By

NIDA AWAIS

Conflict Sat 04 2026

From Gaza to Lebanon: ICC, UN, and the Unanswered Duty to Prosecute

More than a million Lebanese one‑fifth of the country’s population have fled their homes in the past weeks joining the ranks of two million Palestinians in Gaza who have been repeatedly displaced under Israeli evacuation orders. This mass movement of civilians is not the accidental by‑product of war it is the result of a recurring strategy that stretches from the camps of Gaza to the villages of southern Lebanon. The Al Jazeera article detailing Israel’s forced displacement of civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon makes a powerful case that what is being described is not mere security planning but a pattern of conduct that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Under international humanitarian law civilians cannot be forced from their homes except on strictly defined military grounds and any displacement must be temporary with the right to return guaranteed once hostilities end. Yet in Gaza and the occupied West Bank Human Rights Watch and other monitoring bodies have documented how Israel’s evacuation systems have funneled entire populations into shrinking zones under constant bombardment making return impossible. The 2025 Operation Iron Wall in the West Bank led to the expulsion of 32,000 Palestinians from three refugee camps the largest displacement in the area since 1967. In Gaza almost all two million residents were displaced many remain barred from returning even when the fighting recedes. This is not incidental collateral damage it is systematic, large‑scale displacement that violates the core principles of the Geneva Conventions.

Now similar tactics are appearing in Lebanon. Israeli evacuation orders cover significant portions of southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut affecting predominantly Shia communities and roughly 15 percent of the country’s territory. The Al Jazeera piece notes that more than a million people have been driven from their homes camping along the coastline of Beirut a site that has itself been hit by recent Israeli strikes. The declared intention matters as much as the facts on the ground when Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz publicly states that displaced Shia residents of southern Lebanon “will not return” until Israel’s northern communities feel secure, the language shifts from temporary safety to permanent exclusion. That formulation grounded in religious and geographic identity raises the spectre less of tactical necessity than of politically driven ethnic restructuring.

Within this context the role of the International Criminal Court and the United Nations becomes central and deeply troubling. The ICC has opened investigations into alleged war crimes committed in Palestine including forced displacement, attacks on civilians, and the use of starvation as a method of warfare. Yet, despite these efforts no senior Israeli officials have faced real legal consequences. The court’s jurisdiction is strong in principle but its power is hollowed out by political resistance from major states that shield Israel from arrest warrants and sanctions. The result is a court that signals accountability but fails to enforce it offering symbolic gestures instead of concrete deterrence.

The UN’s record is similarly inconsistent. UN experts have repeatedly warned that Israel’s displacement policies in Gaza and the West Bank resemble war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some UN mechanisms have highlighted the deliberate nature of this displacement and the systematic prevention of return. Yet the Security Council bound by the veto power of permanent members has not adopted binding resolutions that would compel compliance or sanctions. Strong statements are issued follow‑up actions are watered down or blocked. For displaced Lebanese and Palestinians, the gap between rhetoric and reality is the distance between the promise of international law and the reality of impunity.

Critics will argue that Israel faces asymmetric threats from armed groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and that evacuation orders are necessary to protect its own population from rocket attacks and infiltration. There is no doubt that states have a right to self‑defense but that right does not extend to the mass long‑term expulsion of civilians or the denial of their right to return. Human Rights Watch has shown that Israel’s evacuation corridors have often led civilians directly into areas under bombardment and that the authorities have not genuinely explored alternative measures that would protect both civilians and security. When displacement is so large‑scale so long‑term and so explicitly tied to permanent non‑return it ceases to be a security tactic and becomes a policy of collective punishment.

From Gaza to Lebanon, Israel’s strategy of forced displacement reveals a dangerous pattern: territories are reshaped not only by concrete and tanks but by the quiet erasure of entire communities. The International Criminal Court and the United Nations have the legal tools and the moral responsibility to confront this pattern. Yet, year after year, they fail to translate investigation and commentary into prosecution and enforcement. If the ICC and the UN continue to defer to political convenience the message is clear for some states, war crimes can be committed with impunity and for millions of displaced civilians the law offers only empty promises.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of ICEP.