Date: 30Jan 2024
Time: 15:00 Local Time
Press Release
The International Commission“Hashd” calls on the international community and the Security Council to implement the decisions of the International Court of Justice and protect Palestinians from genocide crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd)condemns and denounces the ongoing Israeli aggression and genocide crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories. The international community’s failure to halt the continuous Israeli aggression has resulted, for 116 consecutive days, in the martyrdom of 27,000 citizens and the displacement of 8,000 others. The estimated number of martyrs has reached nearly 35,000, with 75% of them being children, women, and the elderly. Among the martyrs are 122 journalists, 150 employees of the International Relief Agency, 346 medical personnel, 47 civil defense workers, 200 teachers, 100 academics, and 53 lawyers. They were killed in continuous and daily mass massacres since the beginning of the aggression, targeting more than 2,400 families. Some families were completely annihilated through direct targeting of civilian homes and bombing them over the heads of those inside, or by targeting hospitals and shelters with airstrikes and invasions during continuous ground incursions in the north, central, and south of the sector, especially in Khan Younis.
The number of wounded has reached approximately 66,000, with 75% of them being children and women. Among them, 11,000 cases are critical, requiring urgent evacuation and travel to hospitals outside Gaza due to the destruction of the occupation’s health sector. Most hospitals are out of service, and the entry of medical supplies and the necessary fuel for hospital operation is hindered. The travel of the wounded or the entry of medical teams from outside the sector is also impeded. For ten consecutive days, the occupation forces continue to besiege Nasser Hospital and Al-Amal Hospital affiliated with the Red Crescent in Khan Younis, hindering, and paralyzing their capabilities to provide health services.
The International Commission“Hashd”: The number of detainees from Gaza is approximately 4,000, who have been arrested, tortured, and subjected to brutal attacks. The scenes, videos, and images published by the occupation forces confirm the degrading treatment, torture, and assaults on the detainees. The occupation forces still conceal the fate and numbers of detainees, preventing international organizations from visiting and monitoring their conditions, constituting gross violations of the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions. Testimonies from those released from Gaza’s captivity confirm their torture, brutal attacks, and deprivation of sleep, food, water, and bathing.
The International Commission“Hashd”: Israeli aggression, with the excessive and intensive use of various types of ground, sea, and air weapons, which dropped more than 75,000 tons of explosives on the sector, has led to the destruction of 80% of homes, buildings, schools, hospitals, agricultural, industrial, commercial, tourist, economic, and infrastructural facilities. Every day, the occupation forces expand destruction operations through aerial bombardment and ground incursions, using the scorched-earth policy, including detonating private residential areas in the eastern regions of the sector under the pretext of establishing buffer zones. This is part of the plans to make the sector a devastated and uninhabitable area, displacing its residents.
The International Commission“Hashd”: Israeli aggression has forced more than 2 million Gaza residents to evacuate their homes. They now live in shelters in UNRWA schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, universities, relatives’ and friends’ houses, and tents in catastrophic conditions due to the lack of services, water scarcity, inadequate food, overcrowding, lack of privacy, the spread of diseases, and health epidemics. In northern Gaza, displaced people suffer from famine and the spread of diseases due to the absence and lack of aid since the issuance of military orders to evacuate these areas. This has caused and continues to cause the death of dozens of people daily. The occupation forces continue to forcibly displace people by besieging and invading shelters west of Gaza City and parts of the Nuseirat camp, instructing residents to evacuate to Deir al-Balah. Simultaneously, the occupation forces continue to besiege, bombard, and evacuate shelters in Khan Younis and instruct its residents to evacuate to Rafah, which has become the last refuge for forcibly displaced people. The number of people forced to leave the shelters, whether in the UNRWA vocational training center or the surrounding schools, is estimated at around 150,000 inhabitants of these areas. In the harsh cold and rain, with no suitable shelter available, many residents remain in the alleys and streets, some spending their days in the open without tents.
The International Commission“Hashd”: On the 116th day, Israeli forces persist in the blockade and closure of crossings, cutting off electricity, water, and communications, obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, relief, fuel shipments, and hindering the evacuation of the wounded. This has resulted in the residents of the Gaza Strip living in an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the history of conflicts. The threat of death and destruction looms over all residents of the sector, which has no safe haven. In addition, the spread of famine and infectious diseases is exacerbated by the shortage of clean drinking water, medicine, overcrowding, cold weather, and the proliferation of diseases. Some countries have ceased their funding to the relief agency, revealing the double standards and hesitation of these countries in imposing further collective sanctions on the people of the sector. Meanwhile, international silence and inaction persist in protecting civilians, hospitals, medical teams, journalists, children, and women. There is a call for the opening of humanitarian corridors in accordance with international humanitarian law and exerting pressure on the Israeli occupation to lift collective sanctions and ensure its compliance with its responsibilities as a belligerent occupier under international humanitarian law, especially the Geneva Conventions, Hague Conventions, and international human rights treaties, as well as decisions of the International Court of Justice, the Security Council, and the General Assembly. These instruments have remained mere ink on paper as long as the Israeli occupation continues to act as a state above the law. The continued support from the United States, making it a partner in the crimes of the occupation, and the support from countries supplying weapons and adopting double standards provide a green light for the occupation to continue its crimes. This is a sacrifice of all humanitarian principles, human rights standards, and the rights of peoples.
The International Commission“Hashd”: strongly condemns the escalation of the Israeli occupation forces’ crimes in the West Bank and Jerusalem, especially the crimes of invading cities and camps, committing field killings and executions. The latest of which was the disguised special forces raiding Jenin Hospital today, killing three Palestinians, including a wounded person. This is a blatant violation of all principles of international humanitarian law and continuous disregard for the lives of Palestinians. Just yesterday, Israeli occupation forces killed five Palestinians in various parts of the West Bank, raising the death toll to 383 martyrs since the start of the aggression on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli occupation forces continue to escalate arbitrary arrest campaigns, with the current toll reaching approximately 6300 detainees. Moreover, there is an expansion and escalation of continuous colonial settlement crimes, as evidenced by facts on the ground and statements from the occupation government and settlers. The latest of which was the calls in the settlement conference in Jerusalem for the return of settlements to the Gaza Strip, displacing its residents, and escalating settlements in the West Bank, reflecting contempt for all international laws and decisions that criminalize genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonial settlement, and racial discrimination.
The International Commission“Hashd”: condemns the continued international silence, complicity, and failure to stop the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and ongoing war crimes that threaten and claim the lives of Palestinians, especially the residents of Gaza. They live in the collapse of the humanitarian, health, and famine system, within the chapters of the genocide, ethnic cleansing, intimidation, and terror, aerial bombardment, and massacres against families and civilians, especially children and women. The danger of death, destruction, famine, thirst, disease, and health and environmental epidemics has become a standing tragic reality that worsens every moment.
The International Commission“Hashd”: calls for an urgent conference for the high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to ensure the fulfillment of their ethical, legal, and humanitarian responsibilities to stop the Israeli aggression, apply the rules of international humanitarian law and the laws of war, and lift collective sanctions. They call for activating mechanisms for holding accountable the leaders of the Israeli occupation, their supporting partners, suppliers of weapons, and imposing sanctions and boycotts on the racist Israeli occupation until it complies with international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice and the United Nations related to the Palestinian issue.
The International Commission“Hashd”: calls on the State of Palestine and the countries of the world to refer the ongoing genocide and aggression to the International Criminal Court for a serious investigation. They urge the General Prosecutor’s Office to issue arrest warrants against perpetrators of genocide and war crimes, cease political procrastination, and selective enforcement of international law. They also demand joining the legal action filed by South Africa and supporting the paths of using the principle of judicial jurisdiction to hold the leaders of the Israeli occupation and their partners accountable before national courts.
The International Commission“Hashd”: calls on the United Nations, free nations of the world, international and regional organizations to escalate their individual and collective efforts, political, diplomatic, and popular movements to stop the aggression. They ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to halt famine and the catastrophic suffering of civilians before it is too late, ensuring the enforcement of decisions of the International Court of Justice to protect Palestinians from genocide, and supporting the work of the International Relief Agency and other international organizations in providing relief to the Palestinian people until the end of the occupation, the dismantling of the colonial and racist system, and ensuring the right to self-determination and the return of refugees.
End
The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd)
