Gaza Media Office: The occupation committed 19 types of war crimes and crimes against humanity
The information office in Gaza revealed that the Israeli occupation committed 19 types of war crimes against the Palestinians during its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip since the 7th of last October. The office pointed out that these crimes, which are stand-alone crimes according to international law, also constitute the elements of the crime of genocide committed by the occupation.
The office said in a statement :” these crimes include 9 crimes against people, including premeditated murder, where the occupation killed about 30,000 Palestinians, 72 percent of whom were children and women, whether by bombing residential neighborhoods or by carrying out field execution crimes”.
In addition to the crimes of enforced disappearance, torture, and inhuman treatment, the occupation detained 2,600 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were subjected to the worst types of physical and psychological torture and refused to give any information about their fate and whereabouts. The office added that there is also the crime of forced displacement by the occupation forcing 2 million Palestinians to flee their homes and areas of residence.
The office indicated that among the occupation’s crimes against people is also the taking of hostages, as it took hundreds of Palestinians hostage and used them as human shields during the aggression, especially in the neighborhoods of Al-Zaytoun, Sheikh Radwan, Al-Nasr, Al-Maghazi camp, and the western Gaza region, and the crime of attacking civilians or civilian targets, where the occupation carried out hundreds of thousands of bombing operations against civilians, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and various civil associations.
The occupation committed the crime of attacking the dignity of people, which the occupation committed thousands of times by assaulting men, the elderly, women and children, stripping them of their clothes, photographing them, and transporting them in a humiliating manner to the detention camps it established.
The office stated that the occupation also committed the crime of starvation, using it as a method of war by imposing a strict siege on the Gaza Strip, continuously depriving its people of materials indispensable for their survival, shooting at buses that attempted to deliver food, and killing dozens of Palestinians while trying to obtain food and aid, especially in Gaza and its north.
The office pointed out that the ninth crime against people is the illegal use of weapons, where the occupation threw 70,000 tons of explosives at safe houses in the Gaza Strip and wiped out entire residential squares by bombing them with missiles and various types of weapons.
The office added: “The occupation committed 4 crimes against protected civilian objects, the first of which was the random and deliberate destruction of cities, villages, and educational, scientific, and religious buildings, as it destroyed more than 360,000 housing units, more than 300 universities and schools, 31 hospitals, dozens of vital civilian centers, and more than 500 mosques”.
The office indicated that the second of these crimes is the plundering of public and private property. The third is the targeting and destruction of cultural property and historical monuments, as it destroyed more than 200 cultural, heritage and archaeological sites whose age is centuries and decades longer than the occupation, and some of which date back to 1,400 years ago. While the fourth crime is targeting hospitals and medical units that the occupation deliberately bombed, stormed and vandalized to deprive the Palestinians of any chance of survival.
The office said: “The occupation also committed two crimes against justice, which are illegal changes to the basic system of the occupied country, by violating all Palestinian laws and working to change them, in addition to the crime of attacking humanitarian relief crews by targeting international and Palestinian humanitarian crews and attacking many relief convoys”.
The office pointed out that the occupation committed other crimes, including arbitrary arrest, espionage, and the crime of treachery that it practiced dozens of times against the Palestinians by forcing them to go to what it calls safe areas and bombing and killing them when they go to these areas. In addition to the crime of using internationally prohibited weapons, including stupid bombs, white phosphorus, thermal weapons, and cluster and flechette missiles.
Souha Suleiman