Amnesty International has requested an extensive investigation into ‘war crimes’ of “wanton destruction” and “collective punishment” allegedly committed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
In a new investigation report on Thursday, Amnesty demanded a probe of war crimes of “wanton destruction and of collective punishment” concerning Israel’s military campaign “to significantly expand a “buffer zone” along the eastern perimeter of the occupied Gaza Strip.
The organization said that Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab analyzed satellite images and videos posted by Israeli occupation soldiers between October of last year and May 2024, and “identified newly cleared land along Gaza’s eastern boundary, ranging from approximately 1km to 1.8km wide.”
It added that the images and videos showed Israeli occupation soldiers posing for pictures or toasting in celebration of the destruction behind them.
“Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighborhoods, including homes, schools and mosques,” the report read.
Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns Erika Guevara-Rosas stressed that Israel’s ruthless war on Gaza is “one of wanton destruction.”
“Our research has shown how Israeli forces have obliterated residential buildings, forced thousands of families from their homes and rendered their land uninhabitable,” Guevara-Rosas said.
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She pointed out that Amnesty’s analysis discloses a consistent pattern along the eastern border of the Strip along with the systematic destruction of an entire area.
“These homes were not destroyed as the result of intense fighting. Rather, the Israeli military deliberately razed the land after they had taken control of the area,” she added.
Amnesty’s Senior Director for Research emphasized that the establishment of a ‘buffer zone should not be on the expense of the Palestinian civilian population.
“The creation of any ‘buffer zone’ must not amount to the collective punishment of the Palestinian civilians who lived in these neighborhoods. Israel’s measures to protect Israelis from attacks from Gaza must be carried out in conformity with its obligations under international law, including the prohibition of wanton destruction and of collective punishment,” she stressed.
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The report highlighted details of the massive destruction that touched areas from north to south in the Gaza Strip while quoting a number of Palestinians in Gaza on their experience during the 11-month-old genocide.
The investigation also cited the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977 as “the principal instruments of international humanitarian law”, which “applies in situations of armed conflict, including during military occupation, is comprised of rules whose central purpose is to limit, to the maximum extent feasible, human suffering in times of armed conflict.”
Amnesty cited article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which it said “regulates the actions of Israel as the occupying power in Gaza.”
“Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations,” the report read.
The international organization revealed that it communicated with the Israeli occupation authorities on July 2 to get answers regarding the demolitions but has not as of yet received any answer.
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,878 Palestinians have been killed, and 94,454 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
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Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, Anadolu)
Shocking that used the word “allegedly!”
I ask that you remove the word “allegedly,” since the Israeli genocide has already been proven by the ICJ.