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In a statement given on Tuesday at the United Nations general assembly, in New York, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president, Mirjana Spoljaric, said she had seen “so much devastation” on recent visits to Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

Spoljaric warned that “respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) is in crisis” and “threatening the very humanity that these laws seek to preserve”.

The evidence is clear: hospitals reduced to rubble, civilian neighbourhoods destroyed, and innocent lives lost. Across the globe, respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) is in crisis, threatening the very humanity that these laws seek to preserve.

This is not an abstract issue. It is one that impacts millions of lives every day, and one that costs hundreds of billions of dollars to recover from.