Date: 6 Mar 2024
Statement and International Appeal to Stop War Crimes and Genocide, Secure Humanitarian Aid in Gaza, and Protect Human Rights and Dignity
The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd) on 151 days, the Israeli genocide war continues against the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people. Israeli occupation forces have committed and continue to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, resulting in 2,675 massacres against civilians who were deliberately targeted in their homes, shelters, hospitals, and while awaiting aid. This has led to the death and martyrdom of nearly 40,000 citizens and the injury of 72,000 others with varying degrees of wounds, thousands of whom have lost limbs. It is worth mentioning that 70% of the martyrs, missing persons, and wounded are children and women. Additionally, 384 medical staff, 154 UNRWA workers, 126 journalists, 300 teachers and academics, 54 civil defense personnel, 67 lawyers and human rights activists, and hundreds of artists, writers, and athletes have been killed. The attacks, using various types of weapons, have destroyed 75% of homes, properties, civilian objects, and infrastructure, aiming to turn the Gaza Strip into an uninhabitable disaster area. All this is accompanied by continued collective punishments, including cutting off electricity, water, communication services, and obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid, exacerbating the catastrophic humanitarian tragedy suffered by the people of the Gaza Strip, with the basic requirements and reasons for life disappearing.
The International Commission “Hashd”: Since the first day of the aggression, Israeli occupation forces have imposed collective punishments by cutting off electricity, water, fuel, cooking gas, and goods to the Gaza Strip, turning the lives of civilians into a humanitarian catastrophe due to the inability to access water, electricity-related services, goods, and medicine. Furthermore, during the aggression, the occupation state destroyed water wells, water tanks, desalination plants, sewage systems, infrastructure, food stores, shops, and farms, aiming to destroy the humanitarian and service system. Most hospital services, municipal waste collection, water well operation, road opening, and other humanitarian services have ceased. The alternatives sought by citizens have not been spared from organized targeting, as civilian gatherings outside bakeries, water desalination plants, hospitals, displacement camps, and shelter schools have been shelled, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of hundreds of citizens.
Below are the most prominent violations of the continued Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip:
Firstly, regarding the suffering of internally displaced persons in shelters:
The suffering of shelters continues, especially UNRWA schools, where thousands of displaced persons are crowded, with 5,000 to 9,000 displaced persons in each school suffering from hunger due to the scarcity of aid, lack of drinkable water, lack of hygiene water, as well as the absence of privacy for women and families and the shortage of blankets and mattresses. This has led to the spread of respiratory diseases among thousands of children, as well as diseases such as smallpox, measles, cholera, and others, with the World Health Organization estimating 400,000 cases of infectious diseases due to lack of personal hygiene and the inability to bathe. Moreover, using the bathroom has become extremely difficult, as every 800 individuals share one bathroom due to a severe shortage of hygiene water and other health necessities.
Secondly: Regarding the arrest of civilians and the conversion of shelters into military barracks
During the Israeli aggression, Israeli ground forces carried out widespread destruction in Palestinian cities and camps in the Gaza Strip, raiding shelters belonging to the UNRWA and hospitals and converting them into military barracks. They also abused civilians and forcibly displaced men, women, and children, with thousands being arrested, tortured, and some executed on the spot, whether in shelter schools, especially Hamad School in Beit Lahia and Shadia or Ghazala School in Jabalia camp, or in other areas in the Gaza Strip. The organization documented arrests of more than 4,000 individuals, with 2,600 still detained, while released detainees reported extreme conditions inside Israeli prisons, including stripping detainees of their clothes, constant handcuffing, systematic torture, and inhumane treatment. Human rights sources indicated that “the Saditiman” camp, managed by the Israeli army and located between Be’er Sheva and Gaza City, has become a new Guantanamo prison where detainees’ dignity is violated, and they are subjected to severe torture and abuse while being deprived of food and medical care.
Thirdly: Regarding the continued issuance of forced evacuation orders
Israeli forces continue to issue forced evacuation orders, pushing displaced people into Rafah governorate, where nearly one and a half million citizens are crowded, threatened by Israeli incursions. The insistence on exterminating and forcibly displacing the Gaza population remains evident, with more than 400,000 individuals in northern Gaza exposed to the risk of death and famine due to food shortages caused by the blockade of humanitarian aid and the destruction of commercial shops, food stores, markets, farms, and water wells. Hospitals have been bombed, rendering them inoperable, and shelters have been destroyed, forcing displaced people into recurrent displacement amid inhumane conditions.
Fourthly: Regarding the spread of diseases and epidemics among the displaced
Ninety percent of families in the Gaza Strip, now displaced, including approximately 2 million individuals, especially children and women, suffer from diseases and epidemics due to the lack and scarcity of medicines, food, drinking water, harsh weather conditions, including heavy rain and extreme cold, flooded tents, inadequate winter clothing and blankets, heating facilities, rising prices, and intentional chaos caused by Israeli bombardment of police stations securing the entry of humanitarian aid. This has hindered the entry and distribution of aid, particularly in northern Gaza, where families spend days without food or drinkable water, leading to the deaths of dozens of children, women, elderly, and sick individuals due to starvation and diseases.
Fifthly: Regarding the deliberate targeting of aid convoys
The Israeli army deliberately fires at and kills and injures those waiting for humanitarian aid, and bombs aid trucks. During the 150th day of the aggression, Israeli forces fired on aid recipients at the Kuwaiti Circle. This was preceded by a massacre at the Nabulsi Houses in Gaza City, resulting in the killing and martyrdom of 118 individuals and the injury of over 7,600 others. This was preceded by five massacres targeting civilians waiting for aid, insisting on obstructing and preventing the entry of humanitarian aid to the residents of northern Gaza, who are facing severe famine, resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians, mostly children, patients, elderly, and women, insisting on the destruction and displacement of northern Gaza residents by exacerbating famine and catastrophic conditions and imposing collective punishment, intensifying systematic destruction of all means of life, daily massacres against Palestinian families, and destruction of homes over their residents’ heads, obstructing the entry of fuel, medical supplies, and medicines to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, endangering the lives of patients and injured individuals by exacerbating health conditions or death.
Sixthly: Regarding the destruction of justice, judiciary, and police institutions
During the ongoing genocide war, the Israeli occupation forces deliberately destroyed justice, judiciary, and police institutions in a war crime aimed at creating chaos, undermining civil security, and pushing towards security breakdown. This caused significant harm to the rights and interests of citizens by deliberately destroying most police stations, public prosecution offices, and all types of courts, including the most dangerous crime of demolishing the Palace of Justice complex, along with its contents, and destroying the archives of cases, which amounted to approximately 472,878 by the end of 2022. Additionally, the destruction of the Bar Association building and dozens of law offices and public prosecution offices occurred. Most police stations, prisons, rehabilitation centers, and reform centers were also destroyed, exacerbating the state of chaos and security breakdown within the Gaza Strip. This led to the emergence of theft and looting of citizens’ and public property, as well as the theft of some aid convoys due to Israeli forces targeting police forces accompanying them. This resulted in the martyrdom of dozens of police officers in the Gaza Strip and contributed to the rise and spread of crime, infringement on the rule of law, increased family disputes, and lawlessness, as well as monopolizing goods and price hikes due to the weakening and malfunctioning of regulatory and law enforcement authorities.
The International Commission “Hashd”: The catastrophic humanitarian situation caused by the savage Israeli aggression urgently necessitates the cessation of the genocide war, the preservation of Palestinian lives, the protection of civilians, and the provision of living conditions for Gaza residents through various forms of humanitarian aid and relief efforts. Efforts must be intensified to open land, sea, and air humanitarian passages to rescue Gaza residents from the horrors of genocide, famine, and diseases. We call on the free people of the world to act to stop the state of helplessness and failure to halt the genocide and Israeli occupation crimes. The goal of forced displacement, which affected nearly 2 million Palestinians, has not been abandoned by the Israeli occupation forces, which systematically force northern Gaza residents to the extreme south in Rafah, creating a forced displacement reality within the Gaza Strip, reminiscent of the Nakba of 1948.
The International Commission “Hashd”: Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people continues to the West Bank, particularly besieging Jerusalem since the beginning of the war, preventing people from accessing their churches and mosques, notably Al-Aqsa Mosque, where worshippers are prohibited, and invaded daily by dozens of settlers. Additionally, settler terrorism escalates, protected by the army, with wide-scale invasions throughout the West Bank, committing field killings, arbitrary arrests, and brutal destruction of property and infrastructure, alongside campaigns of arrest, torture, and imposition of closures on cities and towns with military checkpoints and iron gates, exacerbating settler crimes, displacement, and Judaization.
The International Commission “Hashd”: While emphasizing the importance of addressing the root causes of the conflict by ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and achieving justice for the Palestinian people and empowering them with their right to return and self-determination, we call on countries and free people of the world to intensify efforts to stop the aggression and genocide, ensure the flow of humanitarian aid, and activate all efforts to impose sanctions and boycotts on the occupying state, hold it and its leaders accountable before international justice and legal institutions.
End
The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd)
