United Nations: The Israeli occupation’s decision to evacuate Rafah is a war crime
Yesterday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk affirmed that, the evacuation order issued by the Israeli occupation authorities to the residents of the city of Rafah south of Gaza Strip, constitutes a war crime and a forced displacement because it contradicts the basic principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
Agence France Presse quoted Türk as saying in a statement :” It is inconceivable to forcibly transfer hundreds of thousands of people from Rafah to areas that have been destroyed, since after more than six months of continuous bombing launched by “Israel” on Gaza Strip, there is no place outside Rafah where the infrastructure and resources necessary to accommodate the mass displacement of more than one million people are available”.
Türk stressed that the international humanitarian law prevents the displacement of civilians for reasons related to the conflicts unless the security of the civilians concerned or compelling military reasons requires it. He called for a ceasefire and for allowing humanitarian aid to enter tge strip freely and on a large scale and for immediately release the hostages and the arbitrarily detained persons
For his part, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, warned that the mass evacuation of Rafah’s population, which was ordered by “Israel”, would lead to increased civilian suffering because it is impossible to implement it in a “safe” manner, stressing that the United Nations does not participate in any involuntary evacuation.
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, had previously warned that about 600,000 Palestinian children in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, were threatened by a new imminent disaster in the light of the Israeli occupation issuing calls for residents to flee from neighborhoods in the city amid preparations to launch a ground attack against it.
Souha Suleiman