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Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, says human rights group

By Stephen Price
IDF soldiers operating in Gaza." by Israel Defense Forces is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing, according to Human Rights Watch.

A new report released by the New York-based rights group said people have been killed while evacuating under Israeli orders and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.

The report said the widespread demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in Gaza – partly to carve a new road bisecting the territory and to establish a buffer zone along Israel’s border – was likely to “permanently displace” many Palestinians.

“Such actions of the Israeli authorities amount to ethnic cleansing,” Human Rights Watch said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report.

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Mass killings

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Around 90% of the territory’s population have fled their homes, with many displaced multiple times. The Israeli offensive has also damaged or destroyed around two-thirds of homes and other buildings in Gaza, according to UN assessments.

Israel says it does not deliberately target civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths, saying the militants hide among civilians and operate in residential areas.

On Wednesday, 15 trucks carrying aid were allowed into northern Gaza, where aid groups have warned that a month-long Israeli offensive could cause a famine.

The trucks entered Gaza with aid from the United Arab Emirates, according to the military body handling aid deliveries into the territory, COGAT. It said the aid consisted of food and water as well as hygiene, shelter and medical supplies.

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Famine

Israeli forces have encircled the Gaza Strip’s northernmost areas for the past month, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Experts say the Israeli military campaign has caused a new wave of displaced civilians and warn that famine is imminent or may already be happening there.

Israel has also been striking deeper inside Lebanon since September as it escalates the war against Hezbollah.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group began firing into Israel on October 8 2023 in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.

Since then, more than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 14,200 wounded, the country’s Health Ministry reported. In Israel, 76 people have been killed, including 31 soldiers.

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3 comments

Y Cymro

In normal times a country and its leaders committing war crimes & ethnic cleansing would be dealt with by the international community and tried in the Hague as done with mass murderers Serb politicians Slobodan Milošević (found dead in prison cell) & Radovan Karadžić convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes & genocide. This cannot be said of Israel , a country founded by an act of terrorism in 1948 , who have flouted every UN convention protected by the American veto. And to date since the October 7th attacks where 1,200 died Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu has overseen his military murdering over 42,000 civilians within a space of a year using a scorched earth policy of killing anything that moves. Gaza is literally a moonscape and it's people pushed from pillar to post by a twisted government playing games with those who they refer to as , " human animals". As I said. We don't live in normal times. We see the Western media suppress , twist and omit Israeli war crimes opting to interview those pro-Israel rather than reporting the news, good or bad, Palestinian, Israeli. Recently we had Maccabee Haifa fans in Amsterdam attack locals , tear down Palestinian flags from people's homes, and gang attack a Dutch taxi driver because he was an Arab. They also sang in Hebrew travelling down a train station escalator , "There are no schools and Gaza because there are children left" in reference to 17,000 children being killed. All this was filmed by a Dutch journalist and available to watch on YouTube. This initially was report using the Dutch journalist footage was accurately reported by Sky News as a racist attack by Maccabee football fans, but the news report was later pulled and the video altered to say it was an antisemitic attack on Jewish football fans when totally the opposite. Something is seriously wrong with society when the killing of innocient civilians is normalised and those doing killing are protected. And any criticism is deemed antisemitic even though genocide is occurring and all we hear is how Israel has the right to protect itself forgetting thousands of Palestinians have died before the October 7th attacks and the world turned a blind eye. Either we act now to stop Israel wiping Gaza off the map or witness another Holocaust livestreamed. Because they've stated it's their intention. The removal of Hamas is merely a smokescreen to a landgrab where Gaza is destroyed. Already Israeli setters have moved into Northern Gaza. Anyway, it's happening now. And the West Bank is next. I want to be on the right side of history not one who aided Palestinian genocide, a people who have everything right to exist in a land they've lived in for thousands of years. #FreePalestine 🇵🇸🤝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Reply
J Jones

Excellent post. We grew up being reminded of Jews who suffered atrocities in the distant past, with the hope that it would help prevent any repeat in the future. We now see atrocities every day, committed by Jews. It's as if they are condoning the same atrocities and genocide that they suffered, a hypocrisy that all descent people alive today will neither forget nor forgive.

Reply
Paul ap Gareth

Won't be long before Human Rights Watch is accused of being anti-Semitic.

Reply

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