Palestinian lawyers and human rights groups have spent years collecting evidence of alleged Israeli violations in Palestinian territories. The problem: the people gathering this evidence are increasingly under attack.

In May 2024, the International Criminal Court — a global court that prosecutes the most serious international crimes — took a major step. Its Prosecutor filed applications for arrest warrants against senior leaders from both Israel and Hamas, based on years of investigation. This moves the case closer to potential trials.

The evidence supporting these potential charges comes from multiple sources. Palestinian lawyer Salah Hammouri submitted documentation describing the forced removal of Palestinians from their territories. International human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International filed reports detailing abuse and displacement in Gaza. The United Nations has also investigated, with reports from April 2024 and April 2026 documenting abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody. UN investigators have also recorded specific cases, such as the arrest of a Palestinian Israeli professor in April 2024 on incitement charges.

Why the People Documenting Evidence Are in Danger

Human rights defenders working on these cases face serious threats. Front Line Defenders, an organization that tracks threats to activists, has documented harassment: authorities restrict where activists can travel, publicly stigmatize them, and make people disappear. In 2021, Israel designated six Palestinian organizations as terrorist entities. Under Israeli law, this means the organizations can be shut down, their money frozen, their staff prosecuted. These six groups had been major sources of evidence for international courts.

A UN legal study examined whether the Israeli occupation is legal under international law — a question that matters for how courts evaluate everything else.

Here is the core tension: Israel does not recognize the International Criminal Court and did not sign the treaty that created it. This means the court cannot easily arrest people in Israel. Warrants only work if suspects travel to countries that do recognize the court. This limits how much actual prosecution can happen.

But there is another, deeper problem. The very people building the evidence — the lawyers, the investigators, the activists — are being arrested, disbarred, and threatened. When the people documenting crimes are themselves under attack, a critical question emerges: will enough evidence survive long enough to reach the courtroom? The court's judges will eventually rule on these cases using whatever records have been preserved. The strength of justice depends on whether those doing the documentation could stay safe and keep their work safe.