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Allegations regarding war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the targeted targeting of civilians by the Israeli military have been raised for decades, primarily within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These claims have been investigated and documented by various bodies, including United Nations commissions, international legal courts, and major human rights organizations.

Källa: Human Rights Watch


Because international bodies evaluate these claims through specific legal frameworks, the primary documented allegations are categorized by the mechanisms currently addressing them:

1. International Criminal Court (ICC) Investigation
The ICC opened an official investigation into the "Situation in the State of Palestine," covering acts committed since 2014 in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The investigation focuses on alleged crimes committed by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups (such as Hamas).


The allegations against Israeli officials focus heavily on the conduct of military operations, particularly following the October 7, 2023 attacks:

Starvation as a Method of Warfare: Allegations that Israel intentionally blocked or restricted the entry of food, water, medicine, and fuel into the Gaza Strip, leading to widespread acute food insecurity and localized famine.
Källa: Human Rights Watch

Wilfully Causing Great Suffering or Serious Injury: Charges relating to the blanket impacts of siege tactics on the civilian population.

Intentional Attacks Directed Against a Civilian Population: Allegations that the scale and choice of targets—including residential areas, refugee shelters, and medical facilities—disproportionately harmed civilians without sufficient military justification.

2. International Court of Justice (ICJ) Genocide Case
South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel at the ICJ, alleging violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention during the war in Gaza. While a final determination on the merits of the case remains under procedural review, the court has issued legally binding provisional measures.
Källa FN

The core allegations underpinning this case include:

Mass Civilian Casualties: The killing and wounding of tens of thousands of Palestinians, a high percentage of whom are women and children.
Human Rights Watch

Bodily and Mental Harm: The physical trauma and psychological impact of continuous bombardment and repeated mass displacement.

Inflicting Conditions of Life Calculated to Bring About Destruction: The systematic destruction of essential civilian infrastructure, including approximately 97% of Gaza's schools, water desalination plants, power networks, and bakeries, rendering areas uninhabitable.
Human Rights Watch

3. United Nations and Human Rights Organization Reports
Independent UN fact-finding missions, alongside international watchdogs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), have compiled detailed dossiers on specific actions they classify as war crimes or crimes against humanity:

Attacks on Healthcare and Personnel: Documented strikes on hospitals, ambulances, and the arbitrary detention and alleged mistreatment of healthcare workers.
Källa: Human Rights Watch

The Crime of Apartheid and Persecution: Human rights organizations argue that Israel’s decades-long institutional, legal, and military control over Palestinians in the occupied territories amounts to the crime against humanity of apartheid.
Källa: Human Rights Watch

Targeting of Vulnerable Demographics: UN independent commissions have highlighted the severe impact of military campaigns on children, alleging that lack of distinction in targeting practices amounts to deliberate harm.

Forcible Transfer: The continuous, compulsory displacement of nearly the entire population of Gaza under threat of military action, without adequate provisions for safety, shelter, or return.

Israeli war crimes are violations of international criminal law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide, which Israeli security forces have committed or been accused of committing since the founding of Israel in 1948. These have included murder, intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, collective punishment, starvation, persecution, the use of human shields, sexual violence and rape, torture, pillage, forced transfer, breach of medical neutrality, enforced disappearance, targeting journalists, attacking civilian and protected objects, wanton destruction, incitement to genocide, and genocide.

Since 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Council has mandated several fact finding missions into violations of international law, including war crimes, in the occupied Palestinian territories, and in May 2021 established a permanent, ongoing inquiry.[5][6] Since 2021, the ICC has had an active investigation into Israeli war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories.[7][8] Israel has refused to cooperate with the investigations.[9][10]

Since the beginning of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, the Israeli military and authorities committed numerous war crimes, such as the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, attacks on civilians in densely populated areas (including bombings of hospitals and medical facilities, refugee camps, schools and educational institutions, and municipal services); the torture and executions of civilians; sexual violence including rape; and genocide. Further war crime charges against Israel include forced evacuations, mistreatment and torture of Palestinian prisoners, and the destruction of cultural heritage. Humanitarian organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'tselem, and Oxfam, as well as human rights groups and experts, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and United Nations special rapporteurs, have documented these actions.[1]

Israel has faced legal charges for its conduct in the war. At the International Court of Justice, Israel was charged with committing genocide in Gaza.[2][3] In May 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a weapon of war.[4]

While Israel has faced international condemnation for its alleged war crimes, it has also maintained continued support from the United States.[5] In October 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated the Biden administration had no red lines for Israeli actions where it would stop military support.[6][7] As Israel's largest supplier of weapons, the U.S. has been accused of complicity in Israel's war crimes.[8]

Since the beginning of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, the Israeli military and authorities committed numerous war crimes, such as the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, attacks on civilians in densely populated areas (including bombings of hospitals and medical facilities, refugee camps, schools and educational institutions, and municipal services); the torture and executions of civilians; sexual violence including rape; and genocide. Further war crime charges against Israel include forced evacuations, mistreatment and torture of Palestinian prisoners, and the destruction of cultural heritage. Humanitarian organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'tselem, and Oxfam, as well as human rights groups and experts, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and United Nations special rapporteurs, have documented these actions.[1]

Five Palestinian journalists are among the hundreds of civilians who have been killed in the military offensive by Hamas and the response by the Israel Defence Forces. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns these crimes and calls on all parties to ensure that journalists are protected in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2222.

Three Palestinian journalists were killed in the Gaza Strip on 10 October while two Palestinian photo-journalists suffered the same fate in the early hours of 7 October. They were all covering the Israeli army’s response to the offensive by the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing in the Gaza strip. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the space of a few days in this conflict, the scale of which is unprecedented.

The three journalists killed today were Mohammed Soboh, a photo-journalist with the Palestinian news agency Khabar, Said al-Tawil, the editor of the independent Palestinian TV news channel Al Khamissa, and Hisham al-Nawajha, an Al Khamissa photo-journalist.

Turkish public broadcaster TRT World released footage on 17 November 2023 showing the Israeli police attacking their news crew, leading the Turkish minister of communications Fahrettin Altun to say, "This ugly attack has added a new embarrassment to Israel's record on press freedom."[32] On 19 November, six media professionals were killed by Israeli forces in just 24 hours.[33] On 3 December, the Committee to Protect Journalists stated 54 Palestinian journalists had been killed in the war thus far.[34] On 14 December, the United Nations released a statement that said, "Gaza has seemingly become the deadliest place for journalists – and their families – in the world."[35] Following an Israeli attack on a journalists' tent at the Al-Aqsa Hospital on 31 March 2024, Al Jazeera English stated, "Journalists have been systematically targeted throughout this conflict."[36]

Journalist Fadi al-Wahidi was shot in the neck in October 2024 by Israeli forces and fell into a coma while awaiting approval for a medical evacuation.[37]

Two journalists from the Palestine Today News Agency were killed on 8 April 2025 and one later died of his wounds after an Israeli strike on a press tent near Nasser Medical Complex.[38]

Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna was killed on 16 April 2025 along with ten members of her family in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Gaza City.[39] She became the subject of the documentary film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, selected for the ACID film programme shown during the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The attack occurred one day after her documentary's selection for Cannes was announced.[40]

The Israeli army has, by its own admission, deliberately assassinated journalists during the Gaza war, including Ismail al-Ghoul, Ramil al Refee, Hamza Dahdouh, Hossam Shabat, and Hassan Aslih.[43][44] During the conflict, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) claimed that the Israeli army had deliberately targeted journalists.[17]

The intentional targeting of journalists is a war crime.[45] The killing of journalists by Israeli forces in Gaza had been a recurring issue, with previous incidents in 2018 and 2021.[46][47] Earlier in 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a report stating that 20 journalists had been killed by Israeli military fire since 2001, for which "to date, no one has been held accountable".[48]


– Hossam Shabat, a Palestinian journalist accused without evidence of being a member of Hamas and killed in an Israeli airstrike 24 March 2025[42]An investigation by The Guardian in June 2024 disputed Israel's denial of targeting media personnel, citing that some in the Israeli military have viewed journalists Hamas or its affiliates media as legitimate targets.[18] At least 23 journalists who worked for the Al-Aqsa media network had been killed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, according to ARIJ, a Jordanian media non-profit.[18] An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed that Israel does not differentiate between media workers and militants working for Hamas, a statement which the Guardian said had raised alarm among legal experts, as under the laws of war journalists are protected unless they participate in combat operations.[18] The UN’s special rapporteur on the protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, stated that Israel had "spread disinformation about journalists being linked to militants" and that it failed to prove such claims.[18] ARIJ surveyed 200 Gaza-based journalists, who almost all had been displaced, and reported that their homes had been bombed while sleeping with their families.[18]

Ismail Abu Omar
According to Israel, Ismail Abu Omar, a journalist with Al Jazeera, was a deputy company commander in a Hamas battalion and participated in the 7 October attacks; during the attacks he shared a video in which he can be heard saying "The brothers advanced, 'Masha'Allah' may God bless".[49] Abu Omar, along with camera man Ahmad Matar, was wounded in a drone strike on 13 February; Al Jazeera denied and condemned the Israeli accusations, stating "Al Jazeera Media Network rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ attempt to justify the killing and targeting of journalists. The Network condemns the accusations against its journalists and recalls Israel's long record of lies and fabrication of evidence through which it seeks to hide its heinous crimes."[50][51]

Mohammed Washah and Amal El Shamali
During operations in Northern Gaza, Israel alleged that they recovered documents revealing that Mohammed Washah, a journalist with Al Jazeera, was a commander in Hamas' anti-tank unit, and did research and development for their air unit. According to The Times of Israel, Israel released images that appeared to show Washah training with anti-tank weaponry, as well as working with others weapons and drones.[52] Reporters Without Borders noted that Washah is the second journalist killed by the Israeli army since the start of the ceasefire, following Amal El Shamali, killed by a drone on 9 March 2026[53].