Since October 7, 2023, around 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, out of a population of 2.2 million. In a report published on Thursday, November 14 and titled “’Hopeless, hungry and besieged’: Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza,” the human rights NGO Human Rights Watch shows that Israel not only carried out multiple forced displacements in Gaza: a war crime – but these are “generalized and systematic” and result from the political will of the State of Israel.
They constitute, therefore, a crime against humanity, says the author of the report, Nadia Hardman, in an interview with World. Their work is the result of an eight-month investigation completed in August, which does not include the ongoing brutal Israeli offensive in northern Gaza.
Article 49 of the Geneva Convention relating to the protection of civilians in time of war establishes that the occupying power – in the case of Gaza, Israel – may carry out evacuations “if the safety of the population or compelling military reasons so requires.” require.” Why is it illegal to travel to Gaza?
According to article 49, evacuations must be exceptional and the conditions very strict. If these criteria are not met, it is a forced displacement. Israel cannot simply cite the presence of members of armed groups, military equipment and facilities in Gaza to justify the displacement of civilians. You must demonstrate, for each case, that alternatives were considered and that this was the only possible option.
Our report shows that evacuation corridors and so-called “safe zones” were systematically and repeatedly bombed: this undermines the Israeli argument that people were moved for their safety. The Israeli evacuation system put people in danger. The instructions given were not clear and were sometimes inaccurate or contradictory.
Dozens of orders [d’évacuation] They were published after the start of the assigned time to flee to a safe place. Sahar, a 42-year-old woman who lived in Beit Lahya, northern Gaza, with her family before October 7, 2023, received evacuation orders through airdropped leaflets, but “the Israelis began bombing the even before they told us about it. the order to evacuate. “A lot of people were brutally murdered,” he told me. The occupying power must take measures to house the displaced population, ensure that they have access to care and food, and that they are safe. Israel pushed people into areas where they were not provided with essential goods and services.
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