Massive destruction in Gaza ‘meets characteristics of genocide,’ says Special Committee to Investigate Israel’s report. Israel Special Committee Condemns Israeli Military Tactics in Gaza Peace and Security
Some 79 percent of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. Palestinians continue to be sent to the Al-Mawasi area and surrounding areas in southern Gaza, where basic infrastructure is lacking and basic services cannot be provided, the office said.
In the north of the Strip, Israel’s intense military operation continues. Louise Waterridge, a senior emergency officer at the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA), said residents of the northern areas of the enclave cannot even access emergency medical care.
“People are trapped in residential buildings, they are hiding from the ongoing military operations, they are running out of food,” Waterridge said.
The equivalent of two nuclear bombs
According to the latest figures from Gaza health authorities, at least 43,736 people have been killed and 103,370 injured as a result of the Israeli military operation since October 7, 2023. In the last 24 hours, 24 Palestinians have been killed and 112 wounded.
The General Assembly Special Committee on Israel’s Practices Towards the Palestinians has condemned the Israeli military’s tactics in the latest round of the Middle East conflict, which began with the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that left 1,250 people dead and 250 hostages.
The committee’s report, which covers the period from October 2023 to July 2024, says that some 25,000 tons of explosives, the equivalent of two nuclear bombs, have been dropped in Gaza by the beginning of this year.
The widespread destruction in the Strip, including the destruction of water and sewage systems and toxic pollution, “meets the characteristics of genocide” and will impact the health of Gazans for years to come. generations, the authors of the report emphasize.
“The use of artificial intelligence-based targeting systems with minimal human control, coupled with heavy bombs, by the Israeli military highlights Israel’s disregard for its responsibility to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths,” the Special Committee’s experts said.
Starvation as a Method of Warfare
“Through the siege of Gaza, the obstruction of humanitarian assistance, and the targeted attacks on and killing of civilians and humanitarian workers, in defiance of repeated UN calls, binding International Court rulings and Security Council resolutions, Israel is deliberately causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of warfare and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,” the Special Committee’s experts stressed. representatives of the committee.
In Gaza, Israeli soldiers were also observed engaging in “inhumane, cruel and degrading behavior towards Palestinians, including women and children,” the committee said, adding. Israeli military personnel, in particular, posted photos of Palestinian women on social media with the aim of humiliating and ridiculing them.
Member States of the Committee – Malaysia, Senegal and Sri Lanka – called on Israel and Palestinian armed groups to “urgently agree on a lasting ceasefire, release all hostages and arbitrarily detained persons”, grant the International Committee of the Red Cross unimpeded access to detainees and open all border crossings to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza in the quantities needed.
Israeli media censorship
The Committee condemned the “ongoing smear campaign” against UNRWA and expressed concern about the “deliberate suppression of reports” on the conflict in Gaza. The experts said that Israel’s “increased media censorship” and “suppression of dissent and harassment of journalists” constituted a “deliberate effort to block global access to information.”
The Committee also noted that social media companies disproportionately “removed pro-Palestinian content compared to posts inciting violence against Palestinians.”
The report will be presented to the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on 18 November 2024.