Attacks on protected zones and civilians in Gaza explained

Attacks on protected zones and civilians in Gaza during the Israel–Hamas war have led to the killing of over 30,000 Palestinians and the displacement of over 2 million people,[1] as well as the collapse of the education system[2] and the destruction of most homes[3] and hospitals in Gaza.[4] Israel has faced accusations of war crimes from South Africa,[5] the UN Human Rights Council,[3] and Amnesty International,[6] among others, due to the number of civilian casualties and the percentage of civilian infrastructure destroyed, including Palestinian refugee camps, schools, mosques, churches, and more.[7] [8] Analysis of satellite data shows that 80% of buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or ruined.[9] As of January 2024, researchers from Oregon State University and the City University of New York estimated that 50 to 62 percent of all buildings in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed.[10] [11] [12]

Healthcare facilities

See also: Timeline of the 2023 Gaza Strip healthcare collapse, Bombing of Gaza, Attacks on health facilities during the Israel–Hamas war, Attacks on health facilities during the Israel–Hamas war and Killing of health workers in the Israel–Hamas war. The healthcare system in Gaza has collapsed due to the blockade of Gaza, lack of fuel, power cuts, and airstrikes. From the beginning of the war to 30 November 2023, the World Health Organization reported 427 attacks on health care in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[13] By February 2024, it was reported that "every hospital in Gaza is either damaged, destroyed, or out of service due to lack of fuel."[14] On 24 January 2024, the WHO announced that only seven of 24 hospitals in northern Gaza and seven of 12 hospitals in southern Gaza were operational. On 7 February 2024, the United Nations announced that only 4 of 22 health centers in Gaza remained operational.[15]

List of attacked healthcare facilities

Schools and universities

From 7 October 2023 to late March 2024, the United Nations reported multiple airstrikes on more than 200 educational facilities, including universities and schools, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip.[16] [17] The attacks have resulted in the collapse of the Gazan education system, affecting 625,000 students.

List of attacked schools and universities

Cultural, historical and religious places

According to international law, cultural heritage, cemeteries, and religious places are considered civilian infrastructure and their destruction can be considered a war crime of “committing outrages upon personal dignity” under the Rome Statute.[19] According to historians, Gaza is one of the oldest inhabited areas in the world, dating back to at least the 15th century BC.

In South Africa's genocide case against Israel, Israel was accused of targeting Palestinian culture, destroying modern museums and cultural centers, and threatening the "cultural potential" of Gaza by damaging schools as well as teachers and killing journalists and intellectuals. Israel claimed that the targeting of cultural and religious places and cemeteries is due to finding and returning the bodies of Israeli hostages and Hamas using these places for military purposes.[20] CNN's analysis of satellite images and videos showed that the Israeli forces use cemeteries as military outposts. According to CNN's investigation, at least 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been desecrated by IDF, tombstones have been destroyed, the soil has been overturned, and in some cases, bodies have been unearthed.[21]

Israeli attacks have destroyed more than 200 buildings of cultural and historical importance in Gaza, including mosques, cemeteries, and museums. UNESCO reported that at least 22 sites, including mosques, churches, historical houses, universities, and archives, were damaged or destroyed as a result of multiple Israeli attacks.[22]

List of attacked cultural and historical places

List of attacked cemeteries

List of attacked mosques

[23]

Shelters and camps

See also: Refugee camp airstrikes in the Israel–Hamas war. In the Israel–Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have carried out numerous airstrikes on densely populated Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as part of the bombardment and invasion of Gaza.[24]

List of attacked Shelters and Camps

Civilians

See main article: article, Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war and Bombing of Gaza.

See also: Effect of the Israel–Hamas war on children in the Gaza Strip. Since 7 October 2023, at least 38,983 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed, including more than 15,000 children. More than 89,727 people have been injured and more than 10,000 people are missing in Israel's war on Gaza.[25] In March 2024, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces made a pattern of killing entire families by targeting homes where they had taken shelter.[26] On 29 February 2024, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that 44% of the fatalities were children.[27]

Other protected and safe zones

See also: Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International's investigation into nine airstrikes found that Israel violated international humanitarian law by failing to take all possible precautions to save civilians, or by taking out indiscriminate strikes that were unable to distinguish between civilian and military targets, or by attacks that may have been taken out against civilian objects.[28] The BBC reported that since the beginning of December, the bombardment of southern and central Gaza has intensified, and the city of Khan Yunis bears the brunt of Israel's military attacks while Israel has repeatedly encouraged the people of Gaza to move south for their safety.[29] Also, an NBC news investigation found Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in seven areas that the military had designated as safe zones.[30]

The New York Times' analysis of the Israeli military's actions shows that since November, Israeli-controlled demolitions have destroyed hundreds of buildings, including mosques, schools, and entire sections of residential neighborhoods. The spokesperson of the Israeli army stated the reason for these controlled demolitions is the location and destruction of terrorist infrastructures embedded inside buildings in civilian areas, adding that sometimes entire neighborhoods serve as "combat complexes" for Hamas. While Israeli officials told The New York Times that Israel is demolishing Palestinian buildings near the border to create a security "buffer zone" inside Gaza, making it harder for fighters to carry out cross-border attacks, most of the destruction sites identified by The Times occurred well outside this buffer zone.[31]

UN experts have called the destruction and bombing of more than half of the homes in Gaza by Israel, under the pretext of identifying and destroying Hamas, as "domicide" (the mass destruction of homes to make this land uninhabitable).[32] Destroyed locations include the Palace of Justice (the main Palestinian court in Gaza), the Palestinian Legislative Council, 339 educational centers, 167 places of worship, and 26 of Gaza's 35 hospitals. Hugh Lovatt, a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, claimed that Israel is "deliberately and methodically destroying the civil societies and infrastructure needed to govern and stabilize Gaza after the war”.[33]

In late October, a document was leaked to the Israeli press by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence, planning the forced and permanent transfer of 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The document exposes an organization called "The Settlement Unit – Gaza Strip", which aims to resettle the Gaza Strip, 18 years after the withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers from it.[34] [35] [36] Italian historian Lorenzo Kamel said Israel wants to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable by dropping tens of thousands of tons of bombs and targeting civilian infrastructure including schools, universities, hospitals, bakeries, shops, farmland and greenhouses, water stations, sewage systems, power plants, solar panels, and generators.[37]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 13 March 2024 . Gaza 'safe zones' led to displacement, Israeli attacks on civilians: Report . aljazeera.
  2. Web site: Gaza infrastructure damages estimated at $18.5bn in UN-World Bank report . 2024-10-12 . Al Jazeera . en.
  3. Web site: 2024-03-05 . UN rights expert condemns 'systematic' war-time mass destruction of homes UN News . 2024-10-12 . news.un.org . en.
  4. Web site: Joint World Bank, UN Report Assesses Damage to Gaza's Infrastructure . 2024-10-12 . World Bank . en.
  5. News: 2024-01-10 . What is South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ? . 2024-10-12 . en-GB.
  6. Web site: 12 February 2024 . New evidence of unlawful Israeli attacks in Gaza causing mass civilian casualties amid real risk of genocide . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240220000429/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/israel-opt-new-evidence-of-unlawful-israeli-attacks-in-gaza-causing-mass-civilian-casualties-amid-real-risk-of-genocide/#:~:text=Indiscriminate%20attacks%20that%20kill%20and,hit%20–%20before%20launching%20the%20attacks. . 20 February 2024 . 20 February 2024 . Amnesty International.
  7. Web site: Dyer . Evan . Israel's Gaza bombing campaign is the most destructive of this century, analysts say . CBC . 19 February 2024 . 2 February 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240202041536/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/israel-gaza-bombing-hamas-civilian-casualties-1.7068647 . live .
  8. Web site: French . Howard W. . Retribution in the Israel-Hamas War . Foreign Policy . 27 February 2024 . 13 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240313025939/https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/29/israel-hamas-war-atrocities-dehumanization-history-us-japan/ . live .
  9. News: Journal . Wall Street . The Ruined Landscape of Gaza After Nearly Three Months of Bombing .
  10. News: Journal . Wall Street . Israeli Troops Return to Gaza City .
  11. Web site: de Hoog . Niels . Voce . Antonio . Morresi . Elena . Ganguly . Manisha . Kirk . Ashley . How war destroyed Gaza's neighbourhoods – visual investigation . The Guardian . 19 February 2024 . 17 February 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240217193502/https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/jan/30/how-war-destroyed-gazas-neighbourhoods-visual-investigation . live .
  12. Web site: Khaled . Mai . Visual analysis: Gaza's last refuge becomes Israel's next target . Financial Times . 19 February 2024 . 19 February 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240219233815/https://www.ft.com/content/6265f18b-3fba-4110-9b9f-300638e48d4c?shareType=nongift . live .
  13. Web site: Over 420 attacks on healthcare in occupied Palestinian territories since start of war: WHO . Al Jazeera . 1 December 2023.
  14. News: Sparrow . Annie . Roth . Kenneth . Destroying Gaza's Health Care System Is a War Crime . 13 April 2024 . Foreign Policy . 9 February 2024.
  15. Web site: Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel . United Nations . 8 February 2024.
  16. Web site: How Israel's destruction of Gaza schools shatters children's dreams . Al Jazeera . 1 April 2024.
  17. Web site: Gaza war: 'Direct hits' on more than 200 schools since Israeli bombing began . UN News . 27 March 2024 . United Nations . 2 April 2024.
  18. Web site: Mccready and Quillen . Alastair and Stephen . 10 Aug 2024 . Israel's war on Gaza live: More than 100 reported killed in school attack . aljazeera.
  19. Web site: Diamond . Jeremy . 2024-01-20 . At least 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been desecrated by Israeli forces, satellite imagery and videos reveal . 2024-10-12 . CNN . en.
  20. Web site: MCNEIL . SAM . Israel military operation destroys a Gaza cemetery. . . 30 January 2024.
  21. Web site: Diamond, Darwish, Salman, Brown and Mezzofiore . Jeremy, Muhammad, Abeer, Benjamin and Gianluca . At least 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been desecrated by Israeli forces . cnn . 20 January 2024.
  22. News: Ahmed . Kaamil . Everything beautiful has been destroyed': Palestinians mourn a city in tatters . The Observer . 4 February 2024.
  23. Web site: Farazi Saber . Indlieb . A 'cultural genocide': Which of Gaza's heritage sites have been destroyed? . aljazeera . 14 January 2024.
  24. Web site: Amid Increasingly Dire Humanitarian Situation in Gaza, Secretary-General Tells Security Council Hamas Attacks Cannot Justify Collective Punishment of Palestinian People . United Nations . 6 December 2023.
  25. Web site: Violations of International Law and Crimes Committed on October 7, 2023 . . 17 July 2024.
  26. Web site: Mahmoud . Hani . Israeli pattern of targeting families inside residential homes . Al Jazeera . 20 March 2024.
  27. Web site: Thomas . Merlyn . Horton . Jake . Garman . Benedict . Israel Gaza: Checking Israel's claim to have killed 10,000 Hamas fighters . BBC News . 29 February 2024 . 9 April 2024.
  28. Web site: Human rights in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories . Amnesty International.
  29. Web site: At least half of Gaza's buildings were damaged or destroyed . bbc . 30 January 2024.
  30. Web site: NBC News investigation reveals Israel strikes on Gaza areas it said were safe. 26 April 2024. NBC News. 28 April 2024. 24 May 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240524132917/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/palestinians-killed-israeli-strikes-safe-zones-exclusive-nbc-report-rcna148008. live.
  31. Web site: Abraham, Erden, Ibrahim, Shao and Willis . Leanne, Bora, Nader, Elena and Haley . Israel's Controlled Demolitions Are Razing Neighborhoods in Gaza . . 1 February 2024.
  32. Web site: 2023-11-08 . Gaza: UN experts deplore use of purported AI to commit 'domicide' in Gaza, call for reparative approach to rebuilding . 2024-10-12 . UN Human Rights Council.
  33. Web site: Wintour . Patrick . Widespread destruction in Gaza puts concept of 'domicide' in focus . theguardian . 7 December 2023.
  34. Web site: 2023-10-23 . Israeli think tank lays out a blueprint for the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza . 2024-10-12 . Mondoweiss . en-US.
  35. Web site: Gjevori . Elis . 26 October 2023 . Israel-Palestine war: Proposals to push Gaza's Palestinians into Egypt stoke fear of settler replacement . Middle East Eye.
  36. Web site: 31 October 2023 . Intelligence Ministry 'concept paper' proposes transferring Gazans to Egypt's Sinai . The Times of Israel.
  37. Web site: Kamel . Lorenzo . Israel's 'Plan B' for the Gaza Strip . 2024-10-12 . Al Jazeera . en.

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