Israel's forced displacement of Palestinians constitutes war crimes: HRW

More than 90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population has been subjected to Israel’s forced evacuation orders  

News Desk - The Cradle 

The Israeli army’s forced displacement of Palestinians amounts to a “crime against humanity,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 154-page report released on 14 November. 

The Israeli army has caused “massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians” in Gaza since the start of the war last year, the report says. 

“HRW found that forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity," it added. 

HRW said the displacement has been “conducted through serious human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.” 

It also reported 16 incidents in which Israel’s evacuation orders contained “missing or contradictory instructions.” 

“Given the evidence strongly indicates that multiple acts of forced displacement were carried out with intent, it amounts to war crimes,“ the report went on to say.

HRW’s report came the same day that the UN revealed several attempts by its workers to deliver aid to Gaza in the last two days that have been blocked or impeded by Israeli forces.

More than 90 percent of the besieged enclave’s population has been subjected to Israel’s forced evacuation orders since the start of the war. 

“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. Israel has blatantly violated its obligation to ensure Palestinians can return home, razing virtually everything in large areas,” according to HRW migrant rights researcher Nadia Hardman. 

HRW called for immediate international action against Israel, including sanctions, travel bans, asset freezes, and suspensions of arms sales and military assistance. 

In early September, Amnesty International accused Israel of the war crime of “wanton destruction,” referring to the Israeli army’s systematic obliteration of infrastructure across Gaza, including entire residential blocs, schools, and universities. 

Approximately two million Palestinians have been internally displaced by Israel’s war in Gaza. 

Tens of thousands have been expelled from their homes in Jabalia and other areas of northern Gaza in just over a month as part Tel Aviv’s siege extermination campaign in the north of the strip – which aims to transform the area into an isolated, permanent military zone. 

“There is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes,” Israeli General Itzik Cohen admitted in a media briefing last week. 

Cohen added that aid deliveries will not enter the north because there are “no more civilians left.”