Geneva – Israel has transformed the Gaza Strip from the world's largest 'open-air prison' into the largest 'ghetto' in history, with more than two million Palestinians isolated under the weight of an unprecedented double blockade. This combines military control over around 70 per cent of the enclave's area, forcing residents into overcrowding and depriving them of their right to housing, with the closure of crossings to systematically control the entry of basic needs. As a result, residents are trapped in a depleted area without the minimum requirements for survival amid ongoing genocide.
The comprehensive and unlawful outer blockade, enforced by closing crossings, is tightening the noose around millions of forcibly displaced people in the Gaza Strip. It entrenches systematic deprivation by preventing the entry of life-saving supplies, including food, medicine, fuel, and shelter materials. This is part of a humanitarian restriction taking place alongside the widespread destruction of homes and health facilities, depriving residents of their most basic rights and their ability to endure or receive medical care.
As for the inner blockade, the area under unlawful Israeli military control and access restrictions has expanded to cover around 70 per cent of the Gaza Strip, extending beyond military positions behind the Yellow Line and deep into populated areas. This entrenches a policy of forced displacement, denying residents access to their lands, homes, and vital facilities while forcing them into suffocating overcrowding in an ever-shrinking area, without safe shelter or any guarantees of their right to return.
Israel is deliberately concentrating more than two million people in a depleted area covering less than 30% of the Strip, creating a suffocating population density that is the highest in the world
Describing Gaza as the "largest ghetto in history" reflects an unprecedented demographic and spatial reality. Israel is deliberately concentrating more than two million people in a depleted area covering less than 30 per cent of the Strip, creating a suffocating population density that is the highest in the world. Gaza's enormous, isolated population, combined with military control of crossings and systematic deprivation of basic survival needs, creates isolation and mass destruction on a scale that makes it the largest and harshest ghetto of the modern era.
Israel is using starvation as a lethal weapon to destroy the population, in an ongoing violation and a fully constituted war crime. By deliberately obstructing food supplies and preventing fuel from entering, it has shut down desalination plants and water pumps, forcing hundreds of thousands to drink contaminated water.
This reality has led to the spread of infectious and skin diseases, as well as acute malnutrition among displaced people living without even the most basic conditions for hygiene and shelter. According to official data, 460 Palestinians, including 164 children, have died from starvation. Dozens more died in similar circumstances but went unrecorded amid the Strip's comprehensive collapse of its health and institutional systems.
Restrictions on medical evacuations are leaving tens of thousands of patients and wounded people in the Gaza Strip without the specialised care they need. Only 19 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain operational, and all are functioning only partially amid severe shortages of medicines, equipment, and fuel. Delaying the departure of patients who need urgent treatment abroad as their conditions worsen within a destroyed health system puts them at risk of preventable death.
The ongoing genocide has devastated Palestinian family structures. Around 60,000 children have lost one or both parents, and more than 26,000 women have lost their husbands. Many also face repeated displacement, loss of income, and the fear of bombardment, even inside shelters. The loss of family members, combined with the collapse of health, education, and protection services, places extreme burdens on women and children and weakens the care and solidarity networks that society relies on to survive.
The consequences of turning Gaza into a ghetto extend beyond the constant threat of death, striking at the heart of its economic and social structure and undermining the foundations of human stability. Around 1.7 million people remain displaced and cut off from their land and livelihoods. Unemployment rose to 78 per cent in 2025, while poverty spread to the vast majority of the population. Entire families have become wholly dependent on aid to survive after losing their homes and income, with no prospect of restoring their normal lives.
The policy of repeated forced displacement not only deprives Palestinians of their homes, but deliberately tears apart the social fabric and undermines the solidarity and care networks that support families in times of crisis. The burdens of supporting families accumulate inside overcrowded tents and damaged buildings amid a lack of privacy and a continuing security threat, while systematic restrictions on the entry of construction materials and access to land eliminate any opportunity to repair homes or restore livelihoods. The continuation of this reality entrenches displacement and impoverishment and fundamentally undermines any ability of Palestinian society to recover and rebuild.
Repeated displacement weighs particularly heavily on children and women. Around 700,000 children have been deprived of regular in-person schooling for nearly three years, while 91.8 per cent of children participating in consultations conducted by UNICEF said they fear bombardment.
At overcrowded shelter sites, women shoulder the responsibility of securing food and water and caring for their families, often without privacy and as health services decline. Anaemia among pregnant women reached 57.1 per cent in the first half of 2026. The constant movement between tents and damaged buildings leaves children without a safe place to learn or play, while families have no opportunity to stabilise or recover from loss.
Israel continues to violate the binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice requiring it to take all measures within its power to prevent acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention and ensure that essential services and humanitarian assistance reach Gaza's population without obstruction.
The targeting of aid workers and local aid distribution committees is accompanied by restrictions that prevent repairs to water and sewage networks. Meanwhile, untreated wastewater is flooding the environment, and diseases are spreading among displaced people. The continuation of these practices, despite knowledge of their consequences and the Court's orders, strengthens the evidence that the population is deliberately being subjected to living conditions that threaten their survival.
All states must act immediately to stop the killing, starvation, and displacement of civilians; lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip and remove access restrictions on its residents; permanently open land crossings to people and goods; and ensure the unimpeded entry of food, medicine, fuel, shelter materials, and equipment to repair water and sewage networks. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor calls for the evacuation of patients and the wounded who cannot be treated in the Gaza Strip, while guaranteeing their right to return and enabling displaced people to safely access their homes and lands.
A comprehensive ban must be imposed on the trade of weapons, ammunition, and their components to Israel. Military and security cooperation that could contribute to violations must end, alongside the suspension of trade and preferential agreements and the imposition of sanctions on those responsible for crimes. States should halt trade and investment that sustain Israel's unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, rather than simply condemning crimes while continuing to finance the means used to commit them.
It is crucial to implement the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice, support investigations by the International Criminal Court, cooperate in enforcing its two arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, and prosecute all other officials responsible for crimes based on available evidence, including in competent national courts.
Euro-Med Monitor calls for preserving evidence, providing reparations for the harm victims have suffered, and guaranteeing Palestinians' right to remain on their land, return to the places from which they were displaced, and take part in rebuilding their society. Any state that continues to arm Israel or enable it to continue these acts despite being aware of the risks exposes itself to accountability for its role.
