Israel is guilty of crimes against humanity. That’s the conclusion of a comprehensive report on the ethnic cleansing in the northern Gaza released Thursday in New York by Human Rights Watch. The investigation, “Hopeless, Hungry, and Besieged,” is based on dozens of interviews with residents who were expelled from the north along with extensive documentary evidence.
Although “Israel claims the displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population has been justified for the security of the population and for imperative military reasons” and that “it has taken the requisite steps to safeguard civilians,” the truth is that the army’s actions constitute a blatant violation of international law, the report said.
Officials in Israel claim that since armed Palestinian organizations are fighting from among the civilian population, the army evacuated civilians so that it could attack fighters and destroy the organizations’ infrastructure, such as tunnels, while minimizing the damage caused to civilians – and therefore the mass displacements are legal.
But the report – based on interviews with expelled Palestinians, a complex analysis of Israel’s evacuation methods, examination of the extensive destruction documented in satellite photographs and videos, evidence of Israeli military attacks on areas and routes that were defined as safe, and on the humanitarian situation of the population – shows that “Israel’s claims regarding legal displacement are false to a large extent.”
“The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation,” Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW, said when releasing the report. “Israel has blatantly violated its obligation to ensure Palestinians can return home, razing virtually everything in large areas.”
HRW says it has gathered sufficient evidence to conclude that Israeli officials are 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).”
There is no doubt, the organization argues that Israel did not evacuate Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip for their safety, since their safety has not been maintained – neither during the process of removal nor upon arrival in areas designated as safe.
It says the Israeli government also has not presented convincing arguments that it had a necessary military need to force the majority of Palestinian citizens to leave their homes. “Even if it could prove such a need, the displacement was still illegal,” however, “due to Israel’s failure to protect the displaced” both during their forced removal and upon their arrival to other locations.
Not only were Israel’s “evacuation methods” not keep the people safe, the process was actually used to sow further fear and anxiety. Evacuation orders were inconsistent and imprecise, and many times they were not delivered to the citizens in a time that would have left them sufficient time to escape, or they were not delivered at all.
It should be emphasized, HRW said, that “designated evacuation routes and safe zones were repeatedly attacked” by the occupation army.
Instead of meeting its obligations and providing basic means to guarantee access to food, water, sanitation and health services, Israel took steps to prevent their supply or to severely limit humanitarian aid.
Furthermore, under international law, Israel is obligated to actively facilitate the return of displaced persons to their homes in areas where hostilities have ceased, “but it has instead rendered large parts of Gaza uninhabitable.” Deliberate demolition of civilian infrastructure, including schools and religious and cultural institutions has been standard Israeli policy.
The army is also establishing what appear to be permanent buffer zones – secure areas of land that have been emptied of their residents at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and which Palestinians will probably not be allowed to enter – permanently blocking the return of those who lived there.
HRW called on prosecutors with the International Criminal Court to investigate the forcible displacement of Gazans and the denial of the right of return by the Israeli authorities as a crime against humanity.
It also called on “all governments to publicly support the ICC and uphold the court’s independence, and publicly condemn efforts to intimidate or interfere with its work, officials, and those cooperating with the institution.”
Above all, it demanded Israel “urgently and immediately end the mass and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.”
The full Human Rights Watch is available in English, with summaries published in Hebrew and Arabic.
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