Human Rights Watch said that Israel’s renewed attack in northern Gaza is displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and exposing them to danger.
According to Human Rights Watch, all videos, photographs, satellite images, media reports, and UN agency reports analyzed by the organization show that civilians are at “risk of mass forced displacement and other atrocities as the last remaining places of refuge in northern Gaza come under fire, including That’s shelters and hospitals.”
Since the beginning of this October, Israel has renewed mass evacuation orders for northern Gaza, ordering civilians to move south, including to the “humanitarian” area in Al-Mawasi.
The organization notes that the recommended overcrowded area lacks adequate food, shelter, water, sanitation, and medical care, and Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked the area, killing civilians.
“Israeli forces in northern Gaza are issuing evacuation orders after doing everything in their power to ensure that there is no safe place to go in Gaza,” said Lama Fakih, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.
She added, “Unsafe evictions are cruel, illegal, and constitute a prelude to further crimes against civilians.”
The organization accused the Israeli forces of expelling Palestinians in northern Gaza from schools that had been turned into shelters, detaining men, and then burning, attacking, or militarily occupying those shelters.
She noted that the videos she reviewed also show that Israeli forces have killed civilians, including children, in these shelters in recent days.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that more than 60,000 people were displaced in northern Gaza in October alone, especially from Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed on Friday that northern Gaza is experiencing the “darkest” moments of the war, warning that Israel’s practices may reach the level of “horrible crimes.”
Volker Türk noted that “more than 150,000 people have been killed, injured or missing in Gaza” since the outbreak of the war more than a year ago.
Turk continued, “My greatest fear is that this number will rise significantly, given the intensity of the Israeli operation currently underway in northern Gaza and its breadth, size, and nature.”
The UN official warned that “the Israeli government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza threaten to empty the area of all Palestinians.”
He added, “We are facing what may amount to atrocity crimes, including crimes against humanity.”