RAMALLAH, Thursday, November 2, 2023 (WAFA0 - The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Al-Haq, urgently called on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel to strongly condemn the ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity and incitement of and intent to commit acts of genocide against the Palestinian people perpetrated by Israeli authorities in the occupied Gaza Strip.
Beginning on October 7, 2023, Israel initiated a large-scale, destructive, retaliatory military campaign against Gaza, primarily and deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, with outspoken genocidal intent. On 19 October, a joint statement by UN Special Rapporteurs warned, “We are sounding the alarm: There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza. Considering statements made by Israeli political leaders and their allies, accompanied by military action in Gaza and escalation of arrests and killing in the West Bank, there is also a risk of genocide against the Palestinian People”.
The currently ongoing large-scale Israeli offensive—carried out amid an ongoing 16-year-long illegal land, air, and sea closure and blockade of Gaza, an illegal act of collective punishment—aims to inflict mass-scale destruction on Gaza, involving airstrikes, artillery bombardments, and a land invasion, all of which have indiscriminately targeted residential areas, commercial centers, holy sites, refugee camps, schools, and hospitals. As part of its ravaging warfare against Gaza, Israel has imposed further measures tightening its full siege of Gaza by cutting off water, food, electricity, fuel, medicines and other essential supplies necessary for the survival of the population.
By now, Gaza has been enduring a full electricity blackout for almost three weeks, whereas hospitals operate at minimum capacity or at the brink of collapse. Israel, enabled by other actors, has turned Gaza into a humanitarian catastrophe. As of 31 October, according to OCHA at least 8,525 Palestinians have been killed and 21,543 injured in the Gaza Strip since 7 October. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 125 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers until today. Additionally, OCHA estimates that, as of October 30, there are at least 1.4 million internally displaced people, more than 40 percent of whom are staying in UNRWA schools in central and southern Gaza in difficult conditions.
Moreover, on 13 October, Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate from northern Gaza within 24 hours to southern Gaza—an act deemed impossible by UN bodies and experts considering the ongoing aerial bombardment, siege, and lack of electricity, water and food. The UN Secretary-General warned against the devastating humanitarian consequences of such orders. The UN expert on the human rights of internally displaced persons condemned it as a crime against humanity and a form of collective punishment prohibited under international law. The World Health Organization called the evacuation order “a death sentence for the sick and injured.” The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory warned against a repeat of the 1948 Nakba and 1967 Nakba yet on a larger scale. Israeli forces have attacked convoys of Palestinian civilians, killing at least 70 people, in violation of ‘safe’ passage assurances.
Customary international humanitarian law Rule 129(A) dictates that “[p]arties to an international armed conflict may not deport or forcibly transfer the civilian population of an occupied territory, in whole or in part, unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand.” Similarly, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a party, entirely prohibits individual or mass forcible transfers from occupied territory and only permits evacuation from a part of the occupied territory for security or imperative military reasons. However, as highlighted in our detailed analysis, both exceptions, the “security of the civilians” and “imperative military reasons” do not qualify in this case. The evacuation orders have subjected the lives of at least one million Palestinians in Gaza to an increased risk. As such, and in view of the absence of any guarantees of safety or return for those ordered to evacuate – as required by customary international humanitarian law Rule 132 – the evacuation orders are in grave violation of international humanitarian law and may amount to the war crime of forcible transfer per Articles 7(1)(d) and 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute. Here, it is imperative to emphasize that the evacuation orders do not absolve Israel, the Occupying Power, from its obligations to protect civilians and civilian objects from indiscriminate attacks.
Among other destructive means of warfare, and in targeting civilian objects in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, Israel has used white phosphorus – an illegal weapon that inflicts significant bodily harm upon people, including “excruciating burns and lifelong suffering”. Israel's use of white phosphorus munitions deliberately targeting civilians and civilian objects is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including prohibitions on intentionally launching an attack with knowledge of causing incidental loss of life or injury to civilians, willful killings, and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body and health, and constitutes prosecutable war crimes.
Additionally, Israel’s imposition of a total siege on Gaza, leading to the deprivation of basic supplies necessary for the survival of the population, including food and clean water, also likely amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity in accordance with Rome Statute Articles 8(2)(b)(xxv), 7(1)(b), 7(2)(b), and 7(1)(k). Meanwhile, the extensive targeting and destruction of civilian property and objects in Gaza, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, constitute war crimes.
Israel’s dehumanization of the Palestinian people, to maintain Israeli Jewish domination amounts to inhumane acts within the meaning of the Apartheid Convention. In addition, the scale and pattern of killing, the imposed siege depriving water, food, medicines, electricity and fuel, and large-scale intentional targeting of civilians to inflict serious bodily and mental harm, may constitute deliberate acts intended to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza, within the meaning of Article 2 of the Genocide Convention. Over the past three weeks, Israeli government officials and military personnel have made statements indicating a clear intent to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, and incitement to genocide, using dehumanizing language to describe Palestinians to justify the ongoing massacres in Gaza;
In light of all the aforementioned, and as Palestinians in Gaza, human rights organizations, scholars, and practitioners around the world send clear warnings against a potential genocide, the Palestinian civil society organizations urgently asked the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel to:
● Call on the international community to take immediate and urgent action to enact a ceasefire and demand an end to the illegal siege and occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem;
● Call on the international community, including states and international bodies, to take concrete steps to protect the population in the Gaza Strip, including through ensuring the revocation of Israeli decisions to cut off water, electricity, and food, and facilitating unimpeded access for humanitarian aid, including medical supplies;
● Recognize the root causes of the ongoing Israeli military aggression, illegal occupation and apartheid, as a tool of its settler-colonial regime;
● Acknowledge and call for the realization of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, including their right to return, by urging the end to and the dismantling of Israel's settler colonial apartheid regime and illegal military occupation;
● Call on states to refrain from assisting in maintaining the illegal situation caused by Israel's violations of peremptory norms. States should immediately cease providing military equipment used in Israeli war crimes and refrain from issuing statements that greenlight aggressive force under the guise of "self-defense”. States also have an obligation to cooperate in ending the illegal situation, and therefore, it is imperative to urge states to intervene to cease Israel’s attacks, impose targeted economic sanctions on government and military leaders, and implement an arms embargo;
● Call on the UN Security Council to impose targeted economic sanctions on government and military leaders and other countermeasures until Israel adheres to its obligations under international law;
● Call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to expedite the investigation into the Situation in Palestine with full resources and on-site visits, as promised in December 2022, to ensure accountability for the egregious violations taking place in and outside of Gaza.
M.K.
