Israel’s priority is a “wider colonial expansion,” said the Israeli practices committee in the occupied territories.
The world could witness “another Nakba”, or the expulsion of the Palestinians, warned a special committee of the United Nations.
The committee sounded the alarm on Friday, accusing Israel of “ethnic cleaning” and saying that it inflicted “unimaginable sufferings” on the Palestinians.
The comments come after Israel announced a plan earlier this week to expel hundreds of thousands of hungry Palestinians from the north of Gaza and limit them to six camps.
For the Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or disaster – the mass movement which accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.
“Israel continues to inflict unimaginable suffering on people living under its occupation, while quickly expanding land confiscation within the framework of its wider colonial aspirations,” said the United Nations Committee responsible for probe Israeli practices affecting Palestinian rights.
“What we are witnessing could very well be another Nakba,” added the committee, after having concluded an annual mission in Amman.
“The objective of a broader colonial expansion is clearly the priority of the government of Israel,” said its report.
“Safety operations are used as a smoke screen for rapid land grabbing, mass travel, dispossession, demolitions, forced evictions and ethnic cleaning, in order to replace Palestinian communities with Jewish settlers.”
“Inhuman and degrading treatment”
The committee also noted the human rights violations of Israel against the Palestinians.
“According to testimonies, it is obvious that the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishment, including sexual violence, is a systematic practice of the Israeli army and security forces, and is widespread in Israeli prisons and military detention camps,” he said.
“Methods are read as a game book on how to try to humiliate, derogate and scare in the hearts of individuals.”
The committee’s mission took place while the total aid blocking in Gaza, several weeks from Israel, continues.
“It is difficult to imagine a world in which a government would implement such policies depraved for hunger of a death population, while food trucks are seated a few kilometers,” said the committee.
“However, it is the sick reality for those of Gaza.”
The United Nations Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs in the occupied territories was created by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1968.
During the training of Israel in 1948, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became known as “Nakba”.
The descendants of some 160,000 Palestinians who managed to stay in what has become Israel is currently around 20% of its population.
The committee is currently made up of Sri Lankan, Malaysian and Senegalese ambassadors at the UN in New York.