Geneva, Amnesty International said that the order the Israeli army gave to the people of northern Gaza and Gaza city to evacuate to the south of the Gaza Strip, is not considered an effective warning and may amount to a violation of the international humanitarian law, in the form of a forced displacement of the civilian population.
The NGO issued a statement on Saturday saying, “Regardless of the timeframe, Israel cannot treat northern Gaza as an open-fire zone based on having issued this order. Their forces have an obligation to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians wherever they are in Gaza,” Amnesty Internationals Secretary General Agnes Callamard stated, “With this order, Israeli forces are setting in motion the mass forced displacement of more than 1.1 million people from Gaza city and the entire northern part of the Gaza Strip. It has sowed panic among the population and left thousands of internally displaced Palestinians now sleeping on the streets, not knowing where to flee to or where they can find safety amid a relentless bombing campaign by Israel and merciless collective punishment measures. This order must be rescinded immediately,” Callamard added, “Israels allies and donor states must urgently call for international humanitarian law to be respected and civilians to be protected. Civilians in Gaza must not be used as political pawns and their lives cannot be devalued. The international community must also refrain from further legitimizing Israels 16-year long illegal blockade and immediately halt the transfer of arms that could be used to commit unlawful attacks,” According to the UNs Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, since the escalations began, 532,000 Palestinians in Gaza became internally displaced.
Moreover, the roads in northern Gaza got severely damaged by Israel’s air strikes, leaving no public transportation available, and very little fuel due to the tightening of the already existing blockade. Therefore, rescue teams are not able to arrive to the areas of northern Gaza in order to dig out hundreds of bodies trapped under the rubble.
The Ministry of Health announced earlier today that the number of martyrs from the ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank has risen, for the eighth day in a row, to 2,269 martyrs and 9,814 injured.
Source: Qatar News Agency