The European Bars Federation (FBE) associates over 200 Bar Associations and represents more than 1 million lawyers from 20 countries across Europe. The FBE is committed to upholding the rule of law, human rights, and the principles of justice and legal representation across all jurisdictions. We represent the protection of human rights worldwide and act when this principle is threatened.
From this responsibility, the Human Rights Commission of the FBE views with growing concern the ongoing humanitarian crisis and widespread destruction unfolding in Gaza.
Over the course of its military campaign against Gaza now spanning 19 months, Israel has killed at least 54 thousand people – including almost 16 thousand children – and injured more than 120 thousand, [1] and severely damaged or destroyed 92% of all homes.[2] Hundreds of journalists, doctors, and humanitarian aid workers have been killed, some deliberately targeted by snipers, and 1.9 million civilians have been displaced – many of them multiple times.[3] The ongoing bombardments and suffocating blockades have pushed the healthcare system to the brink of collapse.[4] And at this moment, hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk of dying from hunger as a direct result of a deliberately imposed blockade since March 2, 2025, no (food) aid has been allowed into Gaza.[5] Meanwhile, eyewitnesses confirmed that [6]the Israeli army has killed dozens people queuing for food at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers. [7]
The International Court of Justice has, in several preliminary rulings, indicated that Israel’s actions meet the treaty-based definition of genocide.[8] Amnesty International[9], Human Rights Watch[10], and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories[11] all have concluded that acts of genocide are indeed taking place.
It is with a deep sense of distress that we witness genocidal acts, grave violations of international humanitarian law and the disproportionate impact on civilians. Those targeted also include our lawyer-colleagues. According to information from the Palestinian Bar Association Gaza, close to 200 Palestinian lawyers have been killed since the start of the atrocities.[12] Moreover, the entire legal infrastructure – including the building that housed all the courts and the archives of judicial and historical documents, as well as the office of the Palestinian Bar Association – has been obliterated.[13]
For these reasons, the Human Rights Commission of the FBE urgently calls on the international community, especially European governments, to use all means necessary to enforce an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the end of the occupation of Palestine, and to demand the release of all hostages and unlawfully detained civilians including unlawfully detained lawyers. Finally, the FBE calls upon European governments to fulfil their obligations under the Genocide Convention, including the duty to prevent genocide, and to act urgently – to stop further death and suffering of the Palestinian people and to safeguard the integrity and credibility of international law before it is further dismantled.
[1] https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-28-may-2025
[2] https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-159-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem
[3] https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-170-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem
[4] https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-31-2025/volume-31-issue-2/a-roadmap-for-healing-gazas-battered-health-system.html
[5] https://www.who.int/news/item/12-05-2025-people-in-gaza-starving–sick-and-dying-as-aid-blockade-continues
[7] https://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-aid-distribution-gaza-tom-fletcher-under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief
[8] ICJ Orders of 26 January 2024, 28 March 2024 and 24 May 2024 in Case no. 192, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).
[9] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/
[10] https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/12/19/extermination-and-acts-genocide/israel-deliberately-depriving-palestinians-gaza
[11] https://www.un.org/unispal/document/anatomy-of-a-genocide-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territory-occupied-since-1967-to-human-rights-council-advance-unedited-version-a-hrc-55/
[12] https://www.facebook.com/PBAPS.GAZA
[13] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/israelgaza-un-experts-condemn-destruction-judicial-infrastructure-call?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news
