A leading expert in international law has condemned recent confessions by Israeli soldiers, admitting to the deliberate killing of Palestinians at food distribution points, as evidence of a methodical campaign of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Dr Mohammed Mehran, professor of public international law and member of the American and European Societies of International Law, said that these statements offer irrefutable proof of what he called “the most extensive organised crime in modern international law.” According to Dr Mehran, the soldiers openly admitted to firing on unarmed civilians without provocation, in acts that directly violate the Rome Statute and the Geneva Conventions.

He stressed that these killings are not isolated excesses but part of a systematic policy: starving civilians, then ambushing them at aid points. Such actions, he said, constitute war crimes and expose a calculated effort to turn basic humanitarian assistance into a weapon of terror.

Dr Mehran added that the use of mortars, grenades, and heavy machine guns against desperate, hungry civilians reflects a brutal disregard for the principle of proportionality. Statements from soldiers describing Gaza as a territory governed by its own “special laws” confirm, in his view, the existence of an apartheid system designed to strip Palestinians of legal protection and human dignity.

More disturbingly, the testimonies revealed that no internal reports are filed for these killings, a policy of impunity that violates the occupying power’s obligation to investigate and prosecute grave breaches under international law.

By targeting aid centres and criminalising hunger, Israel has crossed every red line, Dr Mehran argued. He called on the International Criminal Court to immediately act on this evidence and issue arrest warrants for military officials involved. The failure to act, he warned, will not only deepen the tragedy in Gaza, it will erode international legal norms everywhere.

For Palestinians, even a loaf of bread has become a risk to their lives. In these confessions lies not only a legal indictment, but a moral one: of a state that has turned sustenance into slaughter, and of a world that continues to look away.