| Prepared by: Yaman Midani, Polona Florijancic, and Henriette Willberg
Overview
On 20 October 2025, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, published her latest report entitled “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime”. The report finds that the ongoing genocide in Gaza constitutes a collective crime, enabled and sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have long supported and protected Israel’s systemic violations of international law. Underpinned by colonial narratives, their provision of sustained military, economic, and diplomatic assistance have facilitated these atrocities, leading to a widening divide between governments and their populations.
The report identifies and examines four key sectors in which Third States provide aid and assistance to Israel’s unlawful occupation and its genocide of the Palestinian people:
- Diplomatic and political actions: Third States have shielded Israel from international accountability, reproducing its narratives, defending its policies in multilateral fora and failing to take concrete political measures, beyond symbolic gestures, which were required to bring an end to Israel’s crimes and violations.
- Military ties: Third States have continued to supply Israel with weapons, intelligence and operational support that provide the means of destruction in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.
- Weaponisation of Humanitarian aid: Third States have facilitated the deterioration of conditions of life in Gaza, enabling or failing to prevent the weaponisation of aid, attacks on humanitarian infrastructure and actors, and the imposition of a blockade that caused famine, mass casualties, and forced displacement.
- Economic and trade relations: Third States have maintained, and in some cases increased, trade, investment and financial relations with Israel, including the supply of dual-use goods, military technologies, fuel, and critical infrastructure, thereby sustaining its economy, occupation, and ongoing acts of genocide.
The Special Rapporteur stresses that the credibility of the international rule of law now hinges on whether States confront this complicity, fulfil their legal obligations, and ensure accountability and justice for serious breaches of international law, including the perpetration of genocide and the failure to prevent it. The repeated failure of Third States to hold Israel accountable reveals what the Special Rapporteur calls “the flagrant double standards of the international community” (para 4).
The Special Rapporteur concludes that Israel’s unlawful occupation and the ongoing genocide in Gaza are being sustained by an abject failure of Third States to abide by their longstanding obligations, often combined with their direct support, rendering these atrocities an “internationally enabled crime” (para 2). Since October 2023, Israeli violence has escalated sharply, while powerful States have continued to provide diplomatic, military, economic, and humanitarian-related support that legitimises, equips, and financially sustains the genocide. |
