New Report Reveals Israel’s Deliberate Acts of Suffering by Design in Gaza

Since October 2023, over 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced. The report found that individuals have been displaced an average of six times and up to 19 times in 12 months. Forced displacement orders have been issued repeatedly, often with inadequate warning, while designated “safe zones” and civilian areas are subjected to bombardments and lack basic resources. 

Drawing on in-depth discussions with 112 people living in displacement sites across Gaza and data from 19 displacement sites hosting 32,000 people, the Suffering By Design report found that overcrowding, resource scarcity and a complete lack of privacy in displacement sites are emerging as new drivers of displacement. 

Suffering By Design provides testimonies that reveal how Gaza’s population is continuously and systematically displaced to unsafe areas that lack adequate shelter or essential services, leaving people simultaneously trapped and subjected to conditions that breach International Humanitarian Law, which mandates the protection of civilians and the provision of essential services during displacement. 

Repeated displacement—unlike single displacement—continually uproots individuals, forcing them into progressively worsening conditions. This includes cutting people’s access to essential services and basic needs such as food, medicine and water, erodes living standards, destroys livelihoods, fractures social and family networks, and has devastating consequences for mental health. 

The report reiterates the urgent need for a ceasefire as the only way to protect civilians in Gaza and end the devastating cycle of repeated forced displacement as well as adherence to International Humanitarian Law, warning that all States have an obligation to prevent genocide.  

Lilu Thapa, Executive Director for DRC in the Middle East said, "This report exposes the systematic deprivation of basic necessities and forced displacement in Gaza, actions that could constitute violations under Article II of the Genocide Convention. These deliberate policies have trapped families in relentless cycles of suffering, denying them their fundamental rights under human rights law and International Humanitarian Law. The international community must act decisively to uphold International Humanitarian Law, deliver life-saving aid, and hold perpetrators accountable—failure to do so not only enables impunity but risks complicity in these grave violations." 

Sultan, a displaced person from Gaza City said, "I have been displaced six times. My harrowing journey began on October 19th when I was forced to displace from Al Sabra to the Beach Camp, everyone fled due to heavy bombing and destruction. I witnessed scenes unlike anything I had ever seen before—people lying in the streets, body parts scattered everywhere, and we didn’t know what to do.”  

Hassan Mahareeq, Director of Lobbying and Advocacy for PARC said, - “Multiple forced displacements, the destruction of infrastructure, systematic denial of aid, and severe overcrowding in displacement sites have plunged Gaza into unprecedented levels of deprivation. Skyrocketing prices force many to sell aid to meet basic needs. Livelihoods have been devastated, with 70% of families reporting no income and small business ventures unable to survive.” 

Women’s Affairs Centre - “On top of it all, the mental health crisis is catastrophic. Civilians endure extreme anxiety, depression, and trauma due to unrelenting violence, loss, and displacement. Women, bearing the brunt of caregiving and survival responsibilities, face compounded physical and emotional burdens. Families live in unsafe shelters with no privacy, water, or sanitation. The denial of any sense of dignity is forcing people to make life-threatening choices.”