GAZA(Palestine Foundation Information Center)Since the early hours of Monday, July 8, the Israeli army has been waging a war of terror and forcibly displacing the people living in Gaza City and North Gaza, causing another massive wave of forced displacement, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued on Monday.
According to the Geneva-based organization, tens of thousands of Gazans were displaced from multiple areas of Gaza City, and they have been left with nowhere to go without any safe passages, amid conflicting displacement orders issued by the Israeli army.
“This came along with the systematic and widespread war of starvation and deliberate, indiscriminate killing against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli occupation army launched a military operation with a ground incursion into areas southwest of Gaza City, housing tens of thousands of displaced people, a few hours after ordering residents of the “Al-Tuffah,” “Al-Daraj” and “Al-Shuja’iya” neighborhoods, east of the city, to head to those targeted areas.
Early on Monday morning, the Israeli occupation army issued new evacuation orders against residents of the Al-Darraj and Al-Tuffah neighborhoods while simultaneously planning to expand its ground operation to the center of Gaza City, where it has been stationed for over a week in the Shujaiya neighborhood. Later on, it started a second military operation in the city’s western districts.
Under heavy rocket and shell fire, the Israeli occupation army launched a ground incursion in the Al-Sinaa area, directly targeting the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the headquarters of several destroyed universities west of Gaza, in total contradiction to the previous displacement orders given to tens of thousands of residents.
Later, the Israeli occupation army ordered residents of large areas in Gaza City to evacuate to Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, including the “Ahli Baptist” Hospital medical staff, forcing the main hospital operating in Gaza for months to be out of service.
Many reports have surfaced of dozens of deaths and injuries caused by the Israeli army’s abrupt incursion into Gaza City’s east and then into the city’s southwest neighborhoods under heavy fire. This action was taken without prior warning and in defiance of conflicting evacuation orders.
Coinciding with the ongoing ground incursion into large areas of Gaza City, the Euro-Med field team documented a series of Israeli raids with dozens of fire belts and the firing of artillery shells. The ground incursion included searches, raids, and arbitrary arrests of civilians, as well as intentional killings around the clock.
Euro-Med raised concerns about the Israeli occupation army’s intentions to expand its ground operations and escalate the war of forced displacement to the central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip—which are already crowded with more than a million and a half people and suffer from extremely complex catastrophic humanitarian conditions—have increased among residents of the “Al-Shuja’iya” and “Al-Daraj” neighborhoods after receiving phone calls and threats from the army last night, asking them to first head to the areas southwest of Gaza City before they were asked to go to the “humanitarian shelters” in the city of Deir Al-Balah this morning.
According to UNRWA, Israel has bombed 190 – more than half – of the agency’s facilities in Gaza, some more than once since the war began. As a result, thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed and injured while looking for safe refuge.
According to UN estimates, 1.9 million people in the war-ravaged enclave are internally displaced – including people displaced up to nine or 10 times. The Israeli evacuation orders, widespread damage to both public and private infrastructure, restrictions on access to essential services, and the ongoing hostilities constitute the main causes of the mass displacement waves.
Based on the aforementioned, Euro-Med called on the international community to fulfil their international obligations by enacting strong sanctions against Israel and severing all other types of political, financial, and military support and cooperation. This includes immediately halting arms transfers to Israel, including export permits and military aid; otherwise, these nations will be held accountable for the crimes that have been committed in the Gaza Strip, including genocide.
