Under the laws of wartime, the forcible movement of any civilian within an occupied territory is prohibited, except when necessary for their safety or for compelling military reasons.
For the movement to be legal, civilians must be moved safely and must be provided with shelter and basic necessities. They should also be able to return to their homes after the end of hostilities in the area.
The HRW report, based on interviews with displaced Palestinians, an analysis of Israeli evacuation orders, satellite images showing the destruction of buildings, and videos and photographs of the strikes, concludes that there is no plausible military reason to justify the displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population and that the other conditions for its legality were also not fulfilled.
The US-based group says that Israeli evacuation orders were “contradictory, imprecise and often did not reach the civilian population in sufficient time” and that they “failed to take into account the needs of people with disabilities and others who cannot leave “. Israeli forces also “repeatedly struck designated evacuation routes and safe zones,” it added.
It accuses the Israeli authorities of blocking “all but a small fraction of essential humanitarian aid, water, electricity and fuel from reaching civilians in need” and of carrying out attacks that have damaged and destroyed vital resources such as hospitals and bakeries.
HRW also alleges that the Israeli military “deliberately destroyed or seriously damaged civilian infrastructure, including the controlled demolition of homes, with the apparent aim of creating an expanded ‘buffer zone’ along the Gaza-Israel perimeter and the Gaza Strip corridor.” “The destruction is so significant that it indicates an intention to relocate many people forever,” he warns.
Israeli government ministers also said that Gaza’s territory would shrink and that the land would be handed over to Israeli settlers.
“Forcible displacement was widespread and evidence shows that it was systematic and part of state policy. Such actions are also crimes against humanity,” HRW notes.
It also said that “the organized forcible movement of Palestinians in Gaza who are members of a different ethnic group is likely to be planned permanently in buffer zones and security corridors” and that such actions “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
The Israeli military denies it is seeking to create permanent buffer zones, and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar recently said displaced persons from northern Gaza would be allowed to return home after the war ends.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.
More than 43,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
