Human Rights Watch accused Israel yesterday of committing war crimes in Gaza by compelling the forced displacement of thousands of civilians as attacks in hostilities continue. The New York-based advocacy group released a report Tuesday stating that Israel’s mass evacuations in northern Gaza combined with stepped-up attacks on residential areas constitute an unlawful act of “forcible displacement.”
The report indicates that the directives by military orders of Israel, which have compelled over a million of its women, children, and elderlies into internal displacement from northern Gaza to south, contravene international humanitarian law as embodied in the Fourth Geneva Convention since there is nothing in such a convention to support the forced displacement unless it had imperative reasons for the safety of civilian population or imperative military reasons.
“The scale and scope of the displacement are without precedent,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate director for children’s rights at HRW. “Mass forced displacement of civilians en masse, without adequate notice, means or reception places is a war crime in itself when it pays with so large a human toll among the displaced people.”
The HRW also briefed on the situation in Gaza, saying it was only a little better than the rest because of poor food, water, medical supplies, and shelter for people who had to be forced out of their homes. It highlighted increasing humanitarian concerns, especially those makeshift camps and temporary shelters that were bursting at the seams with evacuees. The report makes an urgent call for the present actions to displace civilians to immediately stop and request safe and unfettered access to humanitarian aid across Gaza.
Defense In reaction, the Israeli government argued that the evacuation orders were a measure of precaution meant to protect civilians from active combat zones. The officials add that by operating in more densely populated areas, Hamas, the entity ruling Gaza, puts civilians at risk and turns the civilians into human shields, making military operations difficult.
This allegation joins the raging international debate on the behavior of all parties in the Gaza conflict. Human Rights Watch appealed to international organizations, such as the United Nations, to put further pressure on Israel to uphold international laws protecting civilians in areas of conflict. The organization further stated that failure to address the crisis would lead to “irreparable human suffering” and appeals to all parties to place humanitarian needs over all other matters in Gaza.
