Due to the sealed borders and the minuscule passage of food, water medicine and fuel through the single Rafah crossing from Egypt, many Palestinians are already down to a single meal a day.
Israel expands its mass starvation campaign
to include more than 65 percent of the Gaza Strip
Since Israel resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip last Friday following a one-week temporary humanitarian truce, humanitarian supplies have been completely prevented from entering Gaza and its northern areas, which have been isolated by the Israeli army for more than a month now as part of its ground incursions.
According to Euro-Med Monitor, Israel has extended its restrictions on humanitarian aid to encompass over 65% of the Gaza Strip’s total area.
The Israeli orders to evacuate roughly 20% of Khan Yunis City, which is home to over 110,000 people, as well as 21 shelter centres that house roughly 50,000 displaced people—the great majority of whom have already been recently displaced from north Gaza in Israel’s ongoing assault on the Strip—are likewise a cause for deep concern, stated Euro-Med Monitor.
Along with the forced evacuation orders and increasingground incursions in the Khan Yunis Governorate, the Geneva-based organisation warned that Israel would soon be expanding its ban on the entry of humanitarian supplies even further as part of its plan to forcibly displace the people of Gaza.
Israel has been using its starvation campaign as a tool of subjugation since the beginning of its ongoing genocide inthe Gaza Strip. This campaign includes bombing and destroying bakeries, factories, grocery stores, water stations, and tanks, in addition to cutting off all food supplies.
Since the start of the genocide, Israel has imposed a complete closure on the Gaza Strip, halting the delivery ofall food, water, electricity, and fuel supplies. Israel initiallyprohibited humanitarian aid services for Palestinians in the northern parts of Gaza City and its surrounding areas, and later broadened the purview of this ban, taking advantage of the passivity of international and humanitarian groups.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor stressed that, as the occupying power in Gaza, Israel is prohibited from using starvation and cutting off humanitarian supplies as a tool of war, and is required by international humanitarian law to protect and meet the needs of the people living there.
The human rights group called for swift international action to impose a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and stop the situation from degenerating further by allowing all residents fair and unrestricted access to basic and relief supplies, i.e. by ensuring that fuel, food, water, medical supplies, and other necessities are readily available.
As part of its genocide in Gaza,
Israel escalates its targeting of
schools housing displaced people
.
Geneva – Israel’s escalation of its attacks on UNRWA-run schools housing displaced persons in different areas of the Gaza Strip was strongly condemned by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor in a statement released on Wednesday.
The Euro-Med Monitor team has monitored intense Israeli air and artillery attacks on at least five UNRWA-run schools over the past 24 hours. These attacks have caused hundreds of casualties, and are a grave violation of the legal immunity that should be enjoyed by UN facilities.
The attacks last night and this morning targeted the UNRWA-run Palestine School in the northern Gaza Strip’s Jabalia camp; Al-Falah School in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, located in the south of Gaza City; the Salah Al-Din School in the Al-Ramali neighbourhood, located in the north of Gaza; and another school in the Bani Suhaila area in Khan Younes.
Dozens of additional displaced people were killed and injured yesterday, on Tuesday 5 December, as a result of Israeli attacks targeting the Ma’an School in Khan Yunis. Yesterday also saw another school being collaterally damaged as a result of artillery shelling—causing the killing of at least four displaced people and the wounding of 20 others.
The hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who are seeking a safe haven from Israel’s attacks are packed into every single UNRWA school in the Strip, Euro-Med Monitor reported.
According to preliminary figures provided by the rights group, 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are internally displaced, with 1.2 million people living in 156 UNRWA-run facilities across the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel started its genocide in the Strip on 7 October, UNRWA has recorded more than 120 attacks on its facilities, including direct attacks on more than 30 UNRWA-run facilities. Several of these schools, which provide refuge to displaced individuals, have been attacked more than once, including Al-Fakhoura School in the Jabalia camp.
Al-Fakhoura School was subjected to an Israeli air strike on 19 November, leaving hundreds dead or wounded, some of whom were sleeping at the time of the attack. The same school was subjected to intense artillery shelling on 4 November, causing dozens of casualties.
The Tal al-Zaatar School in the northern Gaza Strip was also subjected to several Israeli attacks, the most severe of which was on 18 November and led to the death of more than 50 people and the injury of dozens others.
Like all UN facilities, UNRWA buildings display the UN flag on their roofs, and the relevant Israeli authorities are periodically notified of the coordinates of all schools and centres that have been converted into emergency shelters for civilians.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor stressed that Israel must fulfill all its obligations in accordance with international humanitarian law. The Geneva-based rights organisation demanded that Israel immediately stop its targeting of civilians and UN facilities, and respect the basic principle of the inviolability and immunity of such international facilities under the rules of war.
