In response to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest comments on the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:
“It is right that Rishi Sunak has expressed horror at the cruel and brutal crimes against Israeli civilians committed by Hamas a week ago, which showed a chilling disregard for life and included war crimes.
“But for the Prime Minister not to mention the Palestinian civilians killed due to Israeli airstrikes or include any call for all parties to the conflict to uphold international humanitarian law, is deeply troubling.
“Israel’s massive bombing campaign in Gaza has already killed at least 1,900 people and injured more than 8,000. The collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population through restricting water, fuel, food and electricity is a war crime, and the Israeli army’s order to people in northern Gaza to ‘evacuate’ amounts to forced displacement.
“Now more than ever, world leaders should urgently pressure all parties to uphold international humanitarian law consistently and without double standards. The protection of all civilians – Israeli and Palestinian – must be prioritised.”
Palestinians walk through debris along a street in the aftermath of Israeli bombardment in al-Karama district in Gaza City on October 11, 2023. (Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The mass expulsion of over 1 million people in a day is ethnic cleansing,” said U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. “We must use all diplomatic tools to stop this.”
Progressive members of the U.S. Congress joined humanitarian groups and the United Nations on Friday in condemning Israel’s 24-hour evacuation order for the entire population of the northern Gaza Strip, a directive that will be impossible for many in the region to meet—particularly the thousands wounded by Israeli airstrikes.
“Any person can see that ordering 1+ million people to move in under 24 hours is not possible. It is unacceptable,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. “Humanity is at stake. Nearly half are children. We must halt this.”
More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel began its latest bombing campaign in Gaza following a deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
In the wake of Israel’s order—which came hours before the nation launched ground raids in Gaza—many panicked residents fled their homes in the northern part of the enclave, with some fearing another permanent displacement on the scale of the 1948 Nakba.
“As I am packing my things I am wondering, is this really another Nakba?” 56-year-old Arwa El-Rayes, an internal medicine doctor, told The New York Times shortly before fleeing her home in Gaza City. “I am taking my house key and thinking, will I ever return to my home, will I ever see my home again?”
Reuters reported that “several thousand residents could be seen on roads heading out of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but it was impossible to tell their numbers. Many others said they would not go.”
A 33-year-old woman in Gaza City toldThe Washington Post that she’s staying along with dozens of family members, including her elderly parents.
“There are no cars to take us anywhere,” she said. “There is no gas in cars. Cab companies don’t have cars anymore. The streets are so, so, so, so crowded, it’s like it’s the Day of Judgement.”
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) argued that “the mass expulsion of over 1 million people in a day is ethnic cleansing.”
“We have to stop ignoring the thousands of Palestinian lives lost and millions at stake!” Omar added. “We must use all diplomatic tools to stop this.”
Echoing aid groups, the Minnesota lawmaker emphasized that many in northern Gaza—including people with disabilities and those wounded by Israeli bombs—”can’t simply pick up and leave” in compliance with Israel’s evacuation directive, which the U.N. said is untenable and should be rescinded.
“With communications and electricity shut down by Israel, the order cannot be communicated,” Omar wrote. “Roads are bombed and many cars are out of fuel, making fleeing impossible for many. Plus there has been no announcement of a pause in hostilities to allow for safe civilian evacuation, so people are afraid to leave and risk bombardment. Even if it were successful, there is no infrastructure in southern Gaza to receive an additional 1.1 million people.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society underscored those warnings in a statement Friday, saying it doesn’t have “the means to evacuate the sick and the wounded in our hospitals, or the elderly and the disabled.”
“There are no safe areas in the whole of the Gaza Strip,” the group said. “The world must intervene to stop this catastrophe.”
Israeli forces have already been accused of targeting Gazans attempting to flee to the south with airstrikes.
Israel bombed a truck full of Palestinians trying to evacuate, killing at least 40.
Palestinians are being massacred by Israel – while trying to follow Israel’s impossible order to “evacuate” over 1 million Palestinians from north Gaza within 24 hours.
Despite urgent appeals from lawmakers and aid organizations, officials in the U.S.—Israel’s top ally and leading supplier of weaponry—have provided no public indication that they will pressure Israel to reverse course.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told people in Gaza City on Friday to “evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families” as it amasses tanks and troops for an apparently imminent full-scale ground invasion. Hamas has reportedly told Gazans to defy the IDF’s instructions.
Asked about Israel’s evacuation order during a CNN appearance on Friday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said he doesn’t want to get involved in “armchair quarterbacking” the situation, adding, “We understand what they’re trying to do.”
“Now it’s a tall order,” Kirby admitted. “It’s a million people, and it’s a very urban, dense environment. It’s already a combat zone. So I don’t think anybody’s underestimating the challenge here of effecting that evacuation.”
The White House’s soft-pedaling of Israel’s directive contrasts sharply with the assessments of human rights organizations, which argued the order amounts to a war crime that will worsen an already calamitous situation.
“The instructions issued by the Israeli authorities for the population of Gaza City to immediately leave their homes, coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday. “When military powers order people to leave their homes, all possible measures must be taken to ensure the population has access to basic necessities like food and water and that members of the same family are not separated.”
“Gaza is a closed area of limited size and resources,” the ICRC added. “People have nowhere safe to go and many, including the disabled, elderly, and sick, will not be able to leave their homes. International humanitarian law protects all civilians, including those who remain. Today, it is impossible for Gazans to know which areas will next face attack.”
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to. Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route.
Gaza’s health ministry toldThe Independent that it would be “impossible” to move the wounded in its care to southern Gaza, given that the entire territory’s healthcare system is overwhelmed and teetering on the brink of total collapse due to the rapid influx of airstrike victims and Israel’s blockade, which has cut off the enclave’s supply of electricity, fuel, and critical supplies.
More than 6,600 people in Gaza have been injured by Israel’s relentless aerial campaign, which dropped roughly 6,000 bombs on the occupied enclave over just a six-day period, leveling entire neighborhoods and damaging medical facilities, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to,” Gaza’s health ministry said. “Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route. All hospitals in Gaza, even after they’ve been expanded, are full.”
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, noted that “there are severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support, such as mechanical ventilators.”
“So moving those people is a death sentence,” said Jasarevic. “Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel.”
Meinie Nicolai, general director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Friday that the Israeli military’s evacuation order is “outrageous.” The group said Israel has given Al Awda Hospital—where Doctors Without Borders staff are treating patients—just two hours to evacuate.
“This represents an attack on medical care and on humanity. We are talking about more than a million human beings,” said Nicolai. “‘Unprecedented’ doesn’t even cover the medical humanitarian impact of this. Gaza is being flattened, thousands of people are dying. This must stop now. We condemn Israel’s demand in the strongest possible terms.”
An Israeli white phosphorus round (right) airbursts over densely populated Gaza City, Palestine on October 11, 2023. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,” said one Human Rights Watch official.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday said it has confirmed reports that Israeli military forces unleashed white phosphorus munitions during artillery attacks on targets in Lebanon and Gaza this week, including over a heavily populated civilian area of the besieged Palestinian strip—an apparent war crime.
HRW said it has interviewed witnesses and verified video footage shot in Lebanon and Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday “showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.”
The HRW announcement came as Israeli forces continue to bombard Gaza from air, land, and sea in an assault that has killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, including at least 500 children, in retaliation for Hamas’ surprise infiltration of Israel and killing of over 1,300 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
BREAKING: Israel has used white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, putting civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries.
Upon contact, white phosphorus can burn people, thermally and chemically, down to the bone as it is highly soluble in fat and therefore in human flesh. White phosphorus fragments can exacerbate wounds even after treatment and can enter the bloodstream and cause multiple organ failure. Already dressed wounds can reignite when dressings are removed and the wounds are reexposed to oxygen. Even relatively minor burns are often fatal. For survivors, extensive scarring tightens muscle tissue and creates physical disabilities.
WP burns as hot as 1,500°F. Water does not extinguish it.
“Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,” HRW Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih said in a statement. “White phosphorous is unlawfully indiscriminate when airburst in populated urban areas, where it can burn down houses and cause egregious harm to civilians.”
The israeli regime is using internationally-prohibited white phosphorus to bomb Gaza’s Sea Port & cause maximum suffering @OnlinePalEngpic.twitter.com/GuLkWbp52T
“To avoid civilian harm, Israel should stop using white phosphorus in populated areas,” Fakih added. “Parties to the conflict should be doing everything they can to spare civilians from further suffering.”
HRW previously accused Israel of war crimes for using WP munitions in densely populated areas—including over a United Nations school—during the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead invasion of Gaza. In response to a 2013 petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice filed by human rights groups including HRW, the Israel Defense Forces said it would no longer use WP in populated areas, with “very narrow exceptions” that it would not disclose.
Israel used white phosphorus, an illegal chemical weapon, against Palestinians in Gaza, @HRW confirms.
White phosphorus causes severe burns upon contact with skin—burns on just 10% of your body can be deadly. Israel’s use of it on civilians is a blatant war crime.
Other countries’ militaries also use WP, most notably the United States, which fired the incendiary rounds during the 2004 battle for Fallujah and elsewhere in the so-called War on Terror.
In 2016, Saudi Arabia was condemned for allegedly firing U.S.-supplied WP munitions against Houthi rebels in Yemen. WP and other incendiary weapons have also been used by Syrian government and Russian forces fighting Islamic State and other militants during the Syrian civil war. Turkey has also been accused of firing WP rounds at Kurdish civilians in Syria.
HAMAS has shocked the world with both the scale and success of its attack on Israeli territory over the weekend — and British politicians have been quick to offer Israel their full support.
Hundreds of Israelis have been killed or kidnapped and, while hundreds of Palestinians have already been killed in vengeful air raids on Gaza, the Israeli military was still struggling to reassert control within its borders last night.
Benjamin Netanyahu does not downplay the disaster, warning the country is on the brink of “a long war.” If that is the case, as demonstrators marching on the Labour conference in Liverpool today warned, it will entail many thousands of deaths.
But for millions of Palestinians that “long war” didn’t begin on Saturday. Keir Starmer portrays Hamas’s action as an unjustifiable act of terror, and talks of it undermining “any chance for future peace in the region.”
His rhetoric is familiar: political leaders across western Europe and the United States respond in this way every time Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and blockade of Gaza flare into open conflict. But this default alignment with Israel is partly responsible for the scenes now unfolding.
“It is illegal for U.S. aid to support human rights violations,” said the Vermont senator. by Jake Johnson, staff writer
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Sunday that lawmakers must “take a hard look” at the nearly $4 billion in military aid the U.S. sends to Israel on an annual basis as the Netanyahu regime continues its devastating assault on Gaza and attempts to forcefully expel Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
“The devastation in Gaza is unconscionable. We must urge an immediate ceasefire,” Sanders, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, tweeted Sunday. “The killing of Palestinians and Israelis must end. We must also take a hard look at nearly $4 billion a year in military aid to Israel. It is illegal for U.S. aid to support human rights violations.”
“Now is the time to send a clear message to the Israeli government: Not one dollar more of U.S. military aid can be used to demolish Palestinian homes, annex Palestinian lands, and torture or kill Palestinian children.” —Rep. Betty McCollum
The senator’s call came after Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed 42 Palestinians early Sunday, bringing the death toll since last week closer to 200.
Thanks to a 10-year deal inked during the Obama presidency in 2016, Israel receives roughly $3.8 billion a year in military assistance from the United States. In a budget blueprint released last month, President Joe Biden indicated that he intends to adhere to the terms of the 2016 deal, which sends Israel $3.3 billion in military aid and $500 million for missile defense systems each year.
In the wake of Israeli security forces’ attack on worshipers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound last week, several members of Congress vocally reiterated their support for adding strict human rights conditions to the billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to pressure the Israeli government to end its brutal repression of Palestinians.
Under legal provisions known as the Leahy laws, the U.S. government is barred from providing military assistance “to any unit” of a country’s security forces that is committing “a gross violation of human rights”—mandates that have been applied only selectively in practice.
“American taxpayer money is being used to commit human rights violations,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the first Palestinian-American woman ever elected to Congress, tweeted last Monday. “Congress must condition the aid we send to Israel, and end it altogether if those conditions are not followed.”
In a joint statement that same day, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), André Carson (D-Ind.), and Tlaib lamented that “we continue to provide the Israeli government with over $3 billion in military aid every year—with no conditions or accountability for wanton human rights abuses and continuing illegal seizures of Palestinian land.”
Last month, before Israel’s latest bombardment of Gaza began, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) introduced legislation that would prohibit Israel from using U.S. military aid in the occupied territories for “military detention, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention”; seizing or destroying Palestinian property and homes; or supporting the annexation of Palestinian territory.
The bill currently has just 19 co-sponsors in the House, including Omar, Carson, and Tlaib as well as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“Now is the time to send a clear message to the Israeli government: Not one dollar more of U.S. military aid can be used to demolish Palestinian homes, annex Palestinian lands, and torture or kill Palestinian children,” McCollum toldThe Intercept last week. “Members need to decide if they want to talk peace and perpetuate conflict or if they want to really work toward reducing violence and conflict while actually taking a stand to advance human rights.
Originally published by Common Dreams. Shared under Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
WASHINGTON – Israeli forces have displayed a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians by carrying out a number of airstrikes targeting residential buildings in some cases killing entire families – including children – and causing wanton destruction to civilian property, in attacks that may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, said Amnesty International today.
The organization has documented four deadly attacks by Israel launched on residential homes without prior warning and is calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently investigate these attacks. The death toll in Gaza continues to climb with at least 198 Palestinians killed including 58 children and more than 1,220 injured. Ten people in Israel, including two children, have been killed and at least 27 injured by Palestinian attacks.
“There is a horrific pattern emerging of Israel launching air strikes in Gaza targeting residential buildings and family homes – in some cases entire families were buried beneath the rubble when the buildings they lived in collapsed. In the cases documented below, no prior warning was given to the civilian residents to allow them to escape. Under international humanitarian law, all parties must distinguish between military targets and civilian objects and direct their attacks only at military objectives. When carrying out attacks, parties must take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians,” said Saleh Higazi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
