URGENT STATEMENT
The Palestine Solidarity Alliance rings out an urgent alarm and outrage at the continued attack on Palestinians in Gaza and the rapidly deteriorating conditions in the occupied West Bank, where record levels of settler violence, systematic land theft, and the complicity of the Israeli state constitute de facto ethnic cleansing. The United Nations has warned that a broader escalation is becoming increasingly likely unless immediate measures are taken to reverse the current course.
The Gaza “Ceasefire” Is a Deception 
The international community must confront an uncomfortable truth: the so-called ceasefire in Gaza is nothing more than a diplomatic fiction that has enabled the continuation of violence under a different name. Médecins Sans Frontières has stated unequivocally that “this is not a ceasefire; it’s the same structural violence under a different name”—a continuation of the genocide, calibrated to be violent enough to keep Palestinians suffering every day, yet silent enough to avoid stirring international outrage.
The facts speak for themselves. Since the ceasefire was announced on October 10, 2025, Israeli forces have committed 3,795 violations of the agreement, resulting in the deaths of 1,168 Palestinians and injuries to 3,734 others. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that 1,207 Palestinians have been martyred and 3,914 wounded since the ceasefire took effect. According to UNICEF, over 265 children have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect. These are not isolated incidents but a daily pattern of violence—an average of one Palestinian killed or injured every hour and twenty minutes for nine months straight.
Israeli forces continue to carry out daily strikes across Gaza. Just this week, Israeli military vehicles opened heavy fire towards Khan Younis, artillery shelled the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, and Israeli bulldozers conducted land-clearing operations amidst tank fire in the Mawasi area of Rafah. In the past 48 hours alone, Israeli strikes have hit near an MSF clinic, destroyed apartment buildings housing MSF staff, and struck a funeral in Al-Nuseirat—killing eight people, including the 21-year-old son of an MSF staff member.
The confinement of Palestinians has become another weapon of war. Nearly two million people are now confined to just 30 percent of Gaza’s territory, a dramatic shrinkage from the roughly half of Gaza that Israeli forces controlled when the ceasefire was announced. The so-called “yellow line,” negotiated as part of the ceasefire under the guise of safety, has become a moving boundary that shifts westward whenever Israeli forces decide, exposing Palestinians to continued violence with impunity. Around 90 percent of people have been forcibly displaced, many multiple times, and most are living in overcrowded tents or makeshift shelters where disease is rampant.
Homes continue to be destroyed despite the ceasefire. Israeli forces continue to level homes and entire neighbourhoods east of the yellow line, while strikes continue to hit tents, shelters, and the few buildings still standing west of the line. Humanitarian aid has been weaponized—only 59,613 truckloads of aid have entered Gaza out of the 168,000 trucks that were supposed to be delivered, representing a compliance rate of no more than 35 percent.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN told the Security Council that “over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire. That calls into question the full and faithful implementation of the Plan.” The UN Deputy Special Coordinator himself stated that “near-daily casualties caused by Israeli military operations” continue and described progress on humanitarian needs as “highly insufficient.”
A ceasefire should mean weapons are silenced, people are safe from strikes, and communities can begin to heal. Instead, Palestinians in Gaza continue to be killed, wounded, displaced, and deprived of aid. The psychological wounds continue to accumulate under ongoing airstrikes and deteriorating conditions, with patients including mothers reporting suicidal thoughts. Nine months into this so-called ceasefire, the wounds of war are not only unhealed—they are still being inflicted.
China’s Chargé d’Affaires to the UN, Sun Lei, condemned the violence at the United Nations Security Council on July 28, 2026, declared that “settler violence in the West Bank is appalling, causing heavy civilian casualties and widespread destruction of homes,” noting that “the occupying power continues to accelerate settlement expansion and encroach upon Palestinian territory.” Sighting double standards, he added that the root cause of the growing crisis in the West Bank is “the lack of investigation and accountability and the persistence of impunity.”
The Genocide Unfolding in the West Bank
We are witnessing a deadly escalation that demands urgent international attention. This is not a conflict between equals; this is a powerful state enabling and arming extremist militias to dispossess an occupied population. The evidence is overwhelming, and the world must act before it is too late.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,330 incidents involving Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties or property damage have been documented since the beginning of 2026. The UN human rights office has warned that settler violence and actions tantamount to ongoing annexation of Palestinian territory have worsened significantly in the two years since the International Court of Justice ruled in July 2024 that Israel’s occupation and settlements are illegal and should be withdrawn.
UN Deputy Special Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov told the Security Council on July 28 that the situation in the West Bank is “rapidly deteriorating,” with civilian casualties, displacement, property damage, and growing insecurity across affected communities.
Israeli State Agents Are Complicit
A UN Human Rights Office report covering the 12-month period up to October 2025 documented 1,732 incidents of settler violence, compared to 1,400 in the previous reporting period. The report concluded that “settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct,” making it difficult to distinguish between State and settler violence. The report further found that longstanding and pervasive impunity is “facilitating and encouraging violence against and harassment of Palestinians.”
The same UN report found that the transfer of power from the Israeli military to civilian authorities, measures to confiscate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion, and other discriminatory policies and practices “amounted to an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence by Israel against Palestinians,” violating the international law prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid.
On July 14, Finance Minister Smotrich announced that the Israeli Security Cabinet had allocated 1.3 billion
Shekels towards the placement of temporary housing units in dozens of new settlements throughout the
West Bank. He later announced the approval for the establishment of a new settlement in the northern West Bank, where Israel had previously evacuated settlers as part of the 2005 disengagement plan. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated that all settlements, including outposts, have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law.
Immense Suffering – The Human Cost
The toll on Palestinian civilians is devastating:
- More than 3,200 Palestinians have been displaced across the West Bank in 2026 due to settler attacks, demolitions, and related access restrictions—an average of 17 people per day, double the daily average recorded over the previous three years.
- Since January, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 77 Palestinians, including 18 children. Eighteen Palestinians have been killed in incidents linked to settler attacks alone so far this year, compared with 17 in the whole of 2025.
- More than 2,300 Palestinians have been displaced across the West Bank in 2026 due to settler attacks and related access restrictions. Since January 2023, 45 Palestinian communities have been fully displaced across the West Bank due to settler attacks and related access restrictions, including nine communities in 2026.
- Israeli operations in the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams have displaced more than 33,000 people since January 2025, destroying homes, livelihoods, and essential services.
- OCHA has documented an average of six settler attacks per day in 2026, bringing the number of such incidents recorded since the beginning of 2026 to over 950 across more than 230 communities.
- Nearly 700 Palestinians in nine communities have been displaced due to settler attacks so far in 2026, including 600 displaced from the Ras Ein Al Auja Bedouin community in Jericho governorate.
- Repeated Israeli settler attacks on the Ein Samiya wells east of Ramallah damaged critical infrastructure and blocked repairs, cutting the main water supply intermittently for three days and affecting an estimated 100,000 Palestinians across eastern Ramallah governorate.
- Israeli forces have tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement and access, preventing thousands of people from reaching essential services, including emergency medical care and livelihoods.
A Call to Action: Drawing from South Africa’s History
As South Africans, we recognize these tactics. The use of military force to enforce land grabs, the displacement of indigenous populations, and the targeting of civilians to fragment communities mirror the strategies of the Apartheid regime. We see the same institutionalized injustice and the same deliberate creation of an unliveable reality for the native population. The UN report’s conclusion that Israel’s policies constitute “an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence” violating the prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid confirms what we have long understood. The international community’s failure to act echoes its shameful silence during Apartheid.
Apartheid was dismantled because the world finally said “enough.” We cannot allow history to repeat itself. The same tools that brought down the Apartheid regime—sanctions, divestment, and international pressure—must be deployed now to end this occupation.
Urgent Demands
The Palestine Solidarity Alliance calls on the South African Government and the international community to take urgent and practical measures:
- Support and establish an independent international and local investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- Impose full sanctions on Israel, especially in the arms and energy sector.
- Support the Sports, Arts and Cultural as well as Academic and medical Boycott of Israel.
- Ban the import of Israeli products and end all economic and financial dealings with the apartheid state.
- Ensure divestment by legislating to prevent all investment and funding of Israel from South African individuals and companies that supports the genocide, including the JNF.
- Activate universal jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including South Africans who served in the IDF and Genocidaires visiting South Africa.
- Support the establishment of an international protection mechanism for the Palestinian people, as urged by UN officials.
- Institute meaningful anti-bias and anti-racism education and advocacy programmes that factually reports and records the genocide in Palestine and the oppression and exploitation of humanity globally.
- Implement the 2024 International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the illegality of the Israeli occupation and settlement enterprise.
- Work to disarm settlers in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 904.
Silence Is Complicity
The Palestinian people can no longer endure the continued impunity that unjustly shields Israel. The international community and leaders of nation states must translate their legal and moral obligations into concrete and effective actions to bring an end to the occupation, ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians, and compel Israel to comply with international law.
Silence is complicity.
The Palestine Solidarity Alliance stands firmly with the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice, freedom, and self-determination. We will not remain silent while ethnic cleansing unfolds in plain sight.
Today it is Palestine. Tomorrow it could be anywhere. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We stand in solidarity, and we will not be silent.
The time for words has passed. The time for action is now.
We call on all people of conscience—governments, civil society organizations, faith communities, and individuals—to join us in demanding accountability, justice, and an immediate end to the occupation. The lives and futures of millions of Palestinians hang in the balance.
Issued by:
Palestine Solidarity Alliance 95 7th Avenue, Melville, Johannesburg info@palestinesa.co.za www.palestinesa.co.za JOHANNESBURG I July 29, 2026