Reports and documented evidence suggest that Israel had forcibly displaced Palestinian population into small patches of land in Gaza, to create densely populated ‘safe zones’, which could be later turned into targets for massive attacks.
Analysts have criticised Israel’s abuse of ‘humanitarian language’ aimed at massacring displaced Palestinians under the guise of protection.
The fate of ‘safe zones’
The premises of the International Rescue Committee and the Medical Aid for Palestine NGO situated in one of the ‘safe zones’ in Gaza, as designated by the Israeli army, were targeted in an Israeli airstrike in the early weeks of January.
Investigations followed by the attack revealed the strike to be highly organised and preplanned.
The attacks involved a “smart bomb” fired from an F-16 fighter, both manufactured in the US, with parts imported from the UK.
Both the organisations affected in the attacks issued a statement last week saying their attempts to understand what happened in January led towards the complicity of the US and UK in the heinous crime.
They further questioned the US and UK for not holding themselves or Israel accountable for its use of their weapons in breach of the Arms Trade Treaty, ratified by the UK in 2014.
Though the Israeli military had tried to cover up the matter with various explanations, the result was six contradicting versions of events.
‘The flour massacre’ which took place on February 29 is another example of the same hideous pattern.
Israeli army fired into a crowd of hungry and starving Palestinians at al-Rashid Street in Gaza City killing at least 118 and injuring dozens.
Thousands were waiting on the street outside the camp, as word went around that a convoy of aid trucks would be coming to the city.
The massacre was followed by two subsequent killings by Israeli forces of hungry Palestinians scrambling for aid, adding to the mounting death toll among the uncounted thousands battling the famine caused by the genocide.
The truth behind evacuations
Since the genocidal war began in October, around two million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced from the north to the south.
From the North to the South of the enclave, displaced Palestinians were targeted countless times in a predatory manner, amid their movement towards safe zones notified by the Israeli military.
Israel, in its defence against charges of genocide at the ICJ on January 12, cited the existence of a ‘Civilian Harm Mitigation Unit’ as evidence of preventive measures taken by its military to avoid civilian casualties.
But according to a report published by the London-based research group Forensic Architecture, “evacuation orders” and other measures cited by Israel have only “produced mass displacement and forced transfer, and contributed to the killings of civilians throughout Gaza”.
The report notes, relying on an overwhelming body of research that Palestinian civilians were “bombed, shot at, executed, arrested, tortured, treated in a degrading manner, and forcibly disappeared by the Israeli military along roads, corridors and zones declared ‘safe’”.
According to the study, concerns were also raised about the arbitrary manner in which the Israeli military adjudged the status of civilians who were unable to leave the locations facing the occupation army’s evacuation orders.
Moreover, the Israeli government has failed to comply with at least one measure stated in the legally binding order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in South Africa’s genocide case.
All eyes on Rafah
Currently, Israeli forces are heading towards a full-fledged land assault on Rafah, into where they have pushed more than 1.5 million Palestinians.
The world’s gaze is on the once-sleepy town along the Egyptian border, which has now been filled with crowds of Palestinians hustling to sustain their families with no tents or supplies.
“The aid that comes in is, as they say, a drop in the ocean,” says an UNRWA staff member working in Rafah.
In Rafah, like all other cities in the Gaza Strip, people crowd around a bakery or any aid convoy, hoping for a handful of dough or pieces of bread to feed their families. Many bake their own in mud stoves with whatever flour they could get or even animal fodder.
As Tel Aviv once again speaks of creating ‘humanitarian islands’ in the centre of Gaza ahead of the proposed assault, the past record of genocidal crimes must return to our thoughts.
More than 31,700 Palestinians have died due to Israel’s war on Gaza so far, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, and around 74,000 have been injured.
