Date: 7 May 2024
Press Release
The International Commission “Hashd” calls for international intervention to protect civilians and displaced persons in the city of Rafah, to stop the massacres and forced displacement, and to prevent the ground attack on the city.
The International Commission “Hashd” expresses its condemnation and denunciation of the expansion of military attacks on the city of Rafah, the bombing of civilian homes, and their destruction over the heads of its inhabitants without prior warning, which has resulted in more than 200 martyrs and hundreds of others injured in the past few weeks.
The International Commission “Hashd”: warns the world of the extensive ground assault on the city of Rafah, which shelters nearly one and a half million Palestinians. This morning, Israeli occupation forces issued orders for forced displacement of neighborhoods and eastern areas in Rafah, which equals one-third of the city’s area, in preparation for a ground attack despite international warnings and demands to avoid a ground assault that may result in a bloodbath and huge human losses and a catastrophic humanitarian cost on civilians and civilian property. This exacerbates the suffering of the citizens on various fronts and interferes with their fate in the absence of any safe and prepared places in the sector where services are available, capable of accommodating the displaced and providing the minimum humanitarian needs. Moreover, the attack will hinder and complicate the work of international institutions and the process of aid delivery through the Rafah crossing and the Kerem Shalom crossing in eastern Rafah, and may lead to forced displacement of Palestinians outside Palestinian territories.
The International Commission “Hashd”: holds the state and leaders of the Israeli occupation accountable, and the continuation of American support and the silence and incapacity of the international system to fulfill its moral and legal duties give immunity and a green light to continue the ongoing genocide war for the 213th consecutive day, which has claimed the lives of more than 45,000 martyrs and missing persons and around 80,000 injured, turning the sector into a devastated area unfit for life, after the destruction of 80% of the sector’s homes and facilities, and the forced displacement of 90% of its population, leading to the people of Gaza experiencing famine seasons and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the history of international conflicts.
The International Commission “Hashd”: calls on the international community to take serious action to stop the Israeli aggression and the crime of genocide, to prevent the attack on the city of Rafah, to provide international protection for Palestinians, to ensure the return of displaced persons to their residential areas, to compel the occupying state to fulfill its legal responsibilities, to lift collective punishments, to open land corridors, and to provide humanitarian aid, medical supplies, fuel, and humanitarian needs for the residents of the Gaza Strip.
