Tehran – A critical change is underway regarding the international community’s attitude towards the Gaza crisis. The nation’s coalition is moving beyond rhetoric to impose targeted sanctions on Israel.
For months, global actors have continued to reinforce symbolic, ineffective responses as they increase evidence of systematic war crimes and genocide while Israeli military operations in Gaza are said to remain unconfirmed. Now, with an extraordinary six-point programme that includes trade restrictions and arms embargo and punishment through international courts, the coalition is trying to break a long-standing cycle of immunity that will continue to live out Gaza’s merciless suffering.
This historic development unfolded at the Hague Group’s emergency summit held in Bogota, Colombia on July 15th and 16th, 2025. Representatives from more than 30 countries, including China, Brazil, Turkey and Qatar, have gathered to coordinate specific legal and diplomatic measures against Israeli actions in Gaza, where more than 58,000 Palestinians have been killed since the second half of 2023.
The Hague Group’s Bogota Conference, which stemmed from the actions of Colombia and South Africa several months before the conference, saw representatives from 12 countries take formal steps to implement a six-point sanctions and accountability plan, calling it a serious violation of international law.
A dedicated country and its measures
Countries directly committed to this plan are Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, St. Vincent, Grenazin and South Africa. Their coordinated measures include the transfer or provision of arms, the prohibition of military fuel, equipment, and double-use items to Israel, preventing Israeli ships from docking or passing through ports, and prohibiting ships from carrying military supplies to Israel.
They also pledged to prevent state funding from supporting businesses involved in Israeli occupation, pursue strict legal investigations of war crimes, and support the exercise of universal jurisdiction that allows for the prosecution of international crimes regardless of location or nationality.
Breaking the cycle of exemption
These measures represent a bold departure from inaction or selective diplomacy that has characterized many of the international responses to date. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said at the summit:
Colombian President Gustavo Petro declared the event a historic pivot, emphasizing that there should not be a nation “on the law” and condemned the availability of Palestinian life under the current state. South Africa’s Minister of International Relations Ronald Lamora also confirmed that the Hague Group was established to “advance international law in an era of immunity,” highlighting the seriousness and feasibility of coordinated national action.
The timing of these decisions is extremely important. Despite global rage, Israeli blockades and relentless artillery and ground operations in Gaza, UN authorities call it a genocide, despite the destruction of civilian infrastructure and causing humanitarian collapse. Major Western states, namely the United States and many European countries, are actively providing military supply or block accountability measures by allowing these violations to continue implicitly.
The sanctions by these 12 states, as well as the possibility of others participating within the September 2025 deadline, represent a major rupture of international consensus opposed to established geopolitical alliances led by the global South, which historically placed Israeli actions above denunciation.
Disrupt military support and enforce international law
The Hague Group has disrupt Israel’s ability to fight uninterrupted war by ending its military supply chain and using legal tools through a six-point program. Together, an embargo, restrictions on access to ports, potential cancellations of public contracts, and ongoing attempts to prosecute Israeli leaders pursued by an arrest warrant requested by the International Criminal Court will undermine the operational base of Israeli Operation Gaza.
If it is implemented and then expanded to further demonstrate the new role of the international community, perhaps, the former passive role of the international community could turn into a new role to ensure that Palestinian rights and access to justice is somehow enforced.
The order is clear as the world sees this new chapter unfolds. Only law-based, maintained and enforceable international pressure can end the immunity that perpetuated Gaza’s suffering for decades.