States should insist on a full end to the siege, reject foreign rule, and support independent accountability efforts for Israeli war crimes
(Washington, D.C., October 9, 2025) — In the wake of the nascent ceasefire agreement in Gaza, United Nations member states should take steps to fulfil their legal obligations to permanently end Israel's occupation, including the 20-year siege on Gaza, reject placing Palestine under foreign rule, and seek criminal accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in Gaza over the past two years, DAWN said today.
"While the ceasefire agreement is a welcome-if-long-overdue step to halt Israel's savage assault on Palestinians, it does not absolve states from sanctioning Israel and ending diplomatic and trade relations with it as long as it maintains its illegal occupation and apartheid rule over Palestine," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. "Last year's UNGA resolution gave member states very specific tools they can deploy not only to compel Israel but also to end their own complicity and support for its crimes."
Genocide scholars, international and domestic human rights organizations, and UN experts have concluded that Israel's assault on Gaza constitutes genocide. In September 2024, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolutions ES-10/24 and A/RES/79/81, which followed the International Court of Justice's July 19, 2024, advisory opinion finding Israel's occupation unlawful andrequiring immediate settlement evacuation,.In July 2025, DAWN sent a memorandum to UN member states further outlining their legal obligations to end Israel's occupation, genocide, and apartheid rule, and recommended tools available to accomplish this, including expansive sanctions on Israel and its government, a termination of diplomatic and economic relations, and a complete arms embargo.
As of this writing, Palestinian groups and Israel have agreed to phase one of U.S. President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan. The first phase of the agreement calls for a halt to Israel's bombardment, an exchange of Israeli and Palestinian captives, a limited withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a dramatic increase in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Phase two envisions a further withdrawal of Israeli forces and the deployment of an international stabilization force under the rubric of a "peace council" led by President Trump.
Notably, even in its final stages, the ceasefire plan leaves Israel in control of all points of entry to the occupied territory, maintaining effective control over it. This is an unacceptable return to the pre-October 7, 2023 Israeli siege of Gaza, in place since 2006, wherein Israel restricted and weaponized the entry of food, water, fuel, medical supplies, commercial goods, and the entry and exit of people as part of a strategy of collective punishment. Such control constitutes an illegal military occupation, the International Court of Justice concluded in its July 19, 2024, advisory opinion.
U.N. member states should insist on a full Israeli withdrawal from and renewed Palestinian control over the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, combined with longer-term efforts to build a modern seaport to give Palestinians a direct connection with the outside world.
"Member states have independent legal obligations to prohibit Israel from its continued arbitrary and sinister control over what Palestinians can eat, import, or where they can travel," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, Israel-Palestine Director at DAWN. "A ceasefire should not lessen the urgency for sanctions and other bilateral steps various countries should take in response to Israel's intransigent occupation."
While the Trump plan addresses the right of Palestinians to leave and return to Gaza, it is silent about allowing foreign nationals, such as journalists, human rights investigators, and legislators, into the territory. Israel has prevented the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza for the past two years, as well as international criminal and human rights investigators. International experts are urgently needed to relieve and expand the capacity of Palestinian journalists and human rights investigators, whom Israel has systematically killed, in support of international prosecutions of crimes committed there.
The Trump administration has actively obstructed the International Criminal Court's investigations into Israeli war criminals, sanctioning the court's prosecutor and four judges. UNGA resolution ES-10/24 urged to increase their support for international accountability for war crimes and other abuses in Palestine. This should include independent war crimes investigations in their domestic legal systems, working to mitigate the U.S. sanctions against the ICC and its supporters, and instructing their respective intelligence agencies to lend their capabilities to support the ICC and other accountability efforts.
The Trump-brokered ceasefire plan also does not address the root causes of the conflict, namely Israel's illegal occupation and apartheid regimes and its obstruction of Palestinian self-determination. While the plan mentions a potential pathway to Palestinian statehood, in practice it installs an additional layer of foreign rule on top of Israel's existing military occupation with no clear endpoint or viable path to independence and self-determination.
