Israel committed war crimes, 'forced displacement' in Gaza, new report says

WASHINGTON ? Israel has carried out a "massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza" that amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The 154-page report, "Hopeless, Starving and Besieged," examined Israel's conduct since the war in Gaza broke out last October and found the Israeli government carried out "widespread and systematic" forced displacement. Israel's actions "meet the definition of ethnic cleansing," the authors wrote.

The report urged all governments to cut off military aid and weapons sales to Israel and sanction Israeli officials involved in the war crimes.

War broke out in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas fighters rampaged across southern Israel, killed 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds hostage, also committing multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the report. In response, Israel launched a crushing assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local authorities.

Around 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90% of Gaza's population, have been displaced, according to the United Nations. According to the report, statements by senior Israeli officials show their displacement was forced and intentional.

The report's authors interviewed 39 displaced Palestinians and analyzed Israel's evacuation system, photos and video footage of Israeli attacks on designated safe zones, and satellite images of the destruction in Gaza.

International humanitarian law bars parties in a conflict from deporting or forcibly transporting civilians, which it classifies as a war crime, unless required to keep civilians safe.

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Israel claims it protects civilians and needs to displace them in order to fight Hamas, which is embedded among the civilian population and runs much of the enclave's public services. Those claims, the report found, are "largely false."

Israel's evacuation system "failed to keep people safe and instead often served only tospread fear and anxiety," the report's authors wrote. Israel repeatedly attacked evacuation zones and issued "inconsistent, inaccurate" evacuation orders that did not allow residents enough time to leave.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the report, multiple news agencies reported.

The widespread destruction of Gaza's civilian infrastructure and Israel's fencing off of "permanent buffer zones" on the border will make the return of many displaced civilians to their homes likely impossible, according to the report.

The report's release came after the U.S. said Israel had not blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza after it gave Israel a 30-day deadline to increase the flow of aid.

But eight international aid organizations said Israel had failed to meet its obligations.

The U.S. said Israel must allow a minimum of 350 trucks to enter Gaza daily – according to the aid groups, an average of 42 trucks entered Gaza every day. More than half of requests submitted by humanitarian aid workers to the Israeli military for equipment and staff movements were rejected over the monthlong period, they said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday that Israel "has accomplished the goals that it set for itself" in Gaza and called for "real and extended pauses" in the fighting.

"This should be a time to end the war," he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel committed war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, report says