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By Ousman Noor
At least two petitions signed by tens of thousands of people of conscience around the world demand the immediate deployment of a multinational U.N. armed protective force to Gaza to protect the civilian population. The American Educational Trust petition demands: Deploy an Emergency Protective Force to Palestine. The Protect Palestine petition calls for Urgent International Military Protection for Palestinians.
IN GAZA TODAY, an entire population is facing annihilation in full view of the world. Since October 2023, Israel’s genocide has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians—men, women and children—while systematically destroying the territory’s infrastructure. Entire neighborhoods have been erased, hospitals and schools bombed, and the flow of food, water and medicine cut off causing mass starvation. Now, with Israel’s recent declaration of full military occupation over Gaza City, the danger of total extermination or expulsion is greater than ever.
Every diplomatic avenue has been tried and has failed. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in January 2024 that Israel was plausibly committing genocide and ordered immediate measures to halt its assault and allow aid into Gaza. Israel defied the ruling. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), shackled by repeated U.S. vetoes, has been powerless to act. Even the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli leaders in November 2024 were met with open defiance from key Western states.
It is in this vacuum—where international law is ignored and political will is absent—that the call for humanitarian and military intervention is not only justified, but legally and morally required.
Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, every signatory state has an obligation to prevent and punish genocide. The ICJ’s own rulings make it clear that this duty arises the moment a serious risk is evident—not after the crime is complete.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2005, reinforces this obligation. When a state is “manifestly failing” to protect its population—or, as in Gaza, is the perpetrator—other states have a collective responsibility to act. R2P envisions diplomatic pressure, sanctions, and, as a last resort, military intervention. We have reached that last resort.
Customary international law further supports this path. In cases of genocide, states may lawfully use force on humanitarian grounds without UNSC approval, provided the action is necessary, proportionate and a last resort. Gaza today meets every one of these criteria.
Calls for “intervention” are meaningless unless tied to concrete objectives that can actually stop the killing. In Gaza, the machinery of genocide is multilayered—cutting off food, water and medical care while destroying infrastructure and indiscriminately attacking civilians. That machinery can only be dismantled if specific steps are taken:
1. Break the Siege Completely
All land and sea borders must be opened and secured to guarantee the free, unhindered flow of humanitarian aid. International forces must ensure aid convoys are protected from attack. Without lifting the siege, starvation and disease will persist even if the bombs stop.
2. Enforce a No-Fly Zone
Airstrikes and drone attacks are the primary tools of mass killing. A no-fly zone over Gaza would immediately end aerial bombardment, removing Israel’s most devastating weapon. This is essential, not optional.
3. Blockade Israeli Ports for Weapons Imports
Israel’s ability to sustain the genocide depends on a steady flow of imported weapons. A targeted maritime blockade on Israeli ports receiving arms would cut that supply, reducing capacity for large-scale assaults.
4. Neutralize Military Infrastructure Used in Civilian Attacks
Bases, artillery positions and command centers used to target civilians must be rendered inoperable. This is not about occupation or conquest—it is about disabling the machinery of genocide.
5. Impose and Enforce a Permanent Ceasefire
Ceasefires in name only are meaningless. International forces must monitor compliance and respond to violations in real time to ensure that killing does not resume.
6. Ensure Compliance with International Law
Israel must withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territories as required by ICJ rulings and U.N. General Assembly resolutions. This is the legal foundation for any durable peace.
7. Provide Long-Term Protective Security for Palestinians
A protective presence must remain until Palestinians can exercise their right to self-determination free from military assault. Without this, any gains will be temporary.
These objectives are not mere aspirations—they are the minimum conditions required to actually stop the genocide. Until these objectives are reached, Israel’s machinery of destruction will remain operational.
Opponents of intervention often claim that UNSC authorization is indispensable. History proves otherwise.
When the Security Council was deadlocked, the Uniting for Peace resolution (UNGA 377A) empowered the General Assembly to recommend collective action—including armed force—in Korea (1950) and during the Suez Crisis (1956). These resolutions are not binding, but they have facilitated real interventions.
Even without General Assembly endorsement, states have acted in cases of genocide and mass atrocities when UNSC consensus was blocked:
The relevance of these examples is not whether one supports or opposes the specific interventions. The point is that international law and state practice show UNSC approval is not a prerequisite for action in the face of mass atrocities. In Gaza’s case, the legal and moral justification is even stronger, given the ICJ’s finding of plausible genocide and the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
There is growing discussion that the U.N. General Assembly could act under the Uniting for Peace mechanism to recommend measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza. In theory, this could be a powerful tool: bypassing the paralysis of the UNSC, rallying a majority of states and giving political legitimacy to collective action.
But there is also a real risk. Some influential states—such as France and Saudi Arabia—could seek to dilute the resolution’s language, framing it as a call for a “stabilization force” rather than a military intervention to stop the genocide. This would be a dangerous sleight of hand.
“Stabilization” implies freezing the situation in place, which in Gaza means stabilizing a reality of occupation, apartheid, siege and ethnic cleansing. Occupation should not be stabilized; apartheid should not be made permanent. A force sent merely to “stabilize” would, in effect, be complicit in entrenching the very crimes it claims to address.
If the UNGA is to provide a meaningful avenue for stopping the genocide, it must resist such dilution. A strongly worded resolution must:
Anything less would be a betrayal of the Palestinian people and a missed opportunity to demonstrate that the international system can still act decisively to protect human life.
There is no neutral ground when faced with extermination. As South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela declared, “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” That truth is sharper than ever today.
Children are starving to death in makeshift shelters. Families are wiped out in single airstrikes. Those who survive risk permanent exile if Israel’s declared occupation solidifies. Without decisive action, Gaza will be emptied—not just of its people, but of its history, its culture and its right to exist.
The moral question is no longer whether we can intervene, but whether we are prepared to bear the cost of refusing to do so.
The Protect Palestine campaign www.protect-palestine.com was launched to transform global outrage into concrete political pressure. We provide legal research, policy tools and advocacy resources to press governments into meeting their obligations under the Genocide Convention and R2P.
We are building a coalition of states that have already demonstrated political commitment to Palestinian liberation—many of which have never recognized Israel and maintain no trade ties. These nations can and must form the backbone of a multinational protective force.
With Israel’s formal declaration of military occupation over Gaza City, the risk of mass expulsion and irreversible demographic erasure is imminent. The need for military intervention is no longer a matter for future debate—it is an urgent demand of the present.
The legal case for intervention is clear. The moral imperative is beyond question. The strategic objectives are clear, achievable and essential. The precedents prove that UNSC approval is not a requirement. And if the UNGA chooses to act under Uniting for Peace, it must do so with courage, not compromise—calling for military intervention to end genocide, dismantle occupation and abolish apartheid.
When history records the events of this moment, it will note who acted and who chose to stand aside. Gaza’s survival depends on the world making the right choice—now, not after the genocide is complete.
Ousman Noor is a human rights and refugee law barrister and founder of Protect Palestine. He is co-director of the Civilian Agenda producing documentaries for peace and international disarmament. His website is <www.protect-palestine.com>. Follow Protect Palestine on X @ProtectPal.
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