Human Rights Watch: new report finds war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s forced displacement practices of Palestinians in Gaza

On November 2024, it has been published the report “‘Hopeless, Starving and Besieged’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza” by Human Rights Watch, which analyses the phenomenon of forced displacement that has affected the almost entire Gaza’s Palestinian civil population as a consequence of the evacuation plans and the practices of systematic destruction of households and essential infrastructures implemented by Israel since October 2023.

By referring to international humanitarian law, the report recalls the circumstances in which temporary displacement of civilians from their lands is envisaged and the obligations of the occupying force to them in having to implement safe and inclusive evacuation plans, provide them with adequate accommodation and, with the cessation of hostilities, guarantee their right of return.

Despite Israeli authorities have claimed that evacuations ordered by them fall within these cases, and are therefore legitimate and in accordance with what is prescribed by international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch, through the collection of testimonies of displaced Palestinians, and the analysis of Israel’s evacuation orders and of verified video and photographic material, debunks their position and shows that an undeniable systematic approach and a stated political intention underlie the violent forced displacement of Palestinian civilians and widespread destruction of Gaza, identifying in them forms of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

In the end, the report invites all governments to take position against those crimes, adopt restrictive measures to Israel to lead it to end them and follow international obligations regarding the protection of civilians, support and secure the work of the International Court of Justice and stop the supply of arms and military aid to Israel.