(Jerusalem) Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders on Thursday added their voices to accusations attributing genocide or acts of a genocidal nature to Israel for its conduct of the war in Gaza, “lies” for Israeli diplomacy.
Posted at 7:17 a.m.
Updated at 12:58 p.m.
“Israeli authorities deliberately created living conditions aimed at causing the destruction of part of the population of Gaza, by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians in the enclave of adequate access to water, which likely resulted in caused thousands of deaths,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote in a statement accompanying its more than 200-page investigation.
“In doing so, the Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide,” adds the international organization.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has rejected a report “riddled with blatant lies”, and accused HRW of once again seeking [à] promote its anti-Israeli propaganda.
The United States, Israel’s first ally, expressed its “disagreement with the conclusions” of HRW.
“To determine that this is genocide, the legal standard is incredibly high,” said Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department. “This does not take away the fact that there is a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. »
“What our teams saw on the ground is consistent with what a growing number of legal experts and organizations are saying, that what is happening in Gaza amounts to genocide,” he told AFP Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Mr. Lockyear was speaking on the occasion of the publication of a thirty-page report on Gaza noting that “signs of ethnic cleansing and ongoing destruction – including massacres, serious physical and psychological injuries, forced displacement and impossible living conditions for besieged and bombed Palestinians – are undeniable.”
“False and misleading”
The report documents in particular 41 attacks against MSF personnel, including airstrikes on health establishments and direct fire on humanitarian convoys.
The spokesperson for Israeli diplomacy described the MSF report as “totally fallacious and misleading”.
“Israel does not target medical teams or individuals who are not involved in terrorist activities,” and “actively works to maintain functional medical infrastructure,” he told AFP.
Questioned by AFP, a military spokesperson responded to HRW’s accusations that the Israeli army “strongly rejects allegations that it deliberately targeted water infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.”
The army assures that it “pays special attention to taking into account the humanitarian needs of the civilian population of Gaza, in particular with regard to hygiene, sanitation and water supply”, and denies any accusation of obstruction of humanitarian aid.
Cogat, the structure of the Israeli Defense Ministry overseeing civil affairs in Gaza, says that three water pipes are operating from Israel.
“No food, no water”
Since the start of the war triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Israel has been accused several times of committing genocide in Gaza, by various NGOs, UN experts, and even before international justice, at the initiative of South Africa.
Israeli authorities have always vigorously rejected these accusations. On December 5, Israel denounced an Amnesty International report to this effect as being “fabricated”.
In its report, HRW judges that Israel intentionally limited access to water for Gaza residents, and asserts that this indicates a desire for “extermination”. The NGO accuses Israel of “acts of genocide” and not of genocide, an accusation which would require proof of genocidal intent.
“The course of action presented in this report, as well as statements suggesting that some Israeli officials aimed to annihilate Palestinians in Gaza, could signal such a desire,” the report argues.
HRW recalls that Yoav Gallant, then Minister of Defense of Israel, had ordered a “complete siege” of the Palestinian territory from October 9, 2023. “There will be no electricity, no food, no water , no fuel,” he said.
Mr. Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are the subject of arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued at the end of November for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, a procedure against which Israel has appealed, denouncing an “anti-Semitic” decision and “absurd accusations”.
At least 30 dead in several Israeli strikes in Gaza
Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip reported Thursday at least 30 deaths across Gaza City in several strikes by the Israeli army, which claims to have “targeted” “Hamas terrorists” in two schools housing displaced.
“The bombing by the occupation [israélienne] “Al-Karama and Shaban schools, in the east of Gaza City, left at least 13 martyrs, including children and women,” Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told AFP, specifying that around thirty people had also been injured.
UN asks ICJ for opinion on Israel’s obligations towards Palestinians
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday approved a resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on Israel’s humanitarian obligations towards the Palestinians, as the Israeli government is accused of obstructing access to aid to Gaza.
The resolution, submitted by Norway, was adopted by a large majority: 137 countries voted for, 12 against, and 22 abstained.
It asks the ICJ to clarify what Israel is required to do to “guarantee and facilitate the unhindered delivery of supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.”
Although the decisions of the ICJ, the highest court of the UN based in The Hague, are legally binding, the court has no concrete means to enforce them.
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