Geneva – Ma’an – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has documented a dangerous escalation in Israel’s systematic policy of targeting schools that have been turned into shelters for forcibly displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip without prior warning, killing and injuring hundreds of them, as part of the ongoing genocide since October 7.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that its field team documented the bombing by Israeli aircraft at midnight on Saturday, September 7, of the Halima al-Sadia School, which houses hundreds of forcibly displaced people in Jabalia al-Nazla, north of the Gaza Strip, killing four of them and wounding others.
Israeli aircraft also bombed Amr Ibn Al-Aas School, which houses displaced people, north of Gaza City, just before noon on Saturday, killing four Palestinians, one of them a child, and wounding others.
He pointed out that since the beginning of last August, the Israeli occupation army has bombed 16 schools used as shelters in the Gaza Strip, 15 of
them north of Wadi Gaza, which led to the killing of 217 Palestinians and the injury of hundreds, a large number of whom were women and children.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated that the Israeli army has also escalated its targeting of civilians in the last week in Gaza and North Gaza Governorates, by bombing residential homes, gatherings, and commercial stalls, in addition to shelters and their surroundings.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that targeting and destroying schools over the heads of displaced people is not based on any actual justification, and constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles of distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and the need to take necessary precautions. It added that the Israeli army tries every time to justify these attacks with claims of targeting military targets, without providing any evidence to prove the validity of these claims.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that these attacks are part of th
e actual implementation of the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and aim to empty the Palestinian land of the largest possible number of Palestinians through killing and forced displacement.
He stressed that the initial investigations conducted by his field team indicate that the Israeli army deliberately destroyed the remaining shelters in the Strip, including schools and public facilities, with the aim of creating a coercive environment that would force the civilian population to leave their areas of residence and be forcibly displaced towards the central and southern parts of the Strip.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor added that the plan revealed by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which states that the Israeli army is currently studying options to expel and displace the remaining Palestinians in the northern Gaza Valley under what is known as the ‘Generals’ Plan,’ represents further evidence of Israel’s intention to empty Gaza of its residents.
He pointed out that the Yedioth Ahro
noth newspaper’s talk about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s discussion with the army about implementing a fourth phase of his bloody war based on expelling residents from the northern Gaza Strip, is an indication that the forced displacement plan implemented by Israeli forces since the first days of the war, which has entered its eleventh consecutive month, is still in place, in the absence of any effective international positions against the genocide of the Palestinians.
He stressed that the complicity of the United States of America and many European countries in the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, in light of the international silence and failure to take any effective measures to stop the crime of genocide there, encourages Israel to complete its plans to exterminate the Palestinians en masse and eliminate them through direct and indirect killing and forced displacement.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that by following the m
ethodology of the Israeli bombing, it becomes clear that there is a clear policy aimed at targeting Palestinian civilians everywhere in the Gaza Strip, spreading panic among them, depriving them of shelter or stability, even for a moment, forcing them to flee repeatedly, destroying them and subjecting them to deadly living conditions, with the bombing continuing throughout the Strip and targeting areas declared as humanitarian areas, and focusing on targeting shelters, including those established in schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
He stressed that during the 11 months of the military attack on the Gaza Strip, and until the time of issuing this statement, the Israeli forces continue to launch military attacks in a clear and repeated pattern against civilian objects, mass killing of civilians, targeting refugee centers, most of which are located in United Nations facilities, and committing mass killings there, which constitute full-fledged war crimes and cr
imes against humanity, and constitute an act of genocide.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor renewed its call for all countries to assume their international responsibilities by stopping the crime of genocide and all serious crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, protecting civilians there, ensuring Israel’s compliance with the rules of international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, imposing effective sanctions on it, and stopping all forms of political, financial and military support and cooperation provided to it, including the immediate cessation of arms sales, exports and transfers to it, including export licenses and military aid.
He also called for holding accountable the countries that are complicit and partners with Israel in committing crimes, especially those that provide Israel with any form of support or assistance related to the commission of these crimes, including providing aid and engaging in contractual relations in the military, intelligence, pol
itical, legal, financial, media, and other fields that may contribute to the continuation of these crimes.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also calls for activating all available accountability and prosecution paths at the international, regional and local levels, including serious and joint work to activate the path of universal jurisdiction to hold accountable and prosecute perpetrators of crimes against Palestinian civilians before the national courts of countries that have this jurisdiction.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also urged the International Criminal Court to expedite the issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and to expand the scope of investigation into individual criminal responsibility for crimes committed in the Gaza Strip to include all those responsible, issue arrest warrants against them, hold them accountable, and recognize and deal with the crimes committed by Israel as genocide without e
quivocation.
Source: Maan News Agency