Israeli soldiers on the ground in the Gaza Strip, November 14, 2024. (Credit: Photo by Israeli Army/AFP)
A U.N. special committee declared on Thursday that Israel's warfare methods in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.” Concurrently, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the repeated forced displacement of Palestinians in the region constitutes a crime against humanity.
When contacted by AFP, Israeli authorities had not responded to these accusations as of late Thursday afternoon.
In a report covering the period from Oct. 7, 2023, the onset of the war triggered by the deadly attack of Hamas against Israel, to July 2024, the U.N. special committee expressed alarm over "mass civilian casualties" and "using starvation as a method of war."
The committee said “Israel’s siege, blocking of aid, and targeted attacks and killing of civilians, despite U.N. and International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders, was intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury.”
Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", according to this U.N. special committee, created in 1968 and responsible for investigating Israeli practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, conquered the previous year by Israel (West Bank and Gaza Strip).
This is not the first time Israel has faced such accusations since the war began over a year ago.
The report, scheduled for presentation to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Monday, asserts that Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza will have long-term consequences.
“By destroying vital water, sanitation and food systems and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come,” the committee said.
‘They want to kill us’
In a report released Thursday, HRW asserted that the Israeli army's repeated evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip led to forced population displacements, constituting "a crime against humanity."
“Statements by senior officials with command responsibility show that forced displacement is intentional and forms part of Israeli state policy and therefore amount to a crime against humanity,” detailed the report, recalling that “forced displacement” of civilians “amounts to war crime” under international law.
Israeli authorities have stated that their calls for residents to evacuate large areas of the Gaza Strip are driven by military imperatives and are intended to protect civilians.
An ongoing Israeli offensive, now exceeding a month, has forced at least 100,000 individuals from northern localities of the Gaza Strip to relocate to Gaza City, according to Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for the U.N. Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Iman Hamad, a 41-year-old mother from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, reports having been displaced more than 10 times. “I used to think they wanted to displace us. Now I realize they want to kill and wipe us out,” she told AFP on Wednesday.
In October, the U.N. estimated that 1.9 million Gazans had been displaced by the war, out of a total population of 2.4 million at the start of the conflict.
“It's better to die instantly from a shell than to die 1,000 times from the humiliation of being displaced, hungry and misery,” 50-year-old taxi driver Achraf Abu Habl told AFP: "I am staying in Jabalia [far north of Gaza]. I will not flee."
‘Ethnic cleansing’
According to HRW, “Israel's actions appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing” in areas where the army has ordered Palestinians to leave and where they will not be allowed to return.
HRW specifically highlights two areas commonly referred to as the Neztarim and Philadelphi corridors, which it claims have been "razed, extended and cleared" by the army to establish buffer zones.
The U.N. committee has urged the international community to act swiftly to end the bloodshed, emphasizing that some countries continue to provide "military support" to Israel.
HRW encouraged the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to “investigate.”
