A Path of No Return: Israel’s War on Gaza and the Collapse of International Law

Introduction: A Fractured Global Response

The events of October 7, 2023, sent shockwaves across the globe, eliciting sharply divergent reactions that laid bare deep geopolitical divides. In the Middle East, Israel’s military response plunged the region into another cycle of violence. Across parts of the Global South, many interpreted the attacks as a sign that Palestinian resistance remains active and uncompromising. Within academic and activist circles, some framed the moment as a painful but stark reminder that decolonization struggles particularly in Palestine, may involve armed resistance. Others, particularly in Western media and political establishments, immediately categorized the events as acts of terrorism, reinforcing narratives that obscure historical grievances and reflect long-standing ideological bias.

Israel, for its part, cast the Hamas-led assault as its own version of 9/11, a national trauma that demanded a maximalist response. Backed by its allies, particularly the United States, it launched a wide-ranging military campaign that has since evolved into one of the deadliest and most destructive conflicts of the 21st century. But while military reprisals were expected, the scale, intensity, and deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure have raised grave questions about Israel’s conduct and the broader international community’s complicity.

The crisis has exposed a fragile and increasingly fractured global order. Where one group sees legitimate resistance, another sees terrorism. Where one side sees war crimes and ethnic cleansing, another sees national defence. This polarisation, and the legal and moral ambiguity it allows, risks undoing decades of international norms and accountability mechanisms established since the end of World War II.

Civilian Devastation and the Machinery of War

Since October 7, Gaza has endured nearly two years of sustained, high-intensity bombardment. Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to humanitarian organizations, with roughly two-thirds of the casualties being women and children. A Lancet study published via the Harvard Dataverse platform suggests the actual death toll could be significantly higher, potentially reaching into the hundreds of thousands, given that many victims remain buried beneath the rubble of what were once densely populated neighbourhoods.

Beyond the staggering death toll, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is defined by the near-total destruction of civilian infrastructure. Hospitals, schools, refugee camps, bakeries, and residential buildings have been systematically targeted and erased. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have repeatedly claimed that Hamas operates from within civilian areas including hospitals and schools yet none of these claims have rarely been independently verified, and the consequences have been devastating.

From October 2023 to June 2024, Israel struck at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, according to the World Health Organisation.  These attacks resulted in widespread casualties and left most of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure crippled. Of the 36 hospitals that operated before the war, only 17 remain, many of them partially functional and overwhelmed. The Geneva Conventions afford special protections to medical facilities and staff in times of war, yet these protections appear to have been disregarded. In a particularly harrowing case from March 23, 2025, fifteen Palestinian emergency workers were reportedly killed and buried in a shallow grave by the IDF while they were responding to an Israeli airstrike in Rafah. Their shallow grave was later discovered through footage recovered from one of the mobile phones, which captured their final moments. Israel’s only public response was to describe this war crime as a “professional mistake.”

Alongside the destruction of hospitals and aid networks, this systematic deprivation paints a stark picture: Gaza is not just a battlefield, it is a site of deliberate human collapse. The targeting of non-combatants, medical workers, and journalists underscores a strategy of total war, in which civilian life is not collateral but central to the military strategy. The evidence emerging from Gaza points not just to disproportionate force, but to a campaign that systematically undermines the very legal protections meant to shield civilians in times of war.

Throughout this conflict, Israel has also continued to expand its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, actions that have been repeatedly deemed as violations of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. Armed settler groups, often described by human rights organizations as violent and extremist, have attacked Palestinian civilians, destroyed property, and forcibly taken over homes and land. These actions are not isolated incidents; they occur with the tacit, and sometimes explicit, support of the Israeli state. High-ranking officials, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have publicly encouraged settler expansion and incitement, reinforcing a system of impunity. Such behaviour amounts to state-backed terrorism against a civilian population and undermines any credible claim of seeking peace.

From Gaza to the Region: Escalation Without Accountability

What began in Gaza has not remained confined there. Over the past 21 months, Israel’s military operations have expanded across borders, targeting sites in The West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. Far from isolated responses, these operations form a pattern: a state waging cross-border war with little to no accountability, all while enjoying diplomatic cover from its most powerful allies.

In April 2024, Israel struck the Iranian embassy in Damascus, a move widely condemned even by its usual defenders. The European Union, long aligned with Israeli security concerns, issued a rare rebuke, citing Article 22 of the Vienna Convention, which protects the inviolability of diplomatic premises. Attacking an embassy is no small transgression, it is a direct assault on the legal architecture that holds international relations together. When such actions go unpunished, they erode decades of diplomatic norms and create dangerous precedents.

That precedent was cemented further in June 2025, when Israel declared war on Iran, invoking the doctrine of “pre-emptive self-defence.” The campaign targeted Iranian nuclear facilities, military installations, and infrastructure, triggering retaliatory missile strikes from Tehran. Civilian casualties mounted on both sides. The war was short-lived but devastating, and perhaps most troubling was its legal framing; a justification under international law that is widely disputed. If such a doctrine becomes normalized, then any powerful state could justify aggression under vague security pretexts.

In Lebanon, Israeli strikes have displaced thousands, destroyed infrastructure, and contributed to a worsening humanitarian situation in a country already grappling with economic collapse and the lingering effects of the Beirut port explosion. Yet even after Israel’s horrific pager attacks which killed 42 people (including civilians) and injured over 3000 people, there was no meaningful international restraint imposed on Israel. Human rights organizations and UN experts condemned the attacks as indiscriminate and a terrifying violation of international law.

This escalation is not a separate issue from Gaza; it is a continuation of the same pattern of military force used with impunity, civilian life disregarded, and legal norms reinterpreted or ignored. The danger isn’t just regional. When a nuclear-armed state systematically violates international law and faces no consequences, it sets a precedent others will follow.

The Collapse of International Law: Selective Justice and Strategic Silence

In the early days of the Russia-Ukraine war, the international community moved swiftly. Sanctions were imposed within days and diplomatic pressure intensified. The International Criminal Court (ICC) was very swift, issuing an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin just a month after the prosecutor submitted the request. By contrast, it took more than six months for the ICC to issue a similar warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the prosecutor’s request despite the sheer scale of destruction and loss of civilian life in Gaza being arguably more severe.

The delay was not due to a lack of evidence. It was the result of political pressure. Both the United States and Israel openly threatened the ICC with sanctions if it moved forward. These threats, made and acted upon in defence of a state accused of war crimes and genocide represent a staggering assault on the very institutions tasked with upholding international justice. 

This kind of selective enforcement of international law is not just hypocritical, it is dangerous. It tells the world that laws are optional, depending on who you are. When Russia claims security threats to justify invading Ukraine, it's denounced as an aggressor. But when Israel invokes the same reasoning to wage a campaign that kills tens of thousands, flattens cities, and starves a population, it is largely defended or ignored by many Western leaders.

This hypocrisy is not lost on the rest of the world. In the Global South, many observers have noted that the so-called “rules-based international order” seems to apply only to adversaries of the West. That perception is not only damaging, it is accurate. The law cannot survive double standards if some states are shielded from accountability while others are crushed under its weight, then the law ceases to function as law. It becomes a tool of power, not justice. These double standards deepen the already fragile mistrust across the Global South. Applying international laws selectively, enforcing them against some while ignoring serious violations by others, undermines the very idea of a rules-based order and sets a dangerous precedent for the future of global security and governance.

This inconsistency has ripple effects. If China were to one day claim that increased U.S.-Taiwan cooperation threatens its national security, and move to forcibly reunify Taiwan, what moral or legal ground would Western powers stand on? The precedent they are setting today weakens their ability to object tomorrow. The abandonment of principle in the case of Gaza opens the door to future abuses elsewhere.

Genocide, Starvation, Media Suppression and Western Complicity

If war crimes have defined Israel’s campaign in Gaza, then genocide is the word that now defines its intent. In March 2024, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese released a report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide”, concluding there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Other UN experts and international legal scholars have echoed this conclusion. The evidence is not abstract, it is visible, horrifying, and meticulously documented. Children shot in the head or killed in their sleep and families buried in the rubble of their homes. Civilian zones flattened in minutes. Israeli Snipers Target Gaza Children

Unlike other genocides in history, this one is unfolding in real-time, on camera, and in front of a connected, global audience. Yet the global reaction has been paralysis at best and complicity at worst.

Israel has not only targeted civilians, but also those who document and treat the consequences: journalists and healthcare workers. According to a Watson Institute report, at least 232 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began, making it the deadliest conflict for media workers in recorded history. Over 1,400 medical personnel have been killed, many while actively treating the wounded. Israel has blocked nearly all independent press access into Gaza, and even restricted critical reporting from within its own borders. This level of suppression exceeds what has been seen in authoritarian regimes and it is happening with the endorsement of self-proclaimed liberal democracies.

Israel has deployed its latest tactic: war by starvation. Beginning in March 2025, Israel implemented a near-total aid blockade on Gaza, blocking thousands of aid trucks and imposing artificial bottlenecks through a newly formed body: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Co-managed by the U.S. and Israel after delegitimizing and bombing UNRWA, the GHF was presented as a solution. Instead, it has become a weapon of civilian executions. Its first appointed director resigned before the first aid delivery, citing that it did not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.” His warnings were prophetic. Since then, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed at GHF aid centres, with credible reports of Israeli and U.S.-armed contractors firing on starving civilians. Aid centres were rebranded as “distribution points,” but in practice, many have become execution zones. 

What began as a military campaign has evolved into a systematic assault on Palestinian survival. Gaza’s population now faces catastrophic levels of hunger, with the United Nations officially declaring that a man-made famine has taken hold. This is not collateral damage, it is the deliberate dismantling of a people’s ability to live engineered by Israel. 

And yet, the West, particularly the United States, the UK, and Germany continue to arm, fund, and diplomatically shield Israel throughout this carnage. UN resolutions have been vetoed, the International Criminal Court threatened, with mounting evidence of mass atrocities dismissed. Only when the scale of destruction became undeniable did cracks begin to appear. In mid-2025, leaders like Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prime Minister Keir Starmer began to shift their rhetoric, even suggesting a potential support of Palestinian statehood. But these gestures were not acts of principle, they were acts of self-preservation, driven by fear of future legal consequences and mounting domestic pressure. The genocide has already been allowed to proceed, uninterrupted, for over a year. 

It has become increasingly evident that the United States can no longer be regarded as an honest broker in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The blood on Western hands is not symbolic, it is literal. Without U.S. and European complicity, this scale of violence would not have been possible. And the consequences of that silence, of that calculated inaction, will reverberate far beyond Gaza.

A Global Order in Peril

For matters of international law, humanitarian principles, and global security, this does not spell a bright future. International law, as envisioned after World War II, was built on ideals of justice, restraint, and universal human dignity. It was supposed to prevent genocide, protect civilians, and hold aggressors accountable. But those ideals have been shattered by the events of the past 21 months. One must ask; what has become of the pledge “Never Again”, a phrase that has echoed throughout the world for over eight decades? Disturbingly, it is now being violated by those who once championed it, as the perpetrators of the ongoing atrocities in Gaza include those historically associated with coining and upholding this very principle. Today, with each passing hour, children are killed, families are starved, medical personnel are targeted in violation of international humanitarian law, and civilians seeking aid are fired upon by the IDF. Yet, despite mounting evidence of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, there has been no serious invocation of the Responsibility to Protect, no calls for international intervention. The legal frameworks designed to prevent such atrocities are being willfully ignored, rendering them hollow in the face of overwhelming impunity. 

When states openly violate international law, and face no consequences because they are backed by powerful allies, the law itself begins to decay. The rules-based order that Western nations championed for decades has been exposed as selective, inconsistent, and hypocritical. If Israel can bomb embassies, starve a population, target hospitals, and kill journalists while still enjoying full diplomatic and military support, then what is left of that order? 

Africa may not always be seen as a global stronghold for international law and justice, but as the world hesitated in taking decisive action, it was South Africa that took the bold step of bringing Israel before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide. As a nation that endured the brutal system of apartheid, South Africa has shown rare courage and persistence in seeking accountability from a powerful and aggressive state. In the face of diplomatic and economic coercion by Western powers, South Africa continues to uphold its moral conviction and commitment to international law. 

The danger of a fraying global order extends far beyond the Middle East. In Africa, where conflicts simmer and borders remain vulnerable, states have long relied on international law as a fragile but essential safeguard against both internal violence and external intervention. The continent has suffered through colonization, proxy wars, and extractive diplomacy, often without the military or economic power to assert sovereignty by force. In many cases, legal protections under the UN system have served as the only real defence against exploitation and interference. If such laws are rendered meaningless elsewhere, then Africa is exposed. If the powerful can act with impunity, others will follow not just Israel, but any state willing to cloak aggression in the language of “security” as we are already seeing in some parts of the continent. 

This is not a temporary crisis. It is a reckoning. The choices made now, by governments, international institutions and by civil societies will determine whether international law survives this century. And if what is happening in Gaza is allowed to continue or end without any form of justice, then no one is safe.

Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash