In one of the most shocking humanitarian catastrophes, egregious violations of human rights, and a breach of both international public law and international humanitarian law, which aim to protect civilians during times of war and armed conflicts, the Israeli occupation blatantly ignored its legal obligations. International humanitarian law, as articulated in the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, provides protection for a wide range of individuals and properties during armed conflicts. These agreements safeguard the sick, wounded, and shipwrecked who are not taking part in hostilities, prisoners of war, and other detainees, in addition to civilians and civilian objects. The law explicitly forbids the targeting of civilians in times of war and armed conflicts.
This is exactly what the Israeli forces violated directly in their aggression on the Gaza Strip. They pursued a policy of scorched earth, bombing hundreds of homes with innocent civilians inside. Therefore, Belady expresses its full solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza and its complete condemnation of the Israeli occupation and its actions against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, including acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli occupation imposed a complete siege on the Gaza Strip by land, sea, and air, cutting off water, electricity, and fuel entirely. They killed over 700 children, nearly 500 women, and a total of 2,800 civilians, half of whom were children and women, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. They erased almost 90 entire families from civilian records due to the aggression. Furthermore, around 11,000 civilians were injured in the continuous and uninterrupted aerial raids that have been ongoing for ten days. In these attacks, they targeted, and continue to target, civilian homes directly, healthcare facilities, headquarters of civil defense units, schools, universities, places of worship, and unarmed civilians on the roads, including women and children, during their displacement to the southern part of the Strip through designated safe passages determined by the Israeli occupation. This forced displacement operation is internationally known as “transfer.”
Also bombing hospitals and demanding their evacuation, and bombing the buildings near them, as today, October 17, 2023, Al Karama Hospital was out of service after it was damaged by the bombing of one of the buildings next to it, and the Mamadani Hospital in the center of Gaza City was bombed.
The Israeli army also used internationally prohibited white phosphorus bombs in its attacks against civilians in the Gaza Strip. They launched what is equivalent to a quarter of a nuclear bomb on innocent civilians, according to the Euro-Mediterranean for Human Rights, and bombed around 115 healthcare facilities. The Israeli occupation continues its aggression against the people of the Gaza Strip with the support of the international community.
Belady calls on the International Criminal Court to open a comprehensive investigation into the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip from October 7th up to the present. Furthermore, Belady urges the international community to call for ceasefire and stop the ensuing genocide and not to use Jewish suffering as an excuse to support genocide and ethnic cleansing.
