She continued: “Since then, more than 5,000 people have been killed, and the lives of millions of civilians across the Middle East have been turned upside down as interconnected conflicts escalate across the region and civilians and civilian infrastructure come under attack.”
“We are witnessing a serious and continuing erosion of the global international legal order and respect for international humanitarian law,” Callamard warned. “The international community must now draw a red line: there must be a permanent and genuine ceasefire; this requires a complete cessation of armed hostilities by all parties, in all affected countries,” she declared.
The head of Amnesty International also called for investigations into all crimes and to ensure that “states and individuals are held accountable.”
On the first day of the war, US bombing across Iran included a “heinous” strike on a school in Minab. killing At least 155 people, most of them children. As Amnesty International noted, subsequent US-Israeli attacks “caused widespread destruction and damage to civilian infrastructure, including power plants, bridges, universities, schools, residential buildings, medical centres, steel plants and petrochemical facilities, endangering the lives and livelihoods of millions and damaging the environment.”
Air strikes on Iran killed at least 3,375 people and injured 25,000 others, while Israel’s renewed targeting of Hezbollah in Lebanon killed more than 2,200 people and injured more than 7,500 others. Retaliation by Iran and Hezbollah led to the deaths of at least 21 civilians in Israel, four Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank, and 29 people throughout the Gulf, including 13 US service members.
“All parties, including the United States, Israel, Iran and Hezbollah, have launched unlawful attacks that demonstrate an appalling disregard for human life, while the US president has issued brazen threats to commit war crimes and even genocide, threatening to wipe out Iran’s ‘entire civilization,’” Callamard said.
Just hours after Trump threatened genocide against Iran on April 7, the parties involved reached a ceasefire agreement on Iran, which has since been extended. Despite claims by Pakistani negotiators that the initial agreement was supposed to include Lebanon, Israel intensified its attacks on that country, killing and wounding more than 1,400 people on April 8 alone.
A truce was eventually reached in Lebanon. However, like the November 2024 agreement regarding Hezbollah’s support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip suffering from genocidal Israeli aggression, and the October 2025 agreement with Hamas in Gaza, Israel has repeatedly violated the agreement.
“The so-called ceasefire agreements reached in Gaza in 2025 and in Lebanon in 2024 clearly failed to stop Israeli attacks on civilians, with up to 765 Palestinians killed since then, almost daily air strikes and widespread destruction of civilian property in southern Lebanon,” Callamard said. Overall, Israel has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.
She stressed that “in a region plagued by long-standing conflict, with long-standing impunity for crimes under international law, and the constant threat of renewed violence, civilians cannot afford a partial, selective or short-term pause that leaves them living in fear and preparing to repeat the atrocities they suffered.”
Amnesty International described the current ceasefire agreements in the region as “fragile, temporary and threatening to collapse at any moment.”
US-Iranian talksStoppedTrump has maintained the naval blockade due to Iranian restrictions on the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz and has indicated he is ready to resume the war. Just after 4 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Trump announced to publish On his platform Truth Social, an AI-generated image shows him holding a gun, as bombs fall on what appears to be Iran, and wrote: “Iran can’t get its act together. They don’t know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They better get smart soon!”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that his country is “ready to resume the war” and is “awaiting the green light from the United States.” He vowed to launch a “deadlier” attack that would “return Iran to a dark age.”
“A ceasefire that is not accompanied by long-term solutions that protect human rights and address the root causes is nothing more than a temporary healing of a deep wound,” Callamard said. “This is especially true in Iran, where populations remain at risk of further atrocities at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s authorities, and in Lebanon, where civilians face the prospect of renewed conflict, indefinite displacement of civilians, and the destruction of their homes.”
In addition to her statements, Amnesty International said Wednesday Released A brief detailing how “people in Iran are trapped between unlawful US and Israeli attacks and deadly internal repression.” The circular stresses not only the need for a ceasefire, but also “international engagement to effectively support Iranian civil society’s calls for a rights-respecting constitution-making process.”
As Callamard summarized: “In a country suffering from the combined impact of devastating US and Israeli bombing and state massacres, the risks of atrocity crimes committed by the Iranian authorities against the people of Iran remain high. They face the risk of renewed air strikes and mass killings if the truce collapses, and the possibility of a deadly crackdown and another severe wave of killings by security forces ‘ready to go’ targeting protesters and dissidents they describe as ‘enemies.’”
“The international community must recognize that Iran’s human rights crisis and impunity, which are now exacerbated by US-Israel relations[i] She added: “The unlawful attacks and enormous suffering of civilians require a dual, people-focused diplomatic response. This means uniting efforts to investigate violations of the United Nations Charter, protect civilians, and uphold international humanitarian law, while working to prevent atrocity crimes committed by the Iranian authorities, and supporting calls from Iranian civil society for a rights-respecting constitution.” It also means creating paths to international justice, including the UN Security Council referring the Iranian situation to the International Criminal Court.
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