GENEVA — On Saturday, the
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have killed more than
1,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the
International Court of Justice (ICJ)
adjourned its hearings a week ago to consider South Africa’s lawsuit against
Israel.
اضافة اعلان
Euro-Med Monitor added that, in stark contrast to the
narrative put forth by the Israeli legal team in an attempt to refute
South Africa’s claims, the facts on the ground serve as further verification that
Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Israel asserted at the ICJ that it does not target civilians
or civilian-related objects in the Strip; has slowed down its military activity
there; is eager to expand humanitarian aid to the fullest extent of its
capacity; supports rather than interferes with the work of medical personnel;
and has no intention of forcibly
displacing Gaza’s population.
Nevertheless, preliminary documentation provided by
Euro-Med Monitor casts doubt on the coherence of Israel’s assertions, especially given
the events that transpired in the Gaza Strip between January 12 to 18, 2024.
According to the human rights organization, IOF has not stopped killing
civilians in the Strip and has killed 1,018 people in just seven days,
including 208 women and at least 390 children, at a rate of 145 people per day.
The aforementioned statistics only include the dead who
arrived at Gaza Strip hospitals; there are still reports and data of deaths of
others—at least 15 per day during the same reported period—whose bodies have
not been recovered or who have been buried in makeshift graves. Five civilians,
two of whom were women, were buried on January 17 and 18 in a school sheltering
displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, east of Khan Yunis. Of the 1,934
additional people injured in Israel’s most recent attacks, at least 70 percent
are women and children.
Home, schools,
shelters targeted, no one is safe
Some of these attacks targeted homes, tents, and shelters
housing displaced people in the southern city of Rafah, Euro-Med Monitor
reported, which is designated by the IOF as a “safe area”. A total of 1.3
million displaced people have sought
refuge in Rafah.
Another air raid targeted a school in Gaza City’s Al-Daraj
neighborhood, a place where, according to Israel’s defense team, the Israeli
army had previously announced it would end its military operations.
Euro-Med Monitor indicated that at least 70 Palestinians
were killed and dozens more injured in several incidents after Israeli tanks
and quadcopters opened fire on Palestinians who gathered in northwest Gaza
waiting for aid trucks. The most appalling event that occurred in the
Gaza Strip during the ICJ session was the Israeli army’s opening fire on a group of
people who were
attempting to obtain food from these trucks; approximately
50 of them were killed at once.
Residential squares
demolished
Regarding the targeting of civilian targets, Euro-Med
Monitor said that between January 12-18, IOF demolished 22 residential squares
in the city of Khan Yunis’ central neighborhood and the Strip’s southern
communities of Batn al-Samin, Jourat al-Lot, and Ma’an. IOF also blew up four
residential squares in the Gaza Strip’s central governorate. Initial estimates
indicate that about 6,000 housing units were completely or partially destroyed
during the reported period and that Israel also targeted two universities and
seven schools, completely or partially destroying them.
Demolishing and
blowing up homes even where there are no hostilities
IOF is still demolishing Palestinian homes, even in
neighborhoods and places where there are no hostilities, said Euro-Med Monitor.
The rights group indicated that the demolition operations have happened
following the Israeli army’s widespread and methodical consolidation of control
over these neighborhoods and areas. This suggests that the goal of these
operations is to forcibly prevent Gaza Strip residents from returning to their
homes, thus ending all aspects of the lives they enjoyed before the current genocide.
Euro-Med Monitor warned that IOF has also continued to
attack the health sector during the past week, including its facilities, staff,
and resources. On January 17, the Jordanian field hospital in Khan Yunis was
targeted during an Israeli bombing that coincided with an Israeli ground
incursion into a cemetery in the vicinity, causing the injury of one of the
health crews as well as another person who was receiving treatment in the
intensive care unit and was injured by shrapnel.
Violent bombardment
On the same day, Israeli forces dropped lighting bombs over
the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, coinciding with violent bombardment
and an incursion into the southern section of the hospital, causing a state of
panic among thousands of displaced people there who were forced to flee.
In a similar attack, Israeli tanks approached the area
surrounding Shuhada Aqsa Hospital last week, forcing thousands of displaced
people to flee as Israeli aircraft opened fire nearby and bombed a flat next to
the hospital’s gate. Around the same time, most medical teams left the
hospital, only to come back later when the Israeli forces withdrew.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have continued their campaign
to incite fear of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, alleging without proof that
Nasser Hospital—the largest hospital in the Strip now that Al-Shifa Medical
Complex is out of service due to Israeli attacks—was being used to fire at
Israeli forces, even though it is filled with tens of thousands of displaced,
sick, and injured people. Last Wednesday, World Health Organisation official
Sean Casey confirmed that he had not seen any evidence that hospitals in the
Gaza Strip were being used for purposes other than providing healthcare, and
said that their primary mission is to provide health services.
Euro-Med Monitor went on to confirm that Israel continues to
use starvation as a weapon of war, noting that the amount of aid supplies
entering the Gaza Strip, especially the northern part of the Strip, does not
meet the population’s growing needs. It has now been over 100 days since the
start of Israel’s genocidal war against Gazans, the rights organization
stressed.
A relatively small
number of aid has entered, but nearly not enough
Only 1,200 aid trucks—a relatively small number—have entered
the Gaza Strip in the past week, said Euro-Med Monitor. Furthermore, the method
of delivery remains dehumanizing, as it involves hundreds of residents
assembling around the trucks, which arrive at specific locations without any
formal announcement being made. When aid supplies were being distributed,
Israeli forces shot and killed several Palestinians.
Of the humanitarian supplies that entered the Gaza Strip,
only 50 vehicles carrying aid reached Gaza City and the northern part of the
Gaza Strip this past week, Euro-Med Monitor pointed out. Of these, 36 were
loaded with food supplies, and the rest contained fuel and medical supplies. It
should be noted that Israel did not allow any humanitarian aid vehicles to
enter Gaza City and the Strip’s northern areas on January 12, 15, or 17.
The UN estimated in November 2023 that the Gaza Strip’s
population requires the entry of at least 500 humanitarian aid trucks every
day. Local estimates, on the other hand, confirm that the population’s need for
commercial goods and humanitarian aid has doubled recently, given the length of
the conflict; extension of Israel’s military attacks; prolonged interruption of
adequate aid distribution; collapse of local production capacity; and
increasing needs of the Strip’s roughly 2.3 million residents.
Euro-Med Monitor warned about the danger of continued severe
shortages of food, medical supplies, and necessities in the Gaza Strip,
particularly given the growing risk of famine and the exposure of more people
to the spread of serious and fatal diseases. Due to Israel’s ongoing bombing
and strict siege of the territory, independent UN experts state that the
population of Gaza accounts for 80 percent of all people worldwide who are at
risk of famine or catastrophic hunger. UN agencies, led by the World Food
Programme, UNICEF, and the World Health Organisation, raised the alarm on
January 15, saying “a fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid
into Gaza is urgently needed”.
People in Gaza are
dying of hunger
“People in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks
filled with food,” said WFP head Cindy McCain. “Every hour lost puts countless
lives at risk. We can keep famine at bay, but only if we can deliver sufficient
supplies and have safe access to everyone in need, wherever they are.”
The Israeli defense team’s narrative about Israel’s
irresponsibility in preventing aid supplies from entering the Gaza Strip is
refuted, said Euro-Med Monitor, by what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu revealed to the Israeli media recently. Netanyahu spoke of his
refusal to allow any aid trucks into the Strip without first undergoing an
inspection by the Israeli military.
Israel continues to restrict the amount of goods that can
enter the Gaza Strip, purposefully delays the entry of humanitarian aid, or
obstructs it entirely. UN agencies and Egyptian authorities have confirmed that
Israel maintains control over everything that enters the Gaza Strip through all
ports and crossings.
Israel also maintains control over which people are allowed
to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing, including those who are sick or
injured. Passenger lists are provided to Israeli authorities, who only permit a
certain number of people to travel. These restrictions also apply to severely
injured people who require urgent medical treatment abroad; only a very small
percentage of them have been able to travel so far, while 6,500 seriously
injured individuals remain on the waitlist.
Euro-Med Monitor has been closely tracking the continued
inflammatory statements from Israeli officials, which demonstrate a clear
premeditated intention to commit the crime of genocide. Israeli ministers
continue to issue statements inciting the extermination of the Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip, said the human rights organization, pointing to the Israeli
government’s apparent aim of uprooting Gazans from their land by subjecting
them to abhorrent living conditions to destroy them and ultimately force them
out of the Strip permanently.
“Gaza must be occupied,” Israeli Minister of National
Security Itamar Ben-Gvir stated yesterday. “Stay inside it and encourage the
voluntary migration of its residents. If we win the war, it will be practically
accomplished.” That same day, Netanyahu announced at a press conference that
Israel fully intended to take control of the security situation throughout the
region west of Jordan, essentially saying “from the river to the sea”—the
slogan that many in Western and American circles have recently denounced as
antisemitic and say encourages genocide against Israeli Jews. Notably, the
slogan is frequently used across the globe by peace activists calling for an
end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its genocide of Gazans.
Netanyahu also stated at the conference that Israel intends
to cut back on humanitarian aid to the barest minimum, adding that the decision
will be made based on how military operations proceed and objectives are met.
He explicitly stated that Israel intends to use humanitarian aid as a
bargaining chip and form of pressure on Palestinian civilians, which Euro-Med
Monitor called a violation of international law. This is another way that
Israel plans to carry out its crime of genocide against the people living in
the Gaza Strip—by exacerbating the dire circumstances they are already facing
as a result of Israel’s ongoing military attacks and siege, amid a shortage of
necessities, and by threatening to subject them to even harsher living
conditions which will ultimately result in their actual deaths.
As in the past, said Euro-Med Monitor, Israel is failing to
hold responsible any Israeli citizen who is encouraging the genocide of the
Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, regardless of the individual’s degree of
political power or level of celebrity or influence.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor warned of the dire
repercussions of preventing international committees from accessing the Gaza
Strip, particularly in light of the forensic evidence that would likely condemn
Israel for the crimes committed there, the difficulty of preserving potential
evidence from destruction or loss, and the elevated risk of death from Israeli
army fire, starvation, disease, or drought as a result of Israel’s siege of the
Gaza Strip.
The organization added that ICJ must move quickly to take
decisive action to halt Israel’s genocide against the people of the Gaza Strip
and to shield them from further grave and irreversible harm.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
