Starvation of Gaza.. Thirst in the Valleys.. and the Suppression of Lawyers in Jerusalem.. Three crimes presented to the International Criminal Court as war crimes against humanity.

SadaNews - An urgent supplement to the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court carried the phrase "systematic starvation, water denial, and legal persecution of Palestinians by Israel," and was the main title of memorandum number (26) submitted today by the international lawyers' team representing the Palestinian people to the International Prosecutor's Office and the International Criminal Court, chaired by Kuwaiti Dr. Faisal Khazal, and including Tunisians Shawki Al-Tabib, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Lawyers Union, and Akram Al-Zreibi, the team's official spokesperson, and Palestinian Suhail Ashour, former President of the Palestinian Bar Association.

According to a responsible source in the International Prosecutor's Office - who requested anonymity for professional safety reasons - the international lawyers' team today, Sunday, August 10, 2025, documented three deliberate Israeli policies that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute, namely: starvation as a weapon in Gaza, water denial in the valleys, and persecution of Palestinian legal institutions.

In a special comment from the head of the international lawyers' team, Dr. Faisal Khazal, he stated: "Deliberate starvation in Gaza is a genocidal crime, as we presented key evidence of the deaths of 212 Palestinians, including 98 children, who died due to starvation from March 2025, according to the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), until August 9, 2025. Israel has imposed a siege that closed all crossings, preventing 98% of food and medical aid from entering, according to UNRWA’s report (June 2025), and malnutrition rates among children under five have doubled according to the World Health Organization's report (July 2025). These are legal violations under the article (war crime of starvation) through the Israeli blockade that deprives civilians of essentials for their survival, and under the article (crime against humanity) through extermination by starvation, which aligns with the court’s precedent in the Al-Mahdi case regarding deliberate deprivation."

The international lawyers' team presented in the starvation segment the scientific basis for the International Criminal Court that the nutritional deficit in Gaza (less than 1200 calories/day per person) exceeds the threshold of "famine" (phase 5 according to the IPC classification), proving the intent of the crime under the standards of the Rome Statute.

Dr. Khazal continued his statement: "Water denial in the valleys is ethnic cleansing under the cover of the Israeli army, and we provided key evidence proving attacks by Israeli settlers, supported by the army, on water springs, preventing Palestinians from accessing them, and polluting water sources with animal corpses to disrupt their use. These are legal violations under the article (war crime of collective punishment) represented by targeting civilians to impose displacement, as well as the article (crime of persecution against humanity) which is the discriminatory deprivation of resources to erase the Palestinian presence."

It is known that the UN Special Rapporteur on water condemned Israel's "water separation policy" as a violation of the Geneva Conventions (common article 3) and the Rome Statute.

The head of the international lawyers' team concluded his statement: "The prohibition of the Palestinian Bar Association's work in Jerusalem is a judicial crime, as we presented evidence proving that Israel prevented the Palestinian Bar Association from operating in East Jerusalem on July 29, 2025, and interrogated the association's head to investigate his connections with the Palestinian Authority. These are legal violations categorized under (persecution of a protected group), as lawyers are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention (article 47), as well as the article (suppression of the judiciary) by undermining the right to legal representation, which violates court principles. The court's ruling in the Myanmar case (2024) confirmed that obstructing legal institutions is a crime against humanity."

Memorandum number (26) carried three requests presented by the international lawyers' team representing the Palestinian people at the International Prosecutor's Office and the International Criminal Court, who have been performing noble acts in favor of the Palestinian cause since 2023 without heed to the threats and risks surrounding them. The requests summarized to issuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials on charges of starvation, water denial, and judicial persecution, taking precautionary measures under article 57(3) to reopen Gaza crossings for the delivery of humanitarian food and medical assistance without interruption, restoring water supplies in the valley areas, protecting the West Bank, and finally condemning Israel's institutional erasure of Palestinian rights as a unique crime under the Rome Statute.