Amnesty International has urged a war crimes probe into Israel’s flattening of eastern Gaza. The genocidal army have been razing homes and farms in eastern Gaza to expand a so-called buffer zone between it and the Palestinian territory.
Amnesty said:
Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighbourhoods, including homes, schools and mosques.
They continued that they believed Israel’s actions since 7 October:
should be investigated as war crimes of wanton destruction and of collective punishment.
Protect or punish?
Israel has in several cases said it was destroying “terror” infrastructure to protect Israeli communities living on the other side of the fence. It did not reply to a request from Amnesty for comment. And, an Amnesty investigation which examined satellite imagery and videos posted by Israeli soldiers between October and May, showed:
newly cleared land along Gaza’s eastern boundary, ranging from approximately 1 to 1.8 km (0.6 to 1.1 miles) wide.
The expanded buffer zone covers around 58 square kilometres (22 square miles), or about 16% of the Gaza Strip, it said. More than 90% of buildings within that zone appeared to have been destroyed or severely damaged.
Amnesty also found that more than half of the agricultural land in the area showed:
a decline in health and intensity of crops due to the ongoing conflict.
Israel has been accused of manufacturing famine in Gaza. Israel have also repeatedly lied about both their actions and motivations. It has become commonplace for them to claim they’re dismantling Hamas even while bombing refugee camps, schools, hospitals, and aid convoys.
Genocidal intent
Even if Hamas were operating in all of these locations, Israel has clearly decided that killing civilians – including children – is an acceptable cost. As of August 2024, Israel had killed 16,456 children. With a death total of over 40,000 Palestinians, one in 50 of Gaza’s children have been killed.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said of the death toll:
This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the [Israeli military] to comply with the rules of war.
The past year or so has been rife with Israeli atrocities.
The decomposing bodies of babies were discovered in a Gaza hospital that was surrounded by Israeli tanks. Mass grave after mass grave have been uncovered, with unmarked bodies buried together. Hospitals have been routinely targeted and besieged, with medical professionals being targeted.
As of March 2024, 103 journalists were killed in 150 days in Gaza. Journalists, and their families, have been targeted in an effort to silence reporting of the genocide. This list is but a fraction of the barrage of death and destruction Israel has rained down onto Palestine.
The UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, found from an investigation in March 2024 that:
There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.
And yet, we’re still supposed to swallow the lie Israel so often trots out, that they’re doing all this in the name of stamping out Hamas? If targeting civilians did somehow stamp out Hamas, would that even be worth it? Of course it wouldn’t.
“Collective punishment” in Gaza
When even the likes of Amnesty International are calling for investigation of war crimes, then Israel have very clearly overstepped international standards. Amnesty’s Erika Guevara-Rosas said:
Our analysis reveals a pattern along the eastern perimeter of Gaza that is consistent with the systematic destruction of the entire area. The homes were not destroyed as the result of intense fighting. Rather, the Israeli military deliberately razed the land after they had taken control of the area.
She added:
Israeli measures to protect Israelis from attacks from Gaza must be carried out in conformity with its obligations under international law including the prohibition of wanton destruction and of collective punishment.
Amnesty believe they have found evidence that Israel has been using military procedures that target civilians and destroy infrastructure:
In four areas investigated by Amnesty International, the destruction was carried out after the Israeli military had operational control over the areas, meaning that it was not caused by direct combat between the Israeli military and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. In these parts of the Gaza Strip, structures were deliberately and systematically demolished.
International humanitarian law often falls short when it comes to determining the destruction caused for people’s lives and lands. Even then, Amnesty’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out collective punishment, and unnecessarily destroyed civilian objects. Their findings cannot be clearer:
Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects is a war crime.
Is this new information? No. Will it halt the ongoing genocide against Palestinians? Unlikely.
And yet, we must not let Palestinians die in the dark. We must show up on the streets and refuse to let up until Palestine is free.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, and featured image via YouTube screenshot/Guardian News
