Date: November 14, 2024
Press Release
ICSPR Issues Briefing Note on Occupation Crimes in Northern Gaza
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) has issued a briefing note regarding the occupation’s crimes in Northern Gaza.
The note emphasizes that the occupation forces continue their brutal aggression for the 405th consecutive day, resulting in the annihilation of 5% of Gaza’s population, with 60,000 dead or missing and 103,076 wounded. Of these victims, 70% are women and children, and over 7,000 Palestinians have been detained. ICSPR highlighted that the Israeli occupation has escalated its genocidal actions in Northern Gaza, committing over 70 massacres against Palestinian families and deliberately targeting 42 shelters, resulting in the deaths of 2,000 people, more than 6,000 injuries, and the detention of 1,000 individuals since the intensified siege began in Northern Gaza 41 days ago.
ICSPR indicated that the ongoing destruction of citizens’ homes, residential neighborhoods, and infrastructure in Northern Gaza aims to empty the region of its population. Forced displacement has affected over 150,000 people, who have been driven to Gaza City and southern Gaza due to the massacres and under armed threat.
The commission further explained that the occupation deliberately targeted doctors, hospitals, health workers, and emergency and civil defense teams, forcibly removing them from service. The remaining hospitals in Northern Gaza—Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda, and the Indonesian Hospital—have been destroyed, burned, and prevented from receiving fuel and medical supplies. Most medical staff have been detained, and hospitals such as Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda are operating under catastrophic conditions, facing severe shortages of medical supplies, medicines, and medical personnel, endangering the lives of patients and wounded and increasing mortality rates.
ICSPR noted that the suffocating siege and prevention of essential goods, humanitarian aid, and basic supplies have turned Northern Gaza into a disaster zone with no access to basic services and humanitarian needs, endangering the lives of those who remain. This blockade has exposed them to famine, food shortages, water scarcity, and the absence of health and humanitarian services.
ICSPR affirms that these crimes constitute blatant violations of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, international human rights standards, as well as rulings of the International Court of Justice, and resolutions of the UN Security Council, General Assembly, and Human Rights Council.
The commission calls on the international community to intervene immediately to halt the ongoing genocide and the Israeli aggression that has persisted for 405 days. It also urges third-party states to take decisive action to stop the heinous ethnic cleansing crimes, the siege, forced displacement, and Israel’s starvation policy, which has continued for 41 days in Northern Gaza.
ICSPR demands that Gaza be declared a famine zone and that pressure be exerted on the Israeli occupation forces to open humanitarian corridors to deliver essential food and medical supplies to Gaza’s population.
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