Study finds international humanitarian law at breaking point after 23 conflicts

An authoritative Geneva Academy study surveying 23 armed conflicts between July 2024 and the end of 2025 concludes international humanitarian law is at a "critical breaking point", saying more than 100,000 civilians were killed and that torture and rape have been committed with near impunity.

The War Watch study records particularly heavy tolls in Gaza, saying Israel "relentlessly attacked" the territory during the two-year war that began with Hamas’s 7 October 2023 assault. The research notes Gaza’s total population "fell by about 254,000 people, a 10.6% decline compared with pre-conflict estimates", and records 18,592 children and about 12,400 women killed by the end of 2025; it also says a ceasefire agreed in October 2025 was followed by hundreds more Palestinian deaths in subsequent fighting.

In Ukraine the report says "more civilians were killed in Ukraine in 2025 than in the two previous years", recording 2,514 civilian deaths in 2025, a 70% increase on the number killed in 2023. The study cites Russian drone attacks that have deliberately targeted civilians and notes millions of homes lost electricity and other utilities.

Sexual and gender-based violence is documented in almost every conflict. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo the research describes an "epidemic of such violence" perpetrated by almost all parties, with victims ranging from infants to 75-year-olds.

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