Evacuations: Where Are The Displaced Expected to Go?

The illegal evacuation orders that the Israeli army has been enforcing in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, and Mawasi al-Qarara, west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, have raised fear of additional forced displacement and an attack on an area in which nearly two million people are crammed.

The Israeli army has continued its pattern of issuing illegal evacuation orders in the Strip. One such order was issued recently and targets all civilians, including those who have already been forcibly displaced, who are living in Blocks 129 and 130 in the area of Al-Mahta and Deir al-Balah.

This area is home to 10s of thousands of people and is close to the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The Israeli orders, along with earlier ones that targeted residents of eastern and southern Deir al-Balah, show that Israel is continuing to expand its attack on Deir al-Balah, which is home to one million people, the majority of whom have previously been displaced to the centre of the Strip from northern or southern Gaza.

Nearly half of the people living in the Gaza Strip are currently living in Deir al-Balah. They had been forced to flee their homes and relocate there from locations across the entire Gaza Strip, particularly from northern Gaza and Rafah. Those sheltering in Deir al-Balah travelled there under Israeli bombing from the air, land, and sea, and Israel’s deliberate destruction of entire residential areas, hospitals, shelter centres, and public and private civilian facilities. Now, the military evacuation orders are asking residents of Deir al-Balah to move south, and targeting Deir al-Balah and the southern town of Al-Mawasi with illegal evacuation orders and bombing.

The Israeli army’s targeting of large areas within what it refers to as the “humanitarian zone” with illegal evictions, as has occurred in Mawasi al-Qarara and Deir al-Balah, suggests that Israel is trying to squeeze nearly two million people into an increasingly smaller area, until the population density reaches globally unprecedented levels, and displaced people are unable to even find a place to pitch their tents.

Given that Deir al-Balah is home to numerous national and international humanitarian organisations, the intensifying attack on the city raises the possibility that some humanitarian efforts may cease, putting Gaza Strip residents at further existential risk.

Since the Israeli army had previously declared that it had finished its military operations in the Gaza Strip, the expansion of operations towards Deir al-Balah and the increasing systematic destruction of Rafah’s residential areas as well as Khan Yunis’ Hamad City and Qarara areas is evidence of Israel’s ongoing quest to completely eradicate any Palestinian life there, whether now or in the future.

Israeli planes struck a number of Gaza City structures on Tuesday, including the Al-Jazeera Hotel, in spite of the fact that military operations had supposedly ended there and the majority of the area’s buildings had already been destroyed during ten months of incursions and aerial bombardment.

The Israeli army is still bombing makeshift shelters inside Gaza City schools. Just two days ago, it bombed the Mustafa Hafez School, which was home to thousands of displaced people. Twelve people were killed and numerous others were injured in the attack. Since the beginning of August, 11 schools have been bombed and destroyed, resulting in the deaths of displaced individuals.

There is no possible military need or justification for bombing and demolishing schools above the heads of the displaced people who are sheltering inside them, nor for expanding military operations in the aforementioned areas.

Observing the Israeli strategy of bombing followed by illegal evacuation orders shows that there is a deliberate policy in place to deny security to Palestinians across the entire Gaza Strip by temporarily depriving them of shelter or stability. This policy consists of continuing to bomb the entire Strip and concentrating on targeting shelter centres, such as UNRWA schools.

Israel’s systematic policy of targeting the civilian population of the Gaza Strip is prohibited by international humanitarian law. Yet, Israel continues to intensify its bombing of shelter and displacement centres, targeting areas specifically designated as humanitarian spaces, and denying these people any stability, even temporarily, thereby carrying out long-term forced displacement and demolishing all necessities of life as part of its genocide that has been ongoing since 7 October 2023.

The ongoing Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip suggest that efforts are being made to maintain and strengthen the occupation’s hold on the besieged enclave. This is further demonstrated by the announcement made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said that he will not leave Philadelphi Corridor or Netzarim Axis despite enormous pressure to do so.

This is all taking place following a green light expressed in United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s declaration that the US will not tolerate a long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip; in other words, the US has approved a short-term occupation without putting a time limit on it. Notably, the US approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel earlier this month.

Israel’s military actions gravely breach international humanitarian law—particularly the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity—and have a negative impact on all Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

As part of their international obligations, all nations must impose strong sanctions on Israel and halt all forms of military, political, and financial assistance. This includes immediately cutting off all arms transfers to Israel, including export permits and military aid; otherwise, these nations will be complicit in and partners in the Israeli crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, including the crime of genocide.

Without US cover, cooperation, and silence, the crime of genocide would not have continued and escalated. The majority of the world’s nations must accept their responsibilities and take concrete action to protect civilians, halt the mass killing, and stop the crime of genocide from being completed.

Since the crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip are international crimes under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, it is imperative that the Court move forward with its investigation into all crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, broaden its investigation into individual criminal responsibility for these crimes in order to include all those responsible, and issue arrest warrants against them.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

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CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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How Israel Uses Its Legal System For Genocide

The Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling to deny a request to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip is a crucial component of a well-functioning colonial system designed to perpetrate the crime of genocide against the Strip’s people.

The ruling made 27 March is further evidence that the Israeli judiciary—which has never served as a tool of justice for Palestinians—functions as a part of a system in which all state institutions participate, whether Israel’s government, army and other security forces, military prosecution, courts, or media. All of these institutions blatantly violate international legal and humanitarian norms by committing crimes against Palestinians, aiding in the commission of such crimes by coordinating their activities, and/or providing a false legal cover.

The Israeli Supreme Court has explicitly and directly legitimised Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip. This blockade has denied food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity to over two million people—half of whom are children—for nearly 18 months. Meanwhile, human rights organizations have warned that Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid and basic supplies into the enclave for more than three consecutive weeks has accelerated famine in the Strip and led to the deaths of infants from starvation.

One of the most obvious examples of the complicity of all Israeli state institutions in the crime of genocide is the use of starvation as a declared weapon against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has now been made an official policy through a “political” decision validated by a court ruling.

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To support its ruling, the Israeli court used the argument that the State of Israel is exempt from the obligations of belligerent occupation under international law in all cases pertaining to the Gaza Strip. This blatantly violates established international legal norms that are acknowledged to apply to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It also goes against the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion and gravely breaches the ICJ rulings in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

The Fourth Geneva Convention, which applies to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Gaza Strip, is gravely violated by the Israeli court’s recent decision. The occupying power is required by the Convention to provide food and medical supplies to the occupied population. It is also required to permit relief efforts for the benefit of these populations in the event that local resources are insufficient, and to allow for the supply of facilities, including those conducted by states or humanitarian organizations, especially those involving food aid, clothing, and medical supplies.

Euro-Med Monitor emphasizes that the decision is a flagrant disregard of the rulings of the International Court of Justice in the South Africa v. Israel genocide case. In January and March of 2024, the Court mandated that Israel take prompt and decisive action to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential basic services to alleviate the terrible circumstances faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In coordination with the United Nations, these measures included providing food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, humanitarian aid, clothing, hygiene, and sanitation needs, as well as medical supplies and medical care to Palestinians across the Strip, including by expanding the number and capacity of land crossing points and keeping them open for as long as possible.

The International Court of Justice affirmed that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constituted a real and immediate threat of genocide to the Palestinian people there, as well as the possibility of irreversible harm and violations of Palestinians’rights to be protected from genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Israeli court’s rationale is therefore in direct opposition to the advisory opinion issued on 19 July 2024 by the International Court of Justice, the highest court in the world.

The ICJ unequivocally affirmed that Israel’s legal obligations were not terminated by its military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, as Israel still maintains effective control over key areas of the Strip, such as the buffer zone, the land, sea, and air borders, restrictions on the movement of people and goods, and tax control. Since 7 October 2023, this control has become much more intense. As a result, Israel continues to be the occupying force in accordance with international law and is responsible for providing humanitarian aid and other necessities to the civilian population in the Strip. 

The rejection of these fundamental legal precepts by the Israeli court is not just a misreading; rather, it is a deliberate judicial intervention aimed at denying the existence of the Israeli occupation and undermining the laws that safeguard the rights of the people who are subject to it. Viewed within the larger framework of institutional complicity that helps to enable and carry out Israel’s crime of genocide against the Palestinian people, this intervention turns the international legal system from a tool of protection into a cover for impunity.

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Israel has a legal duty to the people it governs, and this duty extends beyond its legal relationship with the territory. Instead, it necessitates a steadfast obligation to uphold and defend human rights and the principles of preemptive international law under all conditions. Israel’s responsibilities under fundamental human rights conventions, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other international instruments, extend beyond the regulations of occupation law and include duties pertaining to preventing population starvation and allowing the entry of humanitarian aid.

Regardless of a state’s legal standing under international law, its effective control over a territory serves as the foundation for its legal accountability for actions that impact this territory’s residents.

The presence of a state of occupation alone does not negate the duties of an occupying power to prevent the occupied population from living in substandard conditions or from suffering from severe physical or mental injury. 

Instead, these duties are enforced by preemptive standards of customary international law, such as the outright ban on crimes against humanity, such as apartheid and genocide. Whether in times of peace or conflict, these standards require all states to uphold these rights and guarantee their protection at all times.

All Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are experiencing a dire humanitarian situation, especially since Israel’s genocidal campaign of direct killings in the Strip resumed on 18 March. This occurs at a time when Israel has been using other tools of genocide against the Strip’s people for a year and a half now.

These tools include starvation, blockade, deprivation of virtually all means of survival, severe physical and psychological suffering, and the imposition of living conditions that are destructive, all of which are intended to destroy the Palestinian people there.

Not only does the ongoing situation in the Gaza Strip violate Israel’s legal obligations, but it also directly calls into question all other states’ adherence to their own obligations, whether these states are directly involved in the genocide or have not acted decisively to stop Israel if in a position to do so. The Fourth Geneva Convention, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and customary international law all bind these states. These regulations require states to actively work to prevent genocide and to abstain from any actions that facilitate, encourage, or open the door for its occurrence. 

The international community must stop enslaving the Palestinian people to a state that is using all of its official institutions to destroy their lives, drive them off their land, and threaten their shared national identity. Given its decades-long failure to uphold international law and apply it equitably to, and without discrimination against, Palestinians, the international community is directly responsible for the disastrous reality that Palestinians face today, wherever they may be. This failure reveals the biased foundations upon which the international system was established, as this system has deprived Palestinians of their most fundamental rights, most notably their right to exist.

All states must take up their individual and collective legal obligations and act quickly to put an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip. They must do everything they can to protect Palestinian civilians there, i.e. enforce all necessary measures to force Israel to immediately and fully lift the blockade; permit unhindered freedom of movement of people and goods; open all crossings without arbitrary conditions; and take decisive action to protect Palestinians from forced displacement and swift or slow-motion killing. This entails launching an immediate response to address the population’s pressing and pertinent needs, such as offering suitable temporary housing for displaced people.

The international community must impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel due to its systematic and serious violations of international law. These sanctions, which willincrease pressure on Israel to stop its crimes against Palestinians, should include barring arms exports to Israel; stopping military cooperation with Israel; freezing the financial assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that give Israel economic benefits.

In addition to acting to stop Israeli policies that violate the most fundamental humanitarian principles and endanger the lives of millions of civilians, the States Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention should fulfil their duty under Common Article 1 to uphold and guarantee adherence to the Convention under all circumstances.

The International Criminal Court must issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials involved in international crimes in the Gaza Strip, and expedite its ongoing investigations. Additionally, the Court ought to acknowledge and specifically address Israel’s crimes as genocide. The Rome Statute’s States Parties should fulfil their legal duties to assist the Court in every way possible;make sure that arrest warrants against Israeli officials are carried out; bring these officials to international justice; and make sure to end the policy of impunity that has been granted to these officials thus far.

Along with fulfilling its legal obligations, the international community must take immediate action to end the root causes of the suffering and persecution endured by the Palestinian people forthe past 76 years: Israeli occupation and settler-colonialism in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The international community must compel Israelto guarantee the Palestinians’ right to live in freedom, dignity, and self-determination in accordance with international law; to dismantle the system of apartheid and isolation imposed on the Palestinians; to lift the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip; to hold Israeli perpetrators and allies accountable and prosecute them; and to ensure Palestinian victims’ rights to compensation and redress.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

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Al-Duwairi: Houthi Missiles on Tel Aviv Confirms Failure of US Airstrikes on Yemen

The missiles launched by the Houthis at Israel do not make a significant military difference, according to military expert Major-General Fayez al-Duwairi. However, he said they confirm the failure of the US airstrikes to destroy the group’s capabilities and reveal the contradictions in Israeli statements regarding the interception of these missiles.

In an analysis of the military situation on Al Jazeera, al-Duwairi asserts that the Israeli military’s statement about the interception of the missile launched, Monday, before it entered Israeli airspace contradicts its statement about interceptor debris falling west of Jerusalem and south of Tel Aviv.

The fact that these debris fell on these areas, in al-Duwairi’s opinion, means that the missile bypassed Israeli air defenses, whilst confirming the Houthis’ possession of sonic missile technology. He added that this is something not many countries possess.

The fact that air raid sirens sounded only in Jerusalem and greater Tel Aviv, but not in the rest of Israel, confirms that the missile was not detected until it reached these specific areas, al-Duwairi said.

Confusion in Israeli Society


Whilst the Houthi missiles will not bring about a military change, according to the strategic expert, they put Israeli society on almost daily alert, disrupting daily life, and proving that the intensive US air campaign has not prevented the Houthis from launching attacks.

The Houthis’ launch of an eighth missile in just a few days demonstrates the failure of intensive US strikes to stop these attacks. The failure of Israeli defenses to detect the missiles before they entered Israeli airspace is a qualitative advantage for this Yemeni group.

As for the missiles that the Palestinian resistance has begun launching in the past few days, they carry more political than military messages, according to al-Duwairi, because it is impossible to compare the resistance’s capabilities today with those of the beginning of the war nearly 18 months ago.

However, the resistance’s ability to bombard greater Tel Aviv, as it did two days ago, confirms that it has a stockpile of missiles capable of causing disruption within Israel.

Yesterday evening, the Israeli Home Front Command announced that air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem and its suburbs, as well as in more than 200 towns and cities in central Israel, as a result of a missile launched from Yemen.

The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile with its Arrow missile system before it entered airspace. However, sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that explosions were heard in areas of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and the coastal region south of Tel Aviv following the launch of a missile from Yemen.

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