In a villa in the south of Israel, near Ashdod, a party is in full swing. High-ranking police officers in uniform, far-right activists, smartphone cameras held aloft, Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's National Security Minister, is celebrating his 50th birthday. The most talked-about moment of the evening occurs when his wife, Ayala, presents him with his birthday cake: a three-tier wedding-style cake topped with a golden hangman's noose. A second, larger cake features a golden gallows erected above a map representing Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, with weapons pointed towards the Palestinian territories. The inscription, carved in sugar, leaves no room for ambiguity: \u00abCongratulations Minister Ben Gvir. Sometimes dreams come true.\u00bb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not a bad joke. This is not an isolated provocation. It is a political symbol with surgical precision, celebrating the passage, a few weeks earlier, of a law introducing the death penalty by hanging, applicable almost exclusively to Palestinians. Behind this macabre anecdote lies the structure of a power that, since October 2023, has turned a war into a humanitarian catastrophe documented by all United Nations agencies: over 100,000 Palestinian deaths, with nearly 70 % of identified victims being women and children. An officially declared famine, over 10,000 prisoners including hundreds of children, and over 300 journalists killed between October 2023 and December 2025 during Israeli military operations in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To understand the gallows cake, one must understand the man smiling at it. Ben Gvir had in his bedroom a poster of Baruch Goldstein, the terrorist who gunned down 29 Palestinian civilians in Hebron in 1994. For the future minister, Goldstein is a hero and a source of inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Decades later, Ben Gvir sits in Benjamin Netanyahu's government, heading the Ministry of National Security, the ministry that oversees the police, prisons, and the conditions of detention of tens of thousands of Palestinians. This cake is a striking metaphor for the political platform of the far right in Israel, embodied today by the newly turned fifty-year-old. He embodies a vision of Israel rejected by Yitzhak Rabin, whom his assassins had wanted to kill along with him, assassins whose disciples now sit in government. By the grace of a Prime Minister as cynical in 1996 as in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The noose is a reference to the controversial law passed by the Knesset in March, which imposes the death penalty on Palestinians accused of terrorism, a law long championed by Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party. This text, named the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law, establishes hanging as the automatic punishment for Palestinians in the West Bank. If they are found guilty of murders classified as terrorist acts by Israeli military courts, hanging is handed down following expedited proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UN human rights chief, Volker T\u00fcrk, has urged Israel to repeal this law, which he considers discriminatory against Palestinians. It should be noted that Israel has applied the death penalty only twice in its history: against an Israeli officer in 1948 and against Adolf Eichmann in 1962. The third application, should it happen, will be reserved for Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lower tier of the cake featured two firearms pointed at a map of Israel including Gaza and the West Bank, symbolising Ben Gvir\u2019s controversial gun policies, which were significantly relaxed during his tenure. The effects of this policy have been documented in numerous incidents involving armed settlers in the West Bank, some of which resulted in the deaths of Palestinians without ever leading to legal prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Toute analyse honn\u00eate exige de rappeler le contexte d\u00e9clencheur. Le 7 octobre 2023, le Hamas lance une attaque de nature terroriste contre Isra\u00ebl. 695 civils isra\u00e9liens et 71 ressortissants \u00e9trangers sont tu\u00e9s. Lors du festival de musique de R\u00e9\u00efm, 260 isra\u00e9liens sont assassin\u00e9s, certains par l’arm\u00e9e isra\u00e9lienne en application de la \u00ab\u00a0doctrine Hannibal\u00a0\u00bb. Cette derni\u00e8re est une <\/strong>secret directive of the Israel Defense Forces whose objective is to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces during combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 251 people are taken hostage, including a baby, \u00abKfir\u00bb, killed in captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Facts documented by Haaretz, an Israeli left-wing media outlet. This will be the starting point for a military response whose scale and methods are now at the heart of serious international accusations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The death toll among Palestinians has exceeded 100,000, with women and children making up nearly 70 % of the identified victims. This asymmetry in losses has raised profound questions regarding compliance with international humanitarian law. By the end of 2024, UNICEF recorded more than 80,000 Palestinian deaths, including at least 30,000 children, over 150,000 injuries, including more than 50,000 children, and over 15,000 missing persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UN Women reports that more than 50,000 women and girls were killed between October 2023 and December 2025, an average of at least 50 deaths per day over the entire period. These figures are based on data from the Health Cluster Dashboard as of 31 December 2025. However, the true figures could be much higher: many bodies remain buried under the rubble, whilst the collapse of health systems severely limits the accurate recording of casualties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By September 2025, 3,000 families had been completely wiped out, with no survivors, and 7,000 had only a single member still alive. Surnames are disappearing from Gaza's civil registry. Entire family trees have been erased, bombed, killed at point-blank range, and burnt alive. Thirst-ridden and starving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli strikes have caused widespread destruction of infrastructure: water, sewage, telecommunications, housing. Most hospitals are out of service. The UN Human Rights Office has warned against the \u00absystematic destruction of Gaza City\u00bb. Satellite imagery analysed by Amnesty International has revealed the total destruction of entire areas, documenting \u00abwanton destruction\u00bb. Virtually the entire population of Gaza, 1.9 million people, is internally displaced within the enclave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a joint assessment by the EU, the UN and the World Bank, $71.4 billion will be needed over ten years to rebuild Gaza. $26.3 billion must be mobilised immediately to restart vital services, rebuild devastated infrastructure and revive a stalled economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On 9 October 2023, right from the day after the start of the war, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza. On 2 March 2025, with the first phase of the ceasefire barely over, Israel decided to suspend all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip. All crossing points for the delivery of aid into the Palestinian enclave were closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WHO Director-General does not mince his words: \u00abThere is no need to wait for famine to be declared in Gaza to see it: starving, the inhabitants are falling ill and dying. Yet food and medicine are readily available, just minutes away, on the other side of the border.\u00bb UN Security Council Resolution 2417 (2018) explicitly condemns the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Israel is a signatory to this resolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On 22 August 2025, the United Nations officially declared a state of famine in the Gaza Governorate, due to Israel's \u2019systematic obstruction\u00ab of food deliveries. The figures are difficult to verify, but around 440 people, including 147 children, had died of starvation. UNICEF indicated in October 2025 that over 60,000 children were registered for treatment for malnutrition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the start of the humanitarian blockade on 2 March 2025, more than 60 children have died as a result of malnutrition, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry, an underestimated figure that is destined to rise. Had the situation continued, acute malnutrition would have affected nearly 80,000 children under the age of five over the following eleven months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the end of May 2025, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, tasked by Israel with ensuring food distribution, caused nearly 1,500 deaths over three months during its distributions amid chaotic conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The state of famine, declared in August during the humanitarian blockade imposed by Israel, was officially lifted in December 2025, thanks to the October ceasefire and a partial lifting of obstacles to aid deliveries. The UN Secretary-General welcomed the news, but immediately warned: \u00abNeeds are growing faster than aid can get through.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between 1 December 2025 and 15 April 2026, approximately 1.6 million people, or more than three-quarters of the enclave's population, will remain at levels of food insecurity deemed \u00abcritical\u00bb, \u00aburgent\u00bb or \u00abcatastrophic\u00bb. FAO, UNICEF, WFP and WHO warn that without a sustained, large-scale increase in food aid, hundreds of thousands of people could rapidly relapse into famine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of 5 December 2025, at least 2,000 health professionals have been killed and more than 700 aid workers, mostly Palestinian, have lost their lives in Gaza. Fifteen MSF staff members have been killed by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023, some while on duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 2025, MSF facilities are operating at over 100 % capacity, while some Ministry of Health hospitals are reaching over 200 %, notably Al-Shifa Hospital. Waiting lists for surgical operations are so long that patients often die before teams can operate on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain uprooted, living in makeshift tents pitched directly on the ground or crammed into damaged buildings, without reliable access to water, electricity, healthcare or sanitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In these catastrophic health conditions, the poliovirus resurfaced in Gaza after an absence of 25 years, in July 2024. In response, the UN and the Gaza Ministry of Health launched a two-phase vaccination campaign. Overcrowding and poor hygiene conditions in displaced persons camps are driving the spread of diseases and infestations such as scabies and lice. Accumulated waste and rubble are promoting the proliferation of rats and mice, which are vectors of serious diseases, with no rodenticides available to humanitarian workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Between October 2023 and mid-December 2025, more than 300 journalists were murdered during Israeli military operations in Gaza. At the same time, over 200 Palestinian journalists were arrested, often placed in administrative detention under arbitrary conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its 2025 annual report, Reporters Without Borders records 67 journalists killed worldwide in a year, nearly half of them in Gaza \u00abunder fire from the Israeli armed forces\u00bb. The NGO describes the Israeli army as the \u00abworst enemy of journalists\u00bb, emphasising that these are not \u00abstrays\u00bb but deliberate attacks aimed at preventing reporting from the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In one of the most documented incidents, on 7 April 2025, the Israeli army targeted a group of journalists sleeping in a tent near the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Journalist Hilmi Al-Faqaawi from Palestine Today TV was burnt alive, and nine of his colleagues were injured. One of them, Ahmed Mansour, who was severely burned, did not survive his injuries. The Israeli authorities claimed they had targeted \u00aba terrorist posing as a journalist.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel continues to impose a blanket ban on independent access to Gaza for international media, alongside excessive restrictions on the work of the media in the West Bank. Between January and May 2025, Al Jazeera was banned following the closure of its offices by Israeli forces. Released journalists described interrogations focusing on their reporting or social media posts, based on vague accusations of \u2019incitement\u00ab, \u00bbsupport for terrorism\u00ab or threats to Israel's \u00bbnational security\u00ab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n En mai 2025, plus de 10 100 prisonniers palestiniens sont identifi\u00e9s dans les prisons isra\u00e9liennes, \u00e0 l’exclusion des d\u00e9tenus de Gaza dont le nombre exact demeure inconnu. Parmi eux : pr\u00e8s de 4000 en d\u00e9tention administrative, 2000 au titre de \u00ab combattants ill\u00e9gaux \u00bb, plus de 500 enfants et autant de femmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Les d\u00e9tenus administratifs sont emprisonn\u00e9s sans proc\u00e8s ni inculpation, sur la base d’un \u00ab dossier secret \u00bb auquel ni le d\u00e9tenu ni son avocat n’ont acc\u00e8s, ce qui les prive de tout moyen de se d\u00e9fendre devant les tribunaux militaires isra\u00e9liens. Depuis 1967, au moins 50 % des hommes palestiniens ont connu la prison \u00e0 un moment de leur vie, une dimension syst\u00e9mique que plusieurs juristes internationaux qualifient d’incarc\u00e9ration de masse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isra\u00ebl est le seul pays au monde \u00e0 juger des enfants devant un tribunal militaire. D\u00e8s l’\u00e2ge de 12 ans, un mineur palestinien peut \u00eatre condamn\u00e9 \u00e0 20 ann\u00e9es de prison pour \u00ab jet de pierres \u00bb, le chef d’accusation le plus fr\u00e9quent. En moyenne, 1000 mineurs palestiniens sont poursuivis chaque ann\u00e9e devant les tribunaux militaires par les forces isra\u00e9liennes, selon Defense for Children International. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Parmi les prisonniers dont la lib\u00e9ration a \u00e9t\u00e9 envisag\u00e9e dans le cadre d’\u00e9changes, cinq n’avaient que 14 ans. La question pos\u00e9e par des observateurs : comment un gar\u00e7on de 14 ans peut-il devenir un \u00ab prisonnier de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 \u00bb ? La majorit\u00e9 des mineurs d\u00e9tenus ont \u00e9t\u00e9 accus\u00e9s d’infractions mineures, dont le jet de pierres pour un grand nombre d’entre eux. Aucun n’a \u00e9t\u00e9 condamn\u00e9 pour meurtre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n La dur\u00e9e moyenne de d\u00e9tention pour les mineurs palestiniens est de 120 jours. Dans 80 % des cas, le droit \u00e0 la pr\u00e9sence d’un avocat ou d’un parent lors des interrogatoires n’est pas appliqu\u00e9, pourtant obligatoire selon le droit isra\u00e9lien lui-m\u00eame, selon des juristes documentant ces abus. L’UNICEF qualifie les mauvais traitements subis par les enfants prisonniers de \u00ab r\u00e9pandus, syst\u00e9matiques et institutionnalis\u00e9s \u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Les t\u00e9moignages d’anciens d\u00e9tenus palestiniens recueillis par des ONG font \u00e9tat de br\u00fblures de cigarette sur le corps, de torture \u00e0 l’eau, de l\u00e2chers de chiens. Dans certains centres de d\u00e9tention, la plupart des d\u00e9tenus ne sont v\u00eatus que de couches. La m\u00e9thode dite \u00ab disco \u00bb, d\u00e9tention dans une salle avec musique \u00e0 tr\u00e8s haut volume, est d\u00e9crite par plusieurs anciens prisonniers. Elle est reconnue comme torture par les organisations internationales. D’autres t\u00e9moignages d\u00e9crivent des viols \u00e0 l’aide d’objets, des cassages de doigts r\u00e9p\u00e9t\u00e9s, des humiliations en tous genres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n En avril 2025, les autorit\u00e9s isra\u00e9liennes ont annonc\u00e9 la mort de deux prisonniers palestiniens en d\u00e9tention. Les r\u00e9sultats d’autopsie du jeune Walid Ahmad, 17 ans, mort en mars, ont \u00e9tabli que la cause principale du d\u00e9c\u00e8s \u00e9tait la privation de nourriture. Depuis le 7 octobre 2023, au moins 200 Palestiniens sont morts en d\u00e9tention isra\u00e9lienne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n C’est dans ce contexte,10 000 prisonniers, des centaines d’enfants, des morts en d\u00e9tention, des t\u00e9moignages de torture, que la loi sur la peine de mort adopt\u00e9e en mars 2026 prend toute sa signification. Ben Gvir avait publiquement d\u00e9clar\u00e9 vouloir utiliser l’ex\u00e9cution des prisonniers palestiniens comme solution \u00e0 la \u00ab surpopulation carc\u00e9rale \u00bb. Le g\u00e2teau \u00e0 la potence n’est pas une m\u00e9taphore. C’est un programme politique, coh\u00e9rent, assum\u00e9, c\u00e9l\u00e9br\u00e9 en public devant des officiers de police en uniforme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n En d\u00e9cembre 2023, l’Afrique du Sud saisit la Cour internationale de Justice d’une plainte contre Isra\u00ebl pour violation de la Convention pour la pr\u00e9vention et la r\u00e9pression du crime de g\u00e9nocide. En septembre 2025, un rapport d’une commission d’enqu\u00eate des Nations Unies a conclu \u00e0 la commission d’actes de g\u00e9nocide par Isra\u00ebl \u00e0 Gaza. Des hauts responsables de l’ONU ont estim\u00e9 que les frappes isra\u00e9liennes meurtri\u00e8res sur des zones dens\u00e9ment peupl\u00e9es s’apparentent \u00e0 des crimes de guerre.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n L’Assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale a adopt\u00e9 une r\u00e9solution approuvant l’avis consultatif de la Cour internationale de Justice sur les obligations d’Isra\u00ebl en Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n La loi antiterroriste isra\u00e9lienne de 2016 et les r\u00e8glements de d\u00e9fense de 1945 sont utilis\u00e9s pour perquisitionner les ONG palestiniennes, restreindre leurs financements et arr\u00eater leur personnel. En f\u00e9vrier 2025, un projet de loi \u00e0 la Knesset visait \u00e0 criminaliser le partage d’informations avec la Cour p\u00e9nale internationale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Les restrictions impos\u00e9es par Isra\u00ebl aux activit\u00e9s des ONG internationales compliquent encore davantage les op\u00e9rations humanitaires \u00e0 Gaza. Le Secr\u00e9taire g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de l’ONU a exhort\u00e9 les autorit\u00e9s isra\u00e9liennes \u00e0 revenir sur leur d\u00e9cision d’interdire les ONG internationales, rappelant leur r\u00f4le crucial dans les op\u00e9rations humanitaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Le 2 mai 2026, Itamar Ben Gvir sourit devant une potence en sucre. Au m\u00eame moment, plus de 10 000 Palestiniens sont d\u00e9tenus dans les prisons isra\u00e9liennes, dont 500 enfants. Au m\u00eame moment, 1,6 million de Gazaouis vivent dans une ins\u00e9curit\u00e9 alimentaire aigu\u00eb. Au m\u00eame moment, les ruines de Gaza attendent 71 milliards de dollars de reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Le g\u00e2teau \u00e0 la potence est un symbole trop parfait pour \u00eatre accidentel. Il synth\u00e9tise en un objet comestible ce que deux ans de guerre ont produit : une id\u00e9ologie d’\u00c9tat fanatique et g\u00e9nocidaire qui a transform\u00e9 l’urgence s\u00e9curitaire n\u00e9e du 7 octobre en machine \u00e0 broyer une population civile, avec la paralysie embarrass\u00e9e d’une grande partie de la communaut\u00e9 internationale totalement impuissante alors que le g\u00e9nocide d’un peuple est en court depuis pr\u00e8s de trois ans, sous les yeux du monde entier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ant\u00f3nio Guterres a d\u00e9clar\u00e9 : \u00ab Cela me brise le c\u0153ur de voir l’ampleur persistante de la souffrance humaine \u00e0 Gaza. Les familles endurent l’insupportable. \u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n Les chiffres, eux, sont d\u00e9j\u00e0 l\u00e0. L’histoire jugera. Et elle risque ne pas \u00eatre tendre avec les acteurs et les spectateurs passifs.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a villa in the south of Israel, near Ashdod, a party is in full swing. High-ranking police officers in uniform, far-right activists\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":31730,"featured_media":4249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[610,5,4,612],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-droit-international","category-international","category-mis-en-avant","category-monde-arabe"],"yoast_head":"\nCompletely disproportionate reprisals with no other objective than total destruction<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The systematic destruction of infrastructure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Famine as a weapon of war<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
the blockade: a documented political decision<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A famine averted, but still threatening<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The health system: target and victim<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Hospitals as war zones<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Journalists: a war against information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The deadliest conflict for the media in modern history<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Israeli prisons: the other front<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
More than 10,000 prisoners: mass incarceration<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Des fondements juridiques pour le moins discutables<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Des enfants d\u00e9tenus arbitrairement<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
La torture : t\u00e9moignages et documentation internationale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
La CIJ et les accusations de g\u00e9nocide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Une id\u00e9ologie d’\u00c9tat fanatique<\/h2>\n\n\n\n