(Jerusalem) Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders added their voice Thursday to the most serious accusations made against Israel for its conduct of the war in Gaza, denouncing respectively “acts of genocide” and “ethnic cleansing”, “lies » for Israeli diplomacy.
Posted at 7:17 a.m.
Updated at 8:11 a.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 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.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), in a report entitled “Gaza: Life in a Death Trap”, denounces “clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped and bombed”.
The report documents in particular 41 attacks against MSF personnel, including airstrikes on health establishments and direct fire on humanitarian convoys. He points out that the siege imposed by Israel has drastically reduced humanitarian aid intended for Gaza.
Questioned by AFP, Israeli Foreign Affairs also denounced the “lies” peddled according to them by MSF, describing the 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 infrastructures”, affirms the diplomatic spokesperson.
“Special attention”
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.
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.
“No electricity, no water”
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”.
HRW details how the water supply has dwindled due to the lack of electricity, essential to operating the pumps of the network’s many wells.
Its nearly 200-page report cites several health professionals active in the Gaza Strip saying that the lack of water has led to deaths, causing or promoting illness, particularly among infants.
The NGO also uses satellite images to show that at least one water reservoir, as well as other infrastructure related to water distribution, has been destroyed or heavily damaged, and accuses Israel of restricting entry into the equipment necessary for repairs to these infrastructures.
