The Israeli army’s order to people in northern Gaza and Gaza city to “evacuate” to the south of the Gaza Strip, cannot be considered an effective warning and may amount to forced displacement of the civilian population, a violation of international humanitarian law, said Amnesty International.
Since Hamas’ fighters entered Israeli territory less than a week ago at least 1,200 people in Israel and 1,100 in Gaza have been killed, more than 100 have been taken hostage, thousands have been wounded, more than 2 million are cut off from food, fuel and clean water, millions more have suffered trauma. Hamas has wiped out whole families. Israel’s armed forces are reacting by wiping out whole families. While some questions await answers, these facts are not contested. They have polarized a discourse that was always harsh. Beyond unqualified affirmations of Israel’s right to defend itself, some politicians, commentators, and scholars now endorse indiscriminate harming of Palestinians as a response to Hamas’ terrorism. Other politicians, civil society organizations, and scholars cast this terrorism as justified resistance to Israel’s occupation. The logic of collective punishment characterizes not only the actions of Hamas and the Israeli government, but also many statements justifying them. Anything goes when you defend yourself against terrorists? Anything goes when you resist occupiers?
We, members of the undersigned human rights organizations in Israel, are shocked and horrified in these dreadful days.
The United Nations said late on Thursday evening in New York that it had received an evacuation order from the Israeli Defence Forces saying that everyone in northern Gaza should leave within the next 24 hours and go to the south.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) called the situation in the Gaza Strip “dire” and warned that crucial supplies were running dangerously low after Israel imposed a total blockade on the territory.
The deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime
Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at a residential building at the intersection of Al-Ternis Street in the middle of Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip around 11:30 a.m on October 9, killing 69 Palestinians, including at least 15 children, according to documentation collected by DCIP. (Photo: DCIP / Mohammad Abu Rukbeh)
Palestinians and Israelis have grown accustomed to wars in the south in recent years. But the war that began in the early hours of Saturday, 7 October is nothing like the others. In a startling assault, scores or hundreds of Hamas operatives, under a hail of rockets, crossed the Israel-Gaza separation barrier into Israeli towns near the blockaded strip: some seem to have broken through weak points in the metal fences, others went by boat along the Mediterranean coast, some flew paramotors over the walls. A Hamas unit targeted the Erez Crossing, the only civilian checkpoint between Gaza and Israel, seizing it from army control for several hours. By sunrise, Palestinian gunmen were roaming the streets of Sderot, Nir Oz and other kibbutzim, breaking into civilian homes, fighting with security forces and firing in all directions. An overnight desert rave, inexplicably organised in the border region, was also attacked.
Yazan Ahmad Abdulnaser Shamlakh, 10, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on October 8 alongside his brothers Abdulnaser, two, and Omar, five months, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. (Photo: Courtesy of the Shamlkah family)
Palestinian armed groups infiltrated Israel on 7 October, killing and capturing hundreds of Israeli civilians and members of the Israeli forces while indiscriminately firing thousands of rockets into Israel.
On 8 October, the Government of Israel declared war, launching intensive air strikes into the densely populated Gaza Strip over the past three days. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and over two thousand now injured. The magnitude of the ongoing hostilities has led to grave humanitarian consequences. Homes, schools, medical facilities, and other infrastructure have been damaged and destroyed.
