Human Rights Watch: Forced displacement of residents in the Gaza Strip is a war crime

Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday that Israeli evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip amount to a “war crime” of “forced displacement” in some areas, and “ethnic cleansing” in others.

The report said: “Human Rights Watch has collected evidence that Israeli officials are committing the war crime of forced displacement.”

The report added: “Israel’s actions appear to meet the definition of ethnic cleansing” in areas to which Palestinians will not be able to return.

According to the organization’s researcher Nadia Hardman, the report’s findings are based on interviews with displaced people from Gaza, satellite images, and public reports submitted until August 2024.
Hardman believed that “Israel cannot simply rely on the presence of armed groups to justify the displacement of civilians.”
“This is systematically rendering large parts of Gaza uninhabitable… and in some cases permanently, amounting to ethnic cleansing,” said Ahmed Benchemsi, Middle East spokesman at Human Rights Watch.

Louise Waterridge, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said the military operation in northern Gaza had forced at least 100,000 people from the far north to Gaza City and surrounding areas.

The Human Rights Watch report found that “the actions of the Israeli authorities in Gaza are those of one ethnic or religious group to forcibly remove Palestinians or another ethnic or religious group from areas inside Gaza.”

According to the United Nations, 1.9 million people out of a population of 2.4 million have been displaced since October 2024.