In a report titled “Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,” HRW examined the Israeli authorities’ conduct.
Evidence strongly indicates that Israel’s forced displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a new report.
In a report titled “Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,” HRW examined the Israeli authorities’ conduct which has led to “this extraordinarily high level of displacement” and found those actions “amount to forced displacement.”
“Given the evidence strongly indicates that multiple acts of forced displacement were carried out with intent, it amounts to war crimes,” the rights group said.
“The report further finds that the Israeli government’s acts of forced displacement are widespread and systematic,” it continued.
Human Rights Watch report says Israeli authorities caused massive and deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. Ashraf Shannon has more from Gaza's Khan Younis pic.twitter.com/79mGKfD3xG
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) November 14, 2024
“Statements by senior officials with command responsibility show that forced displacement is intentional and forms part of Israeli state policy and therefore amounts to a crime against humanity. Israel’s actions appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing,” HRW concluded.
The rights body pointed out that since Israel is the “occupying power in Gaza,” its conduct is governed by international humanitarian law (IHL).
“Under IHL – or the laws of war – forcible transfer, which means the forced displacement of any civilian inside an occupied territory, is prohibited, and, if committed with criminal intent, is a war crime,” the organization emphasized.
Israel claims that the displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population has been justified for the security of the population and for imperative military reasons, and it has taken the requisite steps to safeguard civilians, said the body.
Mass of Evidence
However, the HRW report, based on interviews with 39 Palestinians who are internally displaced in Gaza, most multiple times, an intricate analysis of Israel’s evacuation system, the widespread destruction evidenced by satellite imagery, the analysis of videos and photographs of attacks on designated safe zones and roads and the humanitarian situation of the population, “finds that Israel’s claims of lawful displacement are largely false.”
🚨New @hrw report on war crimes + crimes against humanity in #Gaza. #Israel has committed:
– Multiple war crimes of forced displacement;
– Crimes against humanity
– Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the buffer zones + security corridorshttps://t.co/OUZqHHzYgY— Nadia Hardman (@Nadia_Hardman) November 14, 2024
The rights body said it “has amassed evidence that Israeli officials are instead committing the war crime of forcible transfer, a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and a crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
It pointed out that Israel has not evacuated Palestinian civilians in Gaza for their security, as they have not been secure during evacuations or on arrival at designated safe zones. Nor has Israel convincingly claimed that it had a military imperative for forcing most Palestinian civilians from their homes.
“Even if Israel was able to demonstrate such an imperative, its failure to ensure the security and the guarantee of protections of displaced persons as they fled and in the places to which they were displaced would still render the displacement unlawful,” said the report.
“The evacuation system failed to keep people safe and instead often served only to spread fear and anxiety,” it added.
‘Pattern’ of Destruction
Analysis of satellite imagery, the report said, shows that the damage caused by the Israeli military often appears to follow a pattern that includes aerial bombardment of areas, followed by the intervention of ground forces, and in certain instances, once a relative level of control has been achieved, “the deliberate bulldozing and razing of territory and the use of controlled demolitions.”
‘Systematic Policy’ – Israel Targeted 65 Shelters for Displaced in Gaza from August to October
“Some of this destruction appears to clearly go beyond what is militarily necessary and demonstrates an intention to systematically destroy parts of Gaza, frustrating the right to return,” said HRW.
On May 2, 2024, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimated that it would take between US$40 and $50 billion to rebuild Gaza and require an effort on a scale the world has not seen since World War II, the report said.
Agricultural Lands Razed
Satellite imagery captured on different dates from November 2023 to August 2024 that Human Rights Watch reviewed also showed that orchards, fields, and greenhouses have been systematically razed.
“High resolution satellite imagery confirms that bulldozers were used to destroy fields and orchards,” the rights body said.
Israel Destroys ‘almost 80% of Agricultural Lands’ Vital to Survival in Gaza – Euro-Med Rights Group
Education Destroyed
The report also pointed out that Israel has destroyed Gaza’s education buildings and infrastructure, “leading to permanent education loss” for Palestinian children and adults in Gaza.
The Education Cluster’s assessment also found that at least 85 percent of schools in Gaza will either need “full reconstruction” or “major rehabilitation work” to be functional again.
Over 26 Thousand Students Killed and Injured – Ministry of Health Announces
On April 18, 2024, UN experts expressed grave concern over the education loss of over 625,000 children, the pattern of attacks on schools and universities, and the killing of students, teachers and university professors in Gaza, as well as the destruction of its public libraries.
‘Systematic’ Attacks
“These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” the experts are cited as saying, according to the report.
The Israeli military bombarded buildings at Al-Azhar University in central Gaza, destroying all higher education institutions in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/lkmjeMzn2W
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) September 15, 2024
“Israeli authorities have collectively punished and forcibly transferred the majority of the population in Gaza by virtue of their identity as Palestinians,” said HRW, adding that these policies and systematic practices “box in, dispossess, forcibly separate, marginalize, and otherwise inflict suffering on Palestinians.”
“Based on the evidence set out in this report, Human Rights Watch calls for the investigation of persecution in connection with forced displacement as a crime against humanity,” the rights body stated.
Read the full report here.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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