The International Commission “Hashd” Calls on the International Community to Halt the Ongoing Israeli Aggression on Gaza and Holds It Accountable for the Silence and Failure to Stop the Genocidal Crimes Against Palestinians.

Number: 104/2023

Date: October 11, 2023

Press Release

The International Commission “Hashd” Calls on the International Community to Halt the Ongoing Israeli Aggression on Gaza and Holds It Accountable for the Silence and Failure to Stop the Genocidal Crimes Against Palestinians.

Israeli military forces continue their aggression and military operations in the Gaza Strip for the fifth consecutive day. As of 11:00 AM on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, the Israeli occupying state persists in its unprecedented military attacks on the Gaza Strip, in clear violation of the principles of international humanitarian law. These actions include the ongoing commission of genocidal crimes and reprisals against civilians and their properties. This has resulted in a rapidly rising casualty toll, with the latest statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health indicating that 950 civilians have been killed, including 141 children, 90 women, and 8 journalists, as well as 11 paramedics and medical personnel. Additionally, thousands of people have been injured, some of them in critical condition, including hundreds of children, and women. The number of victims is increasing by the minute due to the escalating attacks on civilians.

The Israeli military has systematically and deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, including the destruction of homes, leading to the removal of 27 families from the civil registry. Moreover, they have destroyed multi-story residential buildings, government offices, mosques, associations, unions, media institutions, service and economic facilities, agricultural properties, fishing boats, and ambulances. The destruction of infrastructure and the targeting of rescue and medical teams have impeded the evacuation of the dead and wounded from under the rubble.

The intense and indiscriminate airstrikes by Israeli warplanes have wiped entire residential neighborhoods off the map in various areas of the Gaza Strip. This has led to the destruction of infrastructure through the use of the scorched earth policy, which involves successive bombings and the use of incendiary belts in densely populated areas, resulting in a significant increase in casualties and missing individuals buried under the rubble.

Over 250,000 civilians, most of whom are sheltered in UNRWA schools, have been displaced without receiving adequate care and relief services.

The Israeli military attacks have raised suspicions of the use of white phosphorus shells, ballistic missiles, and high-explosive barrels.

In the past few hours and into the fifth day, the Israeli military has intensified direct and intensive targeting of main roads and streets in all governorates of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the Khan Younis, Gaza, and its northern areas. This has caused extensive destruction to infrastructure and civilian homes.

The reprisal attacks on civilians and their properties, characterized by the use of explosive and vacuum missiles that cause wide destruction in the targeted areas, are reminiscent of an earthquake and may indicate the deliberate use of heinous weapons, techniques, and military methods to induce changes in the demographic environment.

The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd) reiterates that the Israeli occupation’s crimes undermine the principles and rules of international humanitarian law, especially the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute. It holds the Israeli occupation, its military forces, the United States government, and supportive nations fully responsible for the lives of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. Hashd  warns of the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip due to the continued Israeli aggression and its expansion into Gaza. It emphasizes that Israeli disregard for legal and international frameworks and its ongoing commission of genocidal and war crimes, including the disproportionate use of force, disregard for military and humanitarian necessity, and failure to distinguish between civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as the use of banned and internationally prohibited weapons, is a deeply rooted doctrine in the Israeli occupation aimed at exacting revenge on civilians and turning their lives into a humanitarian catastrophe, as is now evident in the Gaza Strip.

Hashd warns against the continuation of double standards and the conspiracy of silence regarding the genocidal crimes and war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip. It also underscores the ongoing cutting of electricity, water, internet, and communication services, the blocking of the entry of the necessary fuel supplies to operate the threatened power station, and the suspension of electricity generation in Gaza’s hospitals due to the depletion of fuel supplies following the closure of crossings and the repeated shelling in the vicinity of the Rafah crossing to prevent the passage of fuel, food, and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. This poses a serious humanitarian disaster.

Hashd calls for:

Hashd : Calls on the international community, the United Nations, the European Union, the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to urgently intervene to halt the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and prevent its escalation. Until then, it is required to escalate international pressure to compel the Israeli occupying state to fully adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law, condemn its violations, and its failure to abide by the rules and customs of war in a manner that prevents the killing of civilians, reprisals, and heinous revenge against civilians. This should include imposing collective sanctions on it and the serious pressure to open humanitarian corridors to evacuate the wounded to external hospitals, bring in medical and relief supplies, and the necessary fuel shipments to continue the operation of the power station in the Gaza Strip, the last remaining source of power, especially after the Israeli occupation cut off electricity, internet, and water supplies. The population of the Strip is being held hostage to the continued ruthless aggression.

Hashd: Urges the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to include the crimes committed in the Gaza Strip in the file of Israeli crimes being investigated, especially amid growing suspicions of the deliberate use of highly destructive weapons, including explosive barrels and prohibited weapons, through which it aims to bring about changes in the fundamental elements of the environment, infrastructure, and demographic landmarks in the Gaza Strip with the intent of destruction and the extermination of the Palestinian people.

Hashd: Calls on the United Nations Security Council and the high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to emphasize the importance of international individual and collective action to prevent war crimes, genocide, and massacres against Palestinian families whose homes have been destroyed without prior warning. They should take immediate action to impose a no-fly zone over Israeli military aircraft and prevent the supply of weapons to the Israeli occupying forces.

Hashd: Renews its call to the General Assembly of the United Nations, in its ‘United for Peace’ format, to provide international protection for Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and to announce a program to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, the apartheid system, and enable the Palestinian people to achieve their accelerated rights recognized by the United Nations.

Hashd: Calls for the extraordinary convening of the United Nations Human Rights Council to examine the international crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and to take the necessary measures to stop retaliatory war crimes and genocide in Gaza, and to activate all international human rights protection mechanisms.

Hashd: Urges the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to recognize the importance and necessity of providing care and relief services to the thousands of civilians who have sought shelter in its schools in the Gaza Strip.

Hashd: Calls for international diplomatic and popular action to pressure governments worldwide to fulfill their moral and legal obligations to stop the targeting of civilians, women, children, journalists, and civilian infrastructure. Humanitarian corridors should be opened to evacuate the wounded and to introduce medical and relief supplies for those displaced from their homes, as well as life-saving equipment for civil defense and humanitarian teams.

Hashd: Urges the Palestinians in all gatherings, the free peoples of the world, the international solidarity movement with the Palestinian people, and all Arab, regional, and international organizations to take action on all humanitarian, legal, political, diplomatic, and popular fronts to ensure the cessation of the Israeli aggression and genocidal crimes and to provide protection to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

End

 The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd)