A four-day session of the Gaza Tribunal has convened at Istanbul University from 23–26 October 2025 to hear testimony and examine evidence of what participants describe as a genocidal war in Gaza, committed and sustained by Gaza Strip’s occupying power. The tribunal, chaired by Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, seeks to fill the accountability gap left by international institutions and sovereign states. 

In his opening remarks, Falk described a recent “peace deal” as less an agreement and more “threat diplomacy,” in which one side, the Palestinian resistance, was given a mere seventy-two hours to accept terms or face further devastation. He warned that such arrangements risk rewarding the perpetrator of genocide and deepening injustice rather than resolving it. The tribunal’s agenda spans three specialised chambers: international law; international relations and world order; history, ethics and philosophy.

Witnesses and scholars testified to vast destruction of civilian infrastructure and livelihoods across Gaza, hospitals, schools, water systems and entire neighbourhoods were described as deliberate targets, not collateral damage.The tribunal aims to issue a detailed moral judgment and a people’s record of the crimes committed, as a tool for future accountability efforts.