty over natural resources and enforced food insecurity through minimal caloric intake and the restriction of crucial imports. The Israeli occupation’s deliberate weaponisation of aid is evident through its prevention of the delivery of aid into Gaza as well as the direct targeting of aid workers, killing at least 588 since Oct 2023, and through the establishment of the US-mercenary led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), where an estimated 3,000 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid. 

Importantly, the Tribunal found the Israeli occupation guilty of committing ecocide due to its intentional and widespread destruction of Gaza’s environment since October 7th. The occupation’s destruction of water systems and soil in Gaza –  the leakage of toxic materials from exploded and unexploded ordinances, including radioactive materials and white phosphorous, into land and sea; the proliferation of untreated sewage (roughly 120,000 m3 per day) caused by the direct targeting of all wastewater treatment plants and 70% of sewage pumps; and the 61 million tonnes of rubble imbued with toxic materials – will impact both humans and the environment for generations to come. The Occupation’s targeted attacks on civilians across Gaza are also responsible for the overwhelming destruction of more than 95% of shrubland and 97% of all trees in Gaza, as well as the devastation of major flora and fauna biodiversity hubs such as the Wadi Gaza wetlands and the Mawasi area. Such severe destruction of Gaza’s biodiversity and ecosystems could have everlasting consequences, preventing plant growth and rendering any potential crop growth toxic for consumption, as well as potentially leading to permanent desertification. The exorbitant CO2 emissions (300,000 tonnes in the first 60 days after October 7th) released by the Occupation during its genocidal campaign have threatened the local and regional Mediterranean environment, in violation of multiple international conventions on environmental protection. 

These actions are an acceleration of the Israeli occupation’s long standing policy to pollute and destroy the environment in Palestine, including the leaking of industrial pollutants, the seizure and flooding of Palestinian farmland, and the destruction of wastewater infrastructure that has resulted in 97% of Gazan water sources being undrinkable. In the West Bank, the routine burning and theft of trees and crops has led to loss of livelihood for local communities, and the occupation’s theft of over 80% of Palestinian water to settlements or commercial reselling has resulted in insufficient water levels to sustain life for Palestinians, and could lead to permanent desertification, impacting generations to come. 

In light of the gathered evidence, the Tribunal adjudicated the Israeli leadership as being guilty of primary responsibility for the crimes of genocide, ecocide and forced starvation, and the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany guilty of having enabled the crimes committed. The verdict reaffirms the long-standing nature of Israel’s crimes, executed through years of deliberate policy and intensified into an unprecedented genocidal campaign. Thus, it demands: (1) an immediate end to the siege on Gaza and the insurance of unimpeded entry of food, water, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian aid, (2) holding to full account the defendants, and implementing all arrest warrants and judicial measures (3) ending all military, financial, technological and diplomatic support to the Israeli occupation and (4) upholding the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to resist genocide and illegal occupation, the right to return and the enjoyment of permanent sovereignty over their land and natural resources.