Gaza
\nIsraeli authorities have caused massive and deliberate forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, in what amounts to a war crime, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.
\nThe international human rights organisation analysed satellite imagery, Israeli forced evacuation orders and statements by senior Israeli officials to show that authorities in Israel are deliberately and permanently making returning to large areas of Gaza effectively impossible for the Palestinian population.
\n\u201cIsraeli forces have destroyed the majority of Gaza\u2019s water, sanitation, communications, energy and transport infrastructure as well as its schools and hospitals\u201d and \u201csystematically razed orchards, fields and greenhouses\u201d report author Nadia Hardman told journalists in a news conference in advance of the report\u2019s release on Thursday.
\n\u201cSo much civilian infrastructure has been destroyed that much of Gaza has been rendered uninhabitable,\u201d Hardman said.
\nIn addition to the widespread destruction carried out by Israeli forces across the besieged enclave, HRW found that Israel has continued to expand three so-called \u201cbuffer zones\u201d by razing large areas of Gaza\u2019s cities, including Rafah, and building Israeli military access roads and structures to make them permanent features in the Palestinian territory.
\n\u201cA new road constructed by the Israeli military that bisects the north and south halves of Gaza and runs east to west \u2013 this \u2018Netzarim Corridor\u2018 as it\u2019s called \u2013 is more than 4km [2.4 miles] wide and at the time of publication keeps expanding towards north Gaza and the south, beyond Wadi Gaza,\u201d said Hardman.
\nSeveral Israeli officials have claimed that military \u201cbuffer zones\u201d between Gaza and Israel are necessary so that residents in southern Israel can return to their homes without fearing another attack such as the one led by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
\nIsrael\u2019s Minister of Agriculture Avi Dichter told reporters on October 19, 2023, that the plan was to create a \u201cmargin\u201d around the Gaza Strip that \u201cwill be a fire zone. And no matter who you are, you will never be able to come close to the Israeli border\u201d.
\nThe Human Rights Watch report said that the razing and destruction of the vast majority of Palestinian homes, fields, orchards, wooded areas and infrastructure in these so-called \u201cbuffer zones\u201d was \u201cone of the clearest examples of forcible transfer in Gaza\u201d.
\nNotably, the rights group said that to qualify as a war crime, the forcible transfer of a population must be carried out intentionally. The report\u2019s authors provided almost two dozen statements from senior Israeli ministers supporting the forcible transfer of Palestinians.
\nFor example, on April 29, 2024, Israel\u2019s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, \u201cThere are no half measures. [The Gaza cities of] Rafah, Deir el-Balah, Nuseirat \u2013 total annihilation.\u201d
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also made similar statements, HRW said, although on January 10, 2024, one day before Israel faced initial hearings on allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netanyahu changed his tune, saying: \u201cIsrael has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.\u201d
\nHRW\u2019s researchers found that Israel\u2019s \u201cclear intent\u201d to forcibly displace Palestinians was also shown in other ways, including through the manner it issued forced evacuation orders.
\nHRW researcher Gabi Ivens said they analysed and cross-checked dozens of Israeli military demands to evacuate and found the instructions \u201cwere unclear, inaccurate and sometimes contradictory, making it extremely difficult for civilians to know where and when to move\u201d.
\n\u201cDozens of orders were issued after the time periods specified for safe evacuations had already begun, while others were issued after attacks had already started,\u201d Ivens told journalists.
\nIsraeli resettlement of Gaza
\nThis report from HRW comes after three Palestinian human rights organisations last month warned that Israel is systematically \u201cemptying northern Gaza of its residents\u201d.
\nResidents of northern Gaza are \u201cfearful that if they leave, then they will never be able to return to their homes and lands, as Israel\u2019s plan to resettle through the illegal transfer of its own civilian population and annex northern Gaza is becoming clearer with every day that passes,\u201d the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, said in a joint statement.
\nThousands of Israeli settlers previously occupied the Gaza Strip for nearly 40 years, but the settlements were removed in 2005 under then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
\nThis has not deterred some hardline Israelis from planning to settle the Gaza Strip again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaza Israeli authorities have caused massive and deliberate forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, in what amounts to a war crime, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found. The international human rights organisation analysed satellite imagery, Israeli forced evacuation orders and statements by senior Israeli officials to show that authorities in Israel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-443671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n