Gaza – Ma’an – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned of the danger of the illegal evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, and Mawasi al-Qarara west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, which means imposing more forced displacement and narrowing the area in which nearly two million people are crowded.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement that the successive illegal evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army, the most recent of which was issued on Wednesday morning, which demanded that all civilians, including forcibly displaced persons, reside in Blocks 129 and 130 in the ‘Al-Mahta’ area and Deir al-Balah to the south, an area that includes tens of thousands of residents and is close to the ‘Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, and the previous illegal evacuation orders targeting residents of eastern and southern Deir al-Balah, indicate that Israel is continuing to expand its attack on Deir al-Balah, which is crowded with on
e million people, most of whom are displaced from northern and southern Gaza.

Deir al-Balah currently houses nearly half of the Gaza Strip’s population who were forcibly displaced and fled from all over the Gaza Strip, especially from northern Gaza and Rafah, due to deliberate bombardment from the air, land and sea, which has affected entire residential areas and targeted shelters, hospitals, public and private civilian facilities, coupled with military orders calling on residents to head south and Deir al-Balah or ‘Al-Mawasi’ which are currently being targeted by illegal evacuation orders and bombardment.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that the Israeli army’s reduction of what it calls the ‘humanitarian zone’ by targeting large areas within it with illegal evictions, as happened in Mawasi al-Qarara and Deir al-Balah, indicates that Israel is seeking to cram nearly two million people into a narrow strip and is constantly shrinking it, such that the density in the area has become unprec
edented in the world, at a time when the displaced cannot find a place to set up their tents.

He stated that many local and international humanitarian organizations are based in Deir al-Balah, and the escalation of the attack on the city puts partial humanitarian work at risk of being halted, which means more existential risks for the residents of the Gaza Strip.

He pointed out that the Israeli army had previously announced that it had completed its military operations in the Gaza Strip, which means that expanding operations towards Deir al-Balah and expanding the systematic destruction of residential areas in Rafah and the areas of “Hamad City” and “Al-Qarara” in Khan Yunis, is evidence of Israel’s efforts to completely destroy the Gaza Strip and eliminate any chances of life there, whether now or in the future.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor pointed out that Israeli aircraft bombed several buildings in Gaza City, including the Al-Jazeera Hotel yesterday, Tuesday, despite the end of military
operations in that area and the destruction of most of them in the incursions and aerial bombardment that have been ongoing for more than 10 months.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the Israeli army continues to bomb shelters set up in schools in Gaza City, as happened yesterday when it bombed the Mustafa Hafez School, which is crowded with thousands of displaced people, killing 12 of the displaced people there and wounding dozens of others. This is the eleventh school to be bombed, destroyed and have displaced people killed since the beginning of August.

He stressed that bombing and destroying schools over the heads of the displaced people inside them, as is the case with bombing buildings and expanding military operations in areas crowded with displaced people, has no real justification, and the military necessity is absent.

He stressed that following the methodology of the Israeli bombing and illegal evacuation orders indicates the existence of a clear policy aimed at stripping the
entire Gaza Strip of security and depriving Palestinians of shelter or stability, even momentarily, through the continuation of the bombing throughout the Strip and focusing on targeting shelter centers, including those established in schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in parallel with the evacuation orders.

He stressed that Israel is adopting a systematic policy of targeting the civilian population and individuals in the Gaza Strip who are protected under international humanitarian law, wherever they are, and depriving them of any stability, even temporary, in displacement and shelter centers, by intensifying the bombing of these centers on the heads of the displaced people inside them, and targeting areas declared as humanitarian areas; in an insistence on imposing forced displacement and destroying all the basic components of life as part of the crime of genocide that has been ongoing since October 7.

The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor warned that the curren
t Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip indicate that what is happening is an attempt to consolidate the occupation and keep it in the Gaza Strip. This is also evidenced by what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced of his refusal to withdraw from the Philadelphi and Netzarim axes despite all the pressure.

He pointed out that all of this is taking place with an American green light, which was expressed by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, that the United States does not accept any long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, which means that it has given a green light to a short-term occupation without specifying a time period for that.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that civilians in the Gaza Strip are paying the price for Israeli military attacks that seriously violate the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the principles of distinction, proportionality and military necessity.

Accordingly, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor renewed
its call on all countries to assume their international responsibilities by imposing effective sanctions on Israel, and to stop all forms of political, financial and military support and cooperation provided to it, including the immediate cessation of arms transfers to it, including export licenses and military aid. Otherwise, these countries will be complicit and partners in the crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, including the crime of genocide.

He stressed that this escalation and persistence in the crime of genocide would not have continued and escalated without the American cover and partnership and the silence of the majority of the world’s countries, which must assume their responsibilities and take practical steps to protect civilians, stop the mass killing and prevent the completion of the crime of genocide.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also urged the International Criminal Court to proceed with the investigation into all crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, and to expand th
e scope of investigation into individual criminal responsibility for these crimes to include all those responsible for them, issue arrest warrants against them, and recognize and deal with the crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip as a crime of genocide without equivocation, as they are international crimes that fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Source: Maan News Agency