RECOGNITION OF THE STATE OF PALESTINE ALONE WILL NOT SAVE LIVES: A CALL FOR IMMEDIATE AND MEANINGFUL ACTION IN PALESTINE

September 30, 2025. Istanbul.

As world leaders gathered in New York for the UN General Assembly (UNGA) 80^th session high-level week, and with an increasing number of states formally recognizing the state of Palestine, Médecins du Monde International Network reminds UN Member States that recognition alone is not enough to end the destruction and suffering of the Palestinian population. We call on Member States to fulfill their obligations under international law and urgently intervene to stop what the UN commission concluded as genocide in Gaza.

For three decades, Médecins du Monde has been leading humanitarian and development programmes to improve access to healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory. Since October 2023, we have witnessed ever increasing attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, and obstructions to humanitarian aid that are decimating Palestinian life. Our own premises and clinics were repeatedly attacked, while our medical personnel are both witnesses and victims of mass atrocities and blatant violations of international humanitarian law.

90 percent of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been forcibly displaced, many of them several times, confining them in an overcrowded, extremely restricted, and uninhabitable area. Israeli authorities have obstructed the access and delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid, weaponizing the deprivation of fundamental needs, while imposing a militarized aid distribution scheme that has proven to be a deadly trap. We have seen malnutrition worsen over months, building up to the current famine, employing starvation as a weapon of war.

Now, the Israeli army is advancing towards the total destruction and control of Gaza City, just as it has done in Rafah a few months ago, subjecting the entire famine-stricken city to forcible displacement orders. While in the West Bank, the Israeli authorities are responding to states’ symbolic recognition with unabashed action by approving more settlement plans and annexation of the Palestinian land, settler violence and movement restrictions increase daily.

Recognizing the state of Palestine will not spare Palestinians of their suffering. What is left of Palestine to be recognized if States are not acting to stop the destruction of its people? How does recognition uphold human dignity and rights when Palestinians are forced to eat animal food to survive? When they cannot access healthcare because facilities are lacking and too often targeted?

We call on Member States to fulfill their obligations under international law and urgently intervene to stop what the UN commission concluded as genocide in Gaza.

• Member States must focus on taking concrete measures as mandated under the Genocide Convention, and the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures orders and Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 and subsequent UNGA resolution ES-10/24 demanding Israeli authorities to allow unrestricted humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, end its illegal occupation within a year and evacuate its settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli hostages and unlawfully detained Palestinians must be released.

We urge states not to lose sight of the most urgent priority: saving lives by employing every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to force Israeli authorities to stop attacks against civilians, allow unrestricted humanitarian access, abandon any annexation plans of the occupied Palestinian territory and ensure the realization of the Palestinian people’s rights.

Recognition is futile without ending massacres.

Cover photo ©Anadolu Agency