A human rights observatory said on Sunday that Israel returned to bombing the Gaza Strip more violently during the 48 hours following the end of the temporary truce in Gaza, accompanied by the announcement of plans for forced displacement from new areas in the south of the Strip.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory stated that the occupation army crushed all forms of civilian life in Gaza and returned the population to the pre-industrial Renaissance stage, turning homes, factories, companies and infrastructure into piles of rubble.

In its report, the Observatory documented that the occupation army committed “mass killing massacres yesterday, Saturday, by targeting entire residential squares, with victims exceeding a thousand people, including dead, wounded and missing, which raises fears of a more brutal approach to impose political and field desires at the expense of civilians’ blood and property.”

This included an intense aerial bombardment with intense fire belts launched by Israel on the areas of Shuja'iya, Jabalia, and Beit Lahia, targeting inhabited buildings and residential squares without warning, destroying them above the heads of their residents, and burying dozens under the rubble.

According to the Observatory for Human Rights, about 2.2 million displaced people in the Gaza Strip struggle to survive every day, and to do so they face a painful reality. For example, thousands line up every day to fill water that is barely drinkable.

Since Israel resumed its attacks on December 1, only limited humanitarian operations have taken place inside Gaza, primarily providing services in shelters and distributing flour in the areas located in the center and south of the Strip.

isolating area

In parallel, there are disturbing reports of Israel imposing a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip, thus annexing new parts of its territory, while this translates into forcing civilians to gradually migrate near the border with Egypt.

The occupation army published on the Internet a map dividing the Gaza Strip into hundreds of small areas, to force residents into forced evacuation, including about 25% of the Gaza Strip.

One of the areas designated for evacuation includes several towns in eastern Khan Yunis (Al-Qarara, Khuza’a, Abasan, and Bani Suhaila), whose residents were ordered to move south to Rafah. These areas represent 19% of the area of the Gaza Strip (69 square kilometers) and were home to about 350,000 people before the war.

The Israeli army also warned residents of the eastern parts of Gaza City (Al-Shuja'iya, Al-Zaytoun, and the Old City) and Jabalia in the north of the Strip to evacuate. The designated areas cover about 6% of the Gaza Strip and are home to about 415,000 people.

Repeated displacement

Saeed Morgan (61 years old) recounted five repeated displacements to different areas with his family of 18 members since their home in the Yarmouk neighborhood in central Gaza City was destroyed as a result of an Israeli bombing that affected an entire residential square on October 25 last year.

So far, the man has lost 5 of his family, including 3 of his daughters, his daughter-in-law, and her infant son, as a result of attacks on areas to which they were displaced, including Al-Falah School in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of the city, and now the rest of them are still alive without a shelter or a safe destination for displacement.

Before the new evacuations, the Gaza Strip recorded more than 1.8 million displaced people suffering from massive overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in shelter centers, including significant increases in diseases such as hepatitis, infectious conditions such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infections, and hygiene-related conditions.

In addition, there are concerns about the lives of vulnerable groups of people in difficult shelter conditions, such as people with special needs, pregnant, newly born or breastfeeding women, people recovering from injuries or surgeries, and those with weakened immune systems.

The Human Rights Observatory concluded that the seven days of the truce clearly demonstrated the severity of the destruction practiced by Israel, which left more than 60,000 Palestinian casualties including martyrs, wounded and missing so far, while within 50 days it destroyed about 60% of the infrastructure in the Strip.

Source: German