ISTANBUL

France’s National Court of Asylum has ruled that Palestinian nationals from Gaza who are not under the United Nations protection may be granted refugee status under the 1951 Geneva Convention, citing the conduct of Israeli military operations in the enclave.

“By a decision of 11 July 2025, the Court ruled that Palestinian nationals from the Gaza Strip who are not protected by the UN may be granted refugee status under the 1951 Geneva Convention due to the methods of warfare used by Israeli forces since the end in March 2025 of the ceasefire concluded on 19 January 2025,” the court said in an official statement.

The ruling came in response to an application for international protection filed by a woman and her minor son from northern Gaza. They had initially been granted subsidiary protection but were later granted full refugee status under the Geneva Convention.

Previously, only Palestinians covered by the mandate of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) could be considered for refugee status in France under specific conditions.

This decision marks the first time Gazans outside that UN framework have been granted such status, setting a precedent.

The court said Israeli forces exert “substantial” control over Gaza and found that the methods of warfare employed – causing widespread harm to civilians, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and a deepening humanitarian crisis – amount to acts of persecution.

“The Court grants refugee status to a mother and her minor son, stateless Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip, on the grounds that they have a well-founded fear, if they return to that territory, of being personally persecuted, on account of that ‘nationality’, by the Israeli armed forces which control a substantial part of that territory,” the statement added.