Rights body details Israeli forces crimes in north Gaza

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor provided the information in a report on Monday.

The report showed how the Israeli military has been subjecting the Gazans to direct killings, extrajudicial executions, mass starvation, and ethnic cleansing “with no justification whatsoever” as part of its now-13-month-old genocidal war on the coastal sliver.

Israeli forces, the report noted, have been committing the crimes by bombing homes with residents inside, committing mass killings against displaced civilians in shelters, and targeting gatherings and vehicles.

The forces have also embarked on bringing about “the largest cases of forced displacement in modern history” against the targeted civilians, it said.

The period in question, throughout which the Israeli military has markedly intensified its deadly aggression against northern Gaza, has seen it “conducting its third incursion and military offensive” against the targeted areas and “committing heinous atrocities,” the body stated.

The combined killing and displacement routine was being carried out with the aim of “terrorizing civilians” among other things, it said.

According to Euro-Med, the Israeli military has, meanwhile, been preventing civil defense and medical teams from accessing the victims, including those who have been buried under the rubble in northern Gaza, for the past 25 days.

Beit Lahia has turned into a specific target of the campaign for the past 10 days, with the forces pushing some 5,000 civilians there into various gathering points, and targeting those who would try to return to their homes to retrieve direly-needed food, which is unavailable at the gathering sites.

The rights body, meanwhile, denounced the international community’s reluctance to take decisive action against the Israeli regime, which has claimed the lives of more than 43,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, during its October 2023-present genocidal war on Gaza.

The inaction “makes it (the international community) complicit in these crimes and grants Israel a green light to escalate its genocide. This also reflects a shocking disregard for the lives and dignity of Palestinians,” it lamented.

“The international system, including the International Criminal Court, the European Union, and various United Nations bodies, has collectively failed to achieve the fundamental goals and principles upon which they were founded.”

Throughout the course of the war, the institutions have “demonstrated a disgraceful failure to protect civilians and halt the genocide Israel is perpetrating against Palestinians in Gaza, a duty that lies at the core of their mission and existence,” Euro-Med said.

It called for various punitive measures against the regime, including “a comprehensive arms embargo,” and holding it accountable for all of its crimes.