Israel’s forced displacement in Gaza is a crime against humanity

Removing civilians from harm’s way in advance of an attack is the right thing for warring parties to do if it’s the only way to protect them. But the laws of war stipulate that this can only be done in narrow circumstances as a temporary measure, and civilians should be given a safer location where their humanitarian needs are met.

Israel claims its evacuation orders in Gaza have done just that.

Not so.

Israeli military actions have utterly failed to keep fleeing and displaced Palestinians in Gaza safe and, in fact, have put them in danger.

We analysed 184 Israeli military evacuation orders and dozens of satellite images and found that inaccurate and inconsistent evacuation orders often served only to sow confusion and spread fear, if they even came in time to allow people to flee at all. The Israeli military repeatedly designated evacuation routes and safe zones — and then attacked them.

A 42-year-old woman with an 11-year-old son said, “Yes, the leaflets and recorded calls were what I understood to be evacuation orders, and yes, we wanted to follow them, but could not because the Israelis started bombing the area heavily even before the announcement. People were killed in huge numbers and in brutal ways.”

Things were no safer on her evacuation route. “There were airstrikes while we were walking but we followed people and survived.”

On 10 November 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “We have established a safe zone.” The reality was the opposite.

‘We are living an animal life’

A 34-year-old man who was displaced with his children from Gaza City told me that he first fled south to a supposedly safe area in Khan Younis. “The Israelis said Khan Younis was a safe place,” he said. “But they started bombing this area … I took a decision to leave and go to Rafah.”

The man and his family sought refuge in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, staying in a small tent near the beach. He said an Israeli airstrike hit a building near a humanitarian agency approximately 300 meters from his tent.

“The emotional state of the kids, what they witnessed in the last area — they are in shock, they are terrified,” he said. “They jump at small sounds now. It was so hard for me to get my family from the last place to here. Most of the areas were closed by the Israelis as they were considered battle areas.”

Under international law, safe areas are required to be — of course — safe, but displaced people must also have access to food and water, health care, sanitation, and shelter.

But this man told me that he and his family had been sleeping on the ground in a tent with 10 others, using a shared outdoor toilet serving about 70-80 people and that humanitarian aid, so far, had consisted of two bags of flour. “We are living an animal life,” he said.

The laws of war also require evacuation to be temporary. Israel is duty-bound to facilitate the displaced person’s return to their home as soon as possible after the end of the hostilities in the area.

But the Israelis have reduced many of the displaced civilians’ home areas to rubble, intentionally or recklessly destroying or severely damaging swaths of housing and civilian infrastructure — including controlled demolitions after hostilities have largely ceased.

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Step in and stand up for the law

The intentional forced displacement of a civilian population in an occupied territory is a war crime. Nowhere is this organised, deliberate displacement clearer than in areas of Gaza that have been razed, extended, and cleared for buffer zones along the border with Israel and in a security corridor that bifurcates Gaza.

The intention of the Israeli authorities appears to be to permanently empty and cleanse these areas of Palestinians and keep them under the occupation and control of Israel.

Multiple statements by senior Israeli officials show that the forced displacement in Gaza is intentional and is Israeli state policy. Because it is also widespread and systematic, this forced displacement qualifies not only as a war crime but as a crime against humanity, which the International Criminal Court‘s prosecutor should investigate.

We can expect these crimes against Palestinians to continue unless and until Israel’s allies demand for it to end.

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US President-elect Donald Trump is likely to empower Israel to double down, given that he said on the campaign trail that it should “finish the job”.

That leaves the rest of the world to step in and stand up for the law and the human beings these laws are meant to protect. This shouldn’t be allowed to get worse. It needs to stop now.

Nadia Hardman is a researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of “Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza”.