(May 11, 2026)
Millions of people around the world are demanding that their leaders act to stop Israel’s violations. Humanity must win.
Archiv: Amnesty International (organization)
Suspend EU-Israel Trade Agreement
Israel is committing heinous violations of international law against Palestinians and in Lebanon with impunity, and has just adopted a death penalty law targeting Palestinians. The European Union (EU) is Israel’s biggest trading partner, and must take concrete action. Italy and Germany can sway the decision to suspend the EU-Israel trade agreement. Send a message and demand Giorgia Meloni and Friedrich Merz stop greenlighting Israel’s genocide, unlawful occupation and apartheid.
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Send a message and demand the leaders of Germany and Italy support suspending the EU’s trade agreement with Israel. There is no time to lose.
Red lines not red carpets: Why Italy & Germany must support suspending EU-Israel Agreement
(May 11, 2026)
Millions of people around the world are demanding that their leaders act to stop Israel’s violations. Humanity must win.
Red lines not red carpets: Why Italy & Germany must support suspending EU-Israel Agreement
Millions of people around the world are demanding that their leaders act to stop Israel’s violations. Humanity must win.
EU: Failure to suspend EU-Israel Association Agreement shows contempt for civilian lives
(April 21, 2026)
Reacting to the EU’s failure to call for a vote to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement or to agree on any other concrete measures today at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns said:
“At this point, the EU’s decision to maintain its trade agreement with Israel represents a moral failure and illustrates brazen contempt for civilian lives, particularly in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and in Lebanon.
“One million people in Europe, more than 75 NGOs, almost 400 former diplomats, UN experts as well as Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia and Spain have all called for the immediate suspension of the agreement. Once again, these calls have been disregarded with Germany and Italy playing a key role in blocking the suspension.
Suspend EU-Israel Trade Agreement
Send a message and demand the leaders of Germany and Italy support suspending the EU’s trade agreement with Israel. There is no time to lose.
Global: European states must retract outrageous attacks on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese
(February 13, 2026)
“It is reprehensible that ministers in Austria, Czechia, France, Germany and Italy have attacked the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, based on a deliberately truncated video to misrepresent and gravely misconstrue her messages – as is clear from watching her original address in its entirety.
“The ministers that have spread disinformation must act beyond merely deleting their comments on social media – as some have done. They must publicly apologize and retract any calls for Francesca Albanese’s resignation. Their governments must also investigate how this disinformation happened with a view to preventing such situations.
“If only these ministers had been as loud and forceful in confronting a state committing genocide, unlawful occupation and apartheid as they have in attacking a UN expert. Their cowardice and refusal to hold Israel accountable stand in stark contrast to the Special Rapporteur’s unwavering commitment to speaking truth to power.
Shipwrecked or Not, All These Bombings are Murder
(December 5, 2025)
“Intercepting purported drug boats is a law enforcement operation, subject to policing standards derived from international human rights law, which holds that all people have the rights to life and a fair trial and only allows states to use lethal force when an imminent threat to life exists and less extreme means, like capture, are insufficient.
“A state intentionally killing someone outside those circumstances is committing an extrajudicial execution, a form of murder, no matter what crime the person is alleged to have committed.”
‘All of Them Constitute Murder,’ Amnesty Says of Trump Boat Bombings
Human rights organization Amnesty International is cautioning critics of the Trump administration’s boat-bombing spree against getting bogged down in the precise details of each individual strike if it means losing sight of the bigger picture.
Daphne Eviatar, director for security and human rights for Amnesty International USA, said on Friday that it would be a mistake to merely condemn the Trump administration for launching a double-tap strike aimed at killing shipwrecked survivors of an initial attack, because the entire campaign of bombing vessels based on the suspicion that they are carrying illegal narcotics is unlawful.
Germany: Resumption of arms transfers to Israel reckless, unlawful and risks complicity in Israel’s international crimes
(November 24, 2025)
“Germany’s decision to lift its partial suspension of weapons shipments to Israel is reckless, unlawful and sends entirely the wrong message to Israel: that it can continue committing genocide, war crimes, and apartheid against Palestinians and unlawfully occupy the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza without fear of consequence.
“Germany is one of Israel’s major arms suppliers. The partial and long overdue suspension of arms transfers by Germany was one of the few forms of meaningful pressure applied by the international community to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“Now is absolutely not the time to ease this pressure. On the contrary, this is the time to ensure that Israel stops its violations of international law, including its unlawful occupation as indicated by the International Court of Justice in July 2024 and agreed by the UN General Assembly. Regrettably, with this move, Germany is going down a dangerous path that must be immediately reversed and must not be followed by other states.
Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza continues unabated despite ceasefire
In December 2024 Amnesty International issued an extensive study concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza arguing that Israel had carried out three acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, including killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.
Today despite a reduction in scale of attacks, and some limited improvements, there has been no meaningful change in the conditions Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza and no evidence to indicate that Israel’s intent has changed.
“Israel has inflicted devastating harm on Palestinians in Gaza through its genocide, including two years of relentless bombardment and deliberate systematic starvation. So far, there is no indication that Israel is taking serious measures to reverse the deadly impact of its crimes and no evidence that its intent has changed. In fact, Israeli authorities are continuing their ruthless policies, restricting access to vital humanitarian aid and essential services, and deliberately imposing conditions calculated to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard.
At least 347people, including 136 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire was announced on 9 October. Israel continues to restrict access to critical aid and relief supplies, including medical supplies and equipment necessary to repair life-sustaining infrastructure, violating multiple orders from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to ensure that Palestinians have access to humanitarian supplies, in the case brought by South Africa to prevent Israel’s genocide. In January 2024, the ICJ found that Palestinians’ rights under the Genocide Convention, namely their survival were plausibly at risk.
The objective probability that the current conditions would lead to the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza persists, particularly considering the enhanced vulnerability of the population to sickness and spread of disease following months of famine caused by years of unlawful blockade and months of total siege earlier this year. This has created circumstances that would lead to a slow death of Palestinians resulting from the lack of proper food, water, shelter, clothing or sanitation.
Israel‘s genocide in Gaza continues as Palestinians face ‚slow death‘, Amnesty says
Ceasefire violations by Israel, no housing, destroyed farmland and ongoing sea blockade are intended to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, report says
As the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla – the largest initiative of its kind – is expected to enter a high-risk zone in the Mediterranean where Israeli forces may attempt to intercept it as they did before.
The flotilla, carrying urgently needed food, medicine, and humanitarian supplies, set sail after nearly two years of Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and 18 years of an illegal blockade that has left Palestinians in Gaza deliberately starved and deprived of essentials, as part of Israel‘s ongoing unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory.
The persistent inaction of states in the face of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has forced activists from across the world to take peaceful measures to break the siege.
States have a responsibility to guarantee the flotilla’s safe passage. They must step up pressure to protect the flotilla and demand an end of Israel‘s genocide, and of its unlawful blockade once and for all.
It Is Genocide
Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.
But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Many legal experts have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have reached the same conclusion, as have international groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Just yesterday, an independent commission of experts appointed by the United Nations echoed this finding. These experts concluded that: “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
I agree.
Global: Amnesty’s Secretary General calls for robust response to urgent human rights challenges at UN General Assembly
“There are immediate litmus tests that we are failing, and the cost is counted in millions of lives, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. How to stop Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. It cannot be business as usual while Israel deliberately starves and annihilates a population before our very eyes. We need rock-solid political will to end this hellish nightmare, with states applying robust diplomatic and economic pressure on Israel to end its unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory – just as the UN General Assembly mandated in a resolution 12 months ago – and stop the genocide and its cruel system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights Israel controls.”
On September 18, Amnesty International will publish research naming 15 major US, Chinese, Spanish, South Korean and Israeli firms that are contributing to or directly linked to Israel’s crimes under international law. The briefing will contain detailed calls on states and companies to uphold their obligations and responsibilities under international law and standards.
EU-Israel: Refusal to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement is a ‘cruel and unlawful betrayal’
(July 15, 2025)
Reacting to the EU’s decision not to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Agnès Callamard Amnesty International’s Secretary General said:
“The EU’s refusal to suspend its agreement with Israel is a cruel and unlawful betrayal – of the European project and vision, predicated on upholding international law and fighting authoritarian practices, of the European Union’s own rules and of the human rights of Palestinians.
This will be remembered as one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU’s history.
Israel/OPT: New testimonies provide compelling evidence that Israel’s starvation of Palestinians in Gaza is a deliberate policy
The struggle for basic needs extends beyond food. Diapers are unattainable, forcing S to tear her clothes for makeshift ones, which are impossible to wash due to lack of clean water – the result of the destruction or severe damage of Gaza’s water and sanitation systems. The tent in which she lives with her husband and two children is infested with rats, mosquitoes and cockroaches. Her baby daughter developed a bacterial skin infection, which she is unable to treat because antibiotics and ointments are unavailable.
Humanitarian workers at two organizations who spoke to Amnesty International on condition of anonymity mentioned that their organizations’ requests to bring in antibiotics were rejected by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit at Israel’s Ministry of Defense tasked with processing requests for the coordination and approval of entry of supplies.
The mental harm of starvation, including trauma, guilt, and shame, are also shared by pregnant women interviewed by Amnesty International. Hadeel, 28, a four-months pregnant mother of two, described her fear for her fetus as she barely feels its movement or heartbeat inside her. She feels guilt for her pregnancy, knowing that she cannot feed herself: “I fear miscarriage, but I also think about my baby: I panic just thinking about the potential impact of my own hunger on the baby’s health, its weight, whether it will have [birth defects], and even if the baby is born healthy, what life awaits it, amidst displacement, bombs, tents…”
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Aziza, 75, told Amnesty International of her wish to die:
“I feel like I have become a burden on my family. When we were displaced, they had to push me on a wheelchair. With toilet queues extremely long in the camp where we stay, I need adult diapers, which are extremely expensive. I need medication for diabetes, blood pressure and a heart condition, and have had to take medicine which has expired. I always feel like these young children, they are the ones who deserve to live, my grandchildren. I feel like I’m a burden on them, on my son.”
EU-Israel: Refusal to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement is a ‘cruel and unlawful betrayal’
Reacting to the EU’s decision not to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Agnès Callamard Amnesty International’s Secretary General said:
“The EU’s refusal to suspend its agreement with Israel is a cruel and unlawful betrayal – of the European project and vision, predicated on upholding international law and fighting authoritarian practices, of the European Union’s own rules and of the human rights of Palestinians.
This will be remembered as one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU’s history.
UN urged to take legal action at ICJ to uphold Francesca Albanese’s immunity
(today / July 11, 2025)
Agnes Callamard, head of the world’s leading human rights organisation Amnesty International and a former special rapporteur, said the UN should act to shield Albanese from the impact of sanctions.
“I think what is more likely to have an impact is other governments, including Albanese’s own government and the EU to take a very strong stand against the sanctions,” she told Middle East Eye.
“But we cannot let the UN off the hook, and we do need to demand that it responds to the attack.”
Guterres‘s spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Thursday denounced the sanctions as “unacceptable” but did not outline concrete measures that will be taken to protect Albanese.
USA: Sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese are a disgraceful affront to international justice
(July 9, 2025)
“Following the recent sanctions against the International Criminal Court, the measures announced today are a continuation of the Trump administration’s assault on international law and its efforts to protect the Israeli government from accountability at all costs. They are the latest in a series of Trump administration policies seeking to intimidate and silence those that dare speak out for Palestinians’ human rights. Instead of attacking the Special Rapporteur and further undermining the rule-based order, the US government should focus on putting an end to its unconditional support to Israel, enabling total impunity for its crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“States must forcefully reject these disgraceful, vindictive sanctions and exert maximum diplomatic pressure on the US government to reverse them. The United Nations must also fully support her as an independent UN expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. Governments around the world and all actors who believe in the rule-based order and international law must do everything in their power to mitigate and block the effect of the sanctions against Francesca Albanese and more generally to protect the work and independence of Special Rapporteurs.”
Gaza: Evidence points to Israel’s continued use of starvation to inflict genocide against Palestinians
(July 3, 2025)
Susan Maarouf, a nutritional expert at the Nutrition unit in the Patient Friend Benevolent Society hospital in Gaza City, supported by the organization MedGlobal, said that in June 2024 the hospital opened a dedicated department for children aged six months to and five years to manage cases of severe malnutrition.
“Back then, Gaza City and the North Gaza governorate were hit by malnutrition [as a result of the tight blockade]. But this year for us the situation began to drastically get worse again in April. Since then, out of approximately 200-250 children we have screened daily for malnutrition. Nearly 15% showed signs associated with severe or moderate malnutrition,” she said.
In the worst cases visible signs include pale skin, falling hair and nails, and alarming weight loss. She expressed the profound helplessness of offering nutritional advice amid severe shortages of food, with fruit, vegetables and eggs only available at exorbitant prices, if at all: “In an ideal world, I would recommend the parents to provide the child with nutritious food, rich with protein. I would advise that they maintain a hygienic environment for their children; I would stress the importance of clean water… In our situation… any recommendation you give … sometimes you feel like you are rubbing salt into these parents’ wounds.”
Dr. Maarouf described the relentless cycle of malnutrition stating that in some cases children were re-hospitalized after being discharged:
“We treated one little girl, aged six, for nutritional edema, she had severe protein deficiency when she came in early May; with the treatment we gave her she showed signs of improvement, including gaining weight, becoming livelier… unfortunately she was recently admitted again because her condition relapsed. Like most families in Gaza, her family is displaced; they live in a tent; they have to rely on the lentil or rice they get from the community kitchen. It’s a cycle. With no aid getting in, you feel like as a hospital you only patch up the wound but eventually it will burst again.”
Doctors have also warned that the lives of newborn babies are at risk amid acute shortages of baby formula milk, especially for children with lactose-intolerance or other allergies.
One doctor said: “There is a milk crisis in Gaza overall. Also, we notice that new mothers, because they themselves are not eating properly or because of the panic, trauma and anxiety, are unable to breastfeed. So, to secure baby formula at all is a struggle. But if your child has allergies, it’s almost impossible to find special formula in any of Gaza’s hospitals for infants the failure to secure special baby formula can be a death sentence.”
At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Dr. Wafaa Abu Nimer confirmed the dire situation, reporting that by 30 June 2025, 9 children were still being treated for malnutrition-related complications at her facility alone. She described the scenes they have witnessed over the past two months as “really unprecedented” with severe cases of nutritional edema or marasmus, muscle wasting. She also said that some are additionally suffering from injuries due to explosions from which they have not recovered.
Dr. Abu Nimer said that since Israel’s new aid distribution scheme began there has been no signs of improvement in the situation with hundreds of children screened for malnutrition on a daily basis in their pediatric emergency room. Mass displacement orders issued to the Khan Younis governorate in May made Nasser hospital out of reach for thousands of displaced families.
Dr. Abu Nimer described to Amnesty how the impact on children extends beyond the physical. “One girl whose hair fell out almost completely as a result of nutritional edema, kept asking me ‘doctor, will my hair grow again? Am I [still] beautiful?’ Abu Nimer said. “Even if these children recover completely, the scars will always remain with them. Medically we know that malnutrition amongst infants and small children may have long-term cognitive and developmental effects, but I don’t think enough attention is being given to the mental health and psychological impact [of starvation and war] on children and parents.”
She also conveyed the exhaustion felt by medical staff: “We as doctors are also exhausted, we are malnourished ourselves, most of us are also displaced and live in tents, yet we do our best to offer medical care, provide nutrient supplements and as much support as we can. We try to save lives, we try to alleviate the suffering, but there is very little we can do after discharge.”
EU/Israel: ‘Timid’ review of EU-Israel Association Agreement a ‘greenlight to Israel’s genocide’
(June 23, 2025)
“Member states in favour of suspending the agreement must use all their diplomatic weight to ensure that opponents of the suspension, including Germany, fully understand the risk of complicity and the cruel toll on Palestinian lives of continued EU inaction. If the EU fails to live up to these obligations as a bloc, and seeks to shield itself from its clear legal obligations, its member states must unilaterally suspend all forms of cooperation that may contribute to violations of international law.”
Urgent need to protect civilians amid unprecedented escalation in hostilities between Israel and Iran
“Instead of cheering on one party to the conflict over another as if civilian suffering is a mere sideshow, states must ensure the protection of civilians. Preventing further suffering must be the priority – not the pursuit of military or geopolitical goals.
“Both Israeli and Iranian authorities have time and again demonstrated their utter disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law, committing grave international crimes with impunity.
“The world must not allow Israel to use this military escalation to divert attention away from its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, its illegal occupation of the whole Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and its system of apartheid against Palestinians.
“Likewise, the international community must not ignore the suffering that decades of crimes under international law by the Iranian authorities have inflicted upon people inside Iran, that is now being compounded by relentless bombardment.”
Israel committing ‚live-streamed genocide‘ in Gaza, says Amnesty International
Human rights organisation Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a „live-streamed genocide“ against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.
In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with „specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide“.