Date: November 5, 2023
Time: 13:00 Local Time
Press Release
The International Commission (Hashd) Condemns Israel’s 30-Day Continuous War of Genocide and Aggression on Gaza: Israeli Occupation Forces Kill and Injure 2% of the Population, Forcibly Displace 75%, and Destroy Half of the Territory’s Buildings and Infrastructure, While Collective Punishments Lead to the Collapse of the Humanitarian System in Gaza
The ongoing Israeli military aggression and genocide, now in its thirtieth day, have deteriorated the humanitarian, economic, and social conditions of nearly 2.3 million civilians due to unprecedented military operations by occupying forces. These operations have jeopardized the lives, security, and safety of the population, impeding their access to essential humanitarian needs, violating their right to a decent standard of living, including access to electricity, food, medicine, clean drinking water, shelter, healthcare, and the right to suitable and secure housing. These actions also infringe upon their civil and political rights, notably the right to life, personal security, and safety.
The Israeli occupying military has continued its military operations in Gaza since October 7, 2023, with the international community’s failure to halt the Israeli war of aggression on the territory. These acts amount to international crimes, enabling the killing of children and women while exacerbating the humanitarian conditions for civilians in Gaza.
The Israeli occupying forces’ military operations, since the start of their aggression, have resulted in the deaths of 9,770 people, including 4,800 children and 2,550 women, 176 medical personnel, 31 civil defense personnel, and 46 journalists, as well as 72 UNRWA employees. Approximately 24,808 individuals have been injured, with 70% being children and women. Additionally, 2,260 individuals remain missing, including 1,270 children. The use of deadly and destructive force, involving the dropping of over 25,000 tons of munitions from warplanes, artillery, and naval vessels, including internationally banned weapons, has caused damage to 250,000 housing units, leading to the destruction of thousands of homes, residential towers, civil facilities, including 264 schools, the targeting of 110 hospitals and healthcare institutions, the destruction of 89 government buildings, 57 mosques, and three churches, and the devastation of hundreds of industrial, commercial, agricultural, and infrastructure facilities, as well as roads, electricity, and water networks, including the basic infrastructure for these services.
This military aggression has been accompanied by grave violations, amounting to acts of genocide, organized war crimes, and crimes against humanity, according to international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The Israeli occupying forces have conducted thousands of military attacks by air, land, and sea, systematically targeting entire neighborhoods and residential areas throughout the territory, leading to the commission of 1,016 massacres against families, including those completely annihilated, as well as the injuries sustained by thousands of civilians whose homes and properties were destroyed above their heads. Simultaneously, the occupying forces have propagated an atmosphere of terror and intimidation, terrorizing and traumatizing civilian populations, forcing the forcible displacement of approximately 1.7 million citizens. The Israeli occupation forces ordered civilian populations to evacuate the northern governorate and Gaza City, ostensibly to protect their safety and security, distributing thousands of leaflets from aircraft or communicating evacuation orders through official broadcasts. This coincided with a campaign of internal displacement and mass forced evacuations of civilians, which began in the first week of the war. The mass displacement of thousands of civilians has been accompanied by the deliberate targeting of them on the roads designated by the occupying forces, resulting in massacres in hospitals, shelter schools, and overcrowded houses, leading to a catastrophic humanitarian situation. The civilians continue to struggle to provide for their basic humanitarian needs, including water, food, medicine, blankets, electricity, and fuel. This mission has become increasingly difficult and perilous due to the constant terrorizing of the population and the targeting of bakeries, water wells, and even solar panels used by some service facilities. These actions deepen the policy of retaliatory collective punishment, economic and social asphyxiation, in addition to the crimes of killing, genocide, starvation, and destruction caused by intensive aerial bombardments.
As the occupying forces continue their ground invasion of various areas in the territory for the past five days, the number of casualties and widespread destruction of civilian property has escalated. Gaza is now divided into two isolated sections, hampering the evacuation of the wounded from hospitals that are at risk of closure due to the depletion of fuel and medical supplies, turning them into mass graves for the sick and injured. Furthermore, the entry of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and relief materials into the northern governorates of Gaza has been hindered, in addition to the ongoing killing and targeting of civilians who have attempted to head to the southern part of the territory based on threats from the Israeli occupation forces.
The ruthless Israeli aggression has turned death and destruction into the daily reality for the besieged Palestinians in Gaza, where there is no safe haven. The Israeli forces have employed disproportionate and indiscriminate use of firepower directed at civilians and civilian infrastructure, in complete disregard for the principles of distinction, military necessity, and humanity. Moreover, the continuous retaliatory collective punishments have left people living without water, food, respite, and adequate assistance, with a meager allocation of humanitarian aid that falls short of the disaster and the needs of the population. They are also living without fuel or electricity to power essential service and healthcare facilities, most of which have collapsed, leaving the Palestinians in Gaza facing a humanitarian, health, environmental, and epidemic catastrophe, without communication or internet access, thereby depriving them of internal and external communication.
- The International Commission (Hashd): asserts that the Israeli state and its military have committed crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, starvation, and thirst. These actions are in stark violation of all rules of international humanitarian law and the customs of war, especially the provisions and principles of the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, as well as all agreements on the rights of the Palestinian people, especially the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
- The International Commission (Hashd): calls upon the United Nations and high-contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to take urgent action and collective and individual efforts to halt the Israeli aggression and the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. This is to prevent the continued commission of acts of genocide and to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation to fulfil its responsibilities as an occupying authority, including the restoration of electricity and water, the opening of humanitarian corridors to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, relief materials, and necessary fuel for the operation of hospitals and essential services. This is seen as both a legal and moral commitment to protect humanity and international law, and to halt the law of the jungle.
- The International Commission (Hashd): implores international and regional humanitarian organizations to take urgent action in providing humanitarian aid and sending civil defense teams, doctors, and relief workers to Gaza to contribute to the rescue of civilians, especially children and women, and to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe experienced by the civilians.
- The International Commission (Hashd): calls for the formation of an international humanitarian alliance to enforce the General Assembly’s resolution to cease hostilities and ensure a regular flow of all forms of humanitarian support and healthcare for the population. This includes stopping the obstruction of evacuating the wounded and the work of international humanitarian organizations by the occupation.
- The International Commission (Hashd): urges high-contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to declare a clear and unequivocal stance against Israel’s non-compliance and application of the convention in Palestinian territories. This involves compelling the Israeli occupying state to adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law, protect civilians, and activate accountability and measures to boycott and impose sanctions on the Israeli occupying state until it complies with the rules of international humanitarian law and human rights standards.
- The International Commission (Hashd):calls on all free people worldwide, the international solidarity movement with the Palestinian people, parliamentarians, human rights institutions, and all Arab, regional, and international organizations to take action on all legal, political, diplomatic, human rights, and popular levels to ensure the cessation of aggression, the protection of Palestinian civilian populations, and support the Palestinian people’s right to end the Israeli occupation and determine their destiny.
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The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd)
