THE SET-UP: I started asking a simple question about a month after Israel began its military response to the October 7 attack. Civilian casualties seemed disproportionately high … and particularly high among children and early teens. I asked then if “there’s an upper limit on the number of children Israel can kill without consequence?”
It didn’t take long to get the answer … which is “no,” there is no limit.
Their bodies piled up, and so did the stories about “wounded children w/no surviving family” (WCNSFs). It was a new acronym for a new reality. Israel’s permissive rules of engagement produced a growing cohort of orphans and child amputees. But that wasn’t the worst of it. IDF bombs and missiles were also wiping-out entire extended families. It happened again within the last week.
Listening to a recent BBC Radio report about one such incident, it became clear to me that Israel’s systematic use of displacement made it more likely that extended families would be huddled together … perhaps in an apartment, perhaps in a refugee camp. It just stands to reason that extended families would come together as the IDF repeatedly dislodges them. And that may explain why Israel’s bombs are literally wiping out entire families … 902 of them as of Oct. 8th (see below) … and counting.
It’s the limitlessness of the killing, along with the wholesale obliteration of homes and sewage systems and schools and the health system that leads me to ask if Palestinians are, in fact, officially “human beings”?
If so, they have legal rights and, based on international agreements the US once championed, they should have some recourse. If not, it simply means we, and specifically the United States, have given Israel the right (and the bombs) to treat them as less-than human. - jp
TITLE: Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel Of Crimes Against Humanity In Gaza, Displacing Over 90% Of Population
https://saharareporters.com/2024/11/14/human-rights-watch-accuses-israel-crimes-against-humanity-gaza-displacing-over-90
EXCERPTS: Human Rights Watch has said that Israeli authorities are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with the “massive and deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023”.
In a report released on Thursday titled: "Israel’s Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza," the global human rights organisation stated that there is no plausible imperative military reason to justify Israel’s mass displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population, often multiple times.
According to the group's report, rather than ensuring civilians’ security, Israeli's military “evacuation orders” have caused grave harm, calling on the international community adopt targeted sanctions and other measures, and halt weapons sales to Israel.
"The International Criminal Court prosecutor should investigate Israel’s forced displacement and prevention of the right to return as a crime against humanity," the group advised.
The report is being published during an ongoing Israeli military campaign in northern Gaza that has most likely created a new wave of forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The 154-page report, tagged “‘Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,” examines how Israeli authorities’ conduct has led to the displacement of over 90 percent of the population of Gaza—1.9 million Palestinians—and the widespread destruction of much of Gaza over the last 13 months.
Israeli forces have carried out deliberate, controlled demolitions of homes and civilian infrastructure, including in areas where they have apparent aims of creating “buffer zones” and security “corridors,” from which Palestinians are likely to be permanently displaced.
Contrary to claims by Israeli officials, their actions do not comply with the laws of war, the report says.
“The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Israel has blatantly violated its obligation to ensure Palestinians can return home, razing virtually everything in large areas.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 39 displaced Palestinians in Gaza, analyzed Israel’s evacuation system, including 184 evacuation orders and satellite imagery confirming the widespread destruction, and verified videos and photographs of attacks on designated safe zones and evacuation routes.
The report says, "The laws of armed conflict applicable in occupied territory permit displacement of civilians only exceptionally, for imperative military reasons or for the population’s security, and require safeguards and proper accommodation to receive displaced civilians.
"Israeli officials claim that, because Palestinian armed groups are fighting from among the civilian population, the military has lawfully evacuated civilians to attack the groups while limiting civilian harm. Human Rights Watch research shows this claim to be largely false.
"There is no plausible imperative military reason to justify Israel’s mass displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population, often multiple times, Human Rights Watch found. Israel’s evacuation system has severely harmed the population and often served only to spread fear and anxiety. Rather than ensure security for displaced civilians, Israeli forces have repeatedly struck designated evacuation routes and safe zones.
"As the occupying power, Israel is obliged to ensure adequate facilities to accommodate displaced civilians, but the authorities have blocked all but a small fraction of the necessary humanitarian aid, water, electricity, and fuel from reaching civilians in need in Gaza. Israeli attacks have damaged and destroyed resources that people need to stay alive, including hospitals, schools, water and energy infrastructure, bakeries, and agricultural land.
"Israel is also obliged to ensure the return of displaced people to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area have ceased. Instead, it has left swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.
“Israel’s military has intentionally demolished or severely damaged civilian infrastructure, including controlled demolitions of homes, with the apparent aim of creating an extended “buffer zone” along Gaza’s perimeter with Israel and a corridor which will bifurcate Gaza. The destruction is so substantial that it indicates the intention to permanently displace many people.
It noted that from the first days of the hostilities, senior officials in the Israeli government and the war cabinet have declared their intent to displace the Palestinian population of Gaza, with government ministers stating that its territory will decrease, that blowing up and flattening Gaza is “beautiful,” and that land will be handed to settlers.
It recalled that in November 2023, Israeli Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Avi Dichter said, “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba.”
Human Rights Watch found that forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity.
TITLE: Israeli ethnic cleansing nears completion in northern Gaza
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-gaza/
EXCERPTS: The Israeli effort to eliminate or expel Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip — an effort that has been apparent since early in Israel’s year-long military assault on the territory — is close to achieving its goal in the northernmost portion of the Strip.
Israeli officials have also let slip more indications that this is indeed their goal. Last week a brigadier general in the Israeli Defense Forces told Israeli journalists that in expelling residents from this area, which includes the city of Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp, the IDF had no intention of ever letting them return. The general added that Israel would allow no humanitarian aid into this portion of the Strip because “there are no more civilians left.”
An IDF spokesperson later tried to walk back the general’s comments, and the Israeli government has repeatedly denied conducting forced expulsions. But reports of what is happening on the ground, despite Israeli measures to impede press reporting from the conflict zone, are consistent with an ethnic cleansing campaign. Reporters from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz were able to confirm the forcible expulsions. Other reporting has confirmed an absence of aid entering northern Gaza, with the resulting prospect of famine.
The dominant images from northern Gaza are partly the ones that became familiar a year ago, of buildings reduced to rubble, and pictures of residents walking away from their homes with what few possessions they can carry. The latter images resemble those from an earlier Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians—the Nakba of 1948.
Despite Israeli denials, what is happening appears to be a version of the “generals’ plan,” a proposal presented to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in September and subsequently leaked. That proposal calls for cutting off supplies to the portion of the Gaza Strip in question and telling all who live there that they must leave or be considered combatants subject to attack.
Although the current focus of Israeli operations is in the north, much of what the Israeli military has been doing throughout the Gaza Strip during the past year has been consistent with ethnic cleansing. Those residents who are not killed outright — and the actual death toll amid the rubble is probably far higher than the running official count that is now at about 43,000 — are left with an unlivable wasteland. The Israeli assault has destroyed health care and educational systems and facilities, emergency services, and most other infrastructure needed for a community to exist.
Recent political changes within Israel have made Netanyahu’s government all the more inclined to press forward with the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who had favored a ceasefire that would include the return of remaining Israeli hostages and had said that there was “nothing left” for the Israeli military to do in Gaza. Netanyahu replaced him with Foreign Minister Israel Katz, widely considered to be a yes-man under Netanyahu’s thumb.
Netanyahu’s cabinet changes means he is content to remain reliant not only on the ultra-Orthodox parties who favor preserving a draft exemption that Gallant opposed, but also on extremists, such as national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have been explicit in calling for a Gaza with Jewish settlers and no Palestinians.
TITLE: Opinion | Maybe Israel Is Committing Genocide After All?
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-11-12/ty-article-opinion/.premium/maybe-israel-is-committing-genocide-after-all/00000193-1c92-de99-a9bb-ddb357c70000
EXCERPT: Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide," worked tirelessly to have it recognized as a crime under international law and given special status. Thanks in no small part to his efforts, an international convention was drawn up designed to fight genocide and to punish its perpetrators and their abettors. The treaty also includes a list of what acts a state or people must commit to be considered perpetrators of genocide.
Article 2 of the convention lists five acts that make up the definition of genocide. In order to determine whether or not Israel is committing genocide, it's worthwhile examining all five criteria and see how many of them Israel is committing in the Gaza Strip. Here they are, word for word.
Article 2a: "Killing members of the group." No problem. We easily meet the criteria for this section. Although the convention does not specify a required number of dead, 43,000 is surely enough. You can put a checkmark on this one.
Article 2b: "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group." Who would ever deny that we have successfully met the requirements of this section as well. We have bombed day and night; hundreds of limbs have been amputated; we ruined the lives of tens of thousands of children and their parents; we have torn them apart with bodily and mental injuries. Definitely put a checkmark.
Article 2c: "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." The hunger and thirst, delays in humanitarian aid, endless torture and deportation from place to place, the systematic destruction of residential areas, houses of prayer, schools, thousands of people buried under the rubble, the employment of demolition contractors to flatten the city of Rafah (partial list). More than enough to meet the requirements section 3. I am proud to check it off.
4: "Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group." The destruction of almost all of Gaza's hospitals including delivery rooms, emergency rooms, neonatal and maternity wards, preventing shipments of medical equipment, killing medical personnel... Is there any doubt that Israel would look favorably upon the crash of the Palestinian birthrate in Gaza? Put a checkmark with honors.
5: "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." Finally, something that Israel has not done. A pity. Maybe taking some children out of the hell we created for them would have saved their lives. But it doesn't get a checkmark.
Of the five criteria for genocide, we have performed four exemplarily. That's a fine score. Especially when the execution of one of the five sections, it doesn't matter which one, is enough to be considered a perpetrator. Bravo.
The treaty, by the way, also refers to those who incite genocide and those who conspire to commit it, and states that they will be punished. In other words, all ministers and members of the coalition. As far as I'm concerned, issuing international arrest warrants for everyone is enough. Their forced respite from roaming abroad at the public expense, due to the very possible threat of arrest, would be a more bitter punishment than death. How nice.
SEE ALSO:
Israel has wiped out 902 entire families in Gaza: Know their names
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2024/10/8/know-their-names-palestinian-families-killed-in-israeli-attacks-on-gaza
Israeli attack in Gaza siege zone kills 36 members of same family
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/11/11/israeli-attack-in-gaza-siege-zone-kills-36-members-of-same-family
"Only Survivor": Gaza Child Left Alone After Family Killed In Israeli Attacks
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/only-survivor-gaza-child-left-alone-after-family-killed-in-israeli-attacks-7015971
'I found [my family] in pieces. In pieces.': Gaza's orphans speak
https://therealnews.com/i-found-my-family-in-pieces-in-pieces-gazas-orphans-speak
Hungry Palestinians in north Gaza search for food, sealed off from aid for a month by Israeli siege
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hungry-palestinians-north-gaza-search-food-sealed-off-115707295
“Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged”: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza
https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/11/14/hopeless-starving-and-besieged/israels-forced-displacement-palestinians-gaza
What satellite images tell us about North Gaza as report accuses Israel of 'ethnic cleansing'
https://news.sky.com/story/what-satellite-images-tell-us-about-north-gaza-as-report-accuses-israel-of-ethnic-cleansing-13253674
FYI: the image atop today’s TRIFECTA comes from a June AP News story re: families wiped out by Israeli bombing.