Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stated that a year on the genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation continues intensifies its crimes to eliminate all aspects of life in the northern Gaza Strip by escalating killing using all kinds of lethal weapons.
Since October 7, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) began implementing a plan to completely isolate the north, by imposing a complete siege and preventing all humanitarian aid from being delivered, leaving those who are not killed by bombing to die of hunger and thirst. These operations reached its peak on October 12, 2024, as part of the so-called “Generals’ Plan” promoted by Israeli officials, which aims to completely empty the northern Gaza Strip of its residents through intensive bombing to destroy all aspects of life in it.
The aggression on Gaza, with direct orders from a fascist government, comes along continuous calls to evacuate all residents to other area, despite the fact that their displacement has become almost impossible, given the difficulty of movement due to the destruction of roads and the presence of disabled or sick people who cannot move.
People also face increasing fears of becoming targeted during displacement, especially after previous convoys of displaced persons have been bombed. It is also worth noting that the places declared safe by the Israeli occupation, such as the Al-Mawasi area, to which residents were told to move to, have been bombed more than 18 times, thus revealing the occupation’s deliberate destruction of any safe havens for civilians.
The health sector in northern Gaza is suffering from complete paralysis due to the stifling siege imposed by the Israeli occupation, which includes preventing the entry of medicines and fuel needed for hospitals to operate. The remaining hospitals, such as Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and Al-Indonesi, are under severe pressure to evacuate patients and medical staff, despite the continuous flow of large numbers of seriously injured people as a result of the ongoing bombing.
The occupation’s massacres of children have become a recurring deliberate crime. On October 13, 2024, the occupation forces bombed a children’s playground in Al-Shati camp, killing five children. On the same day, they bombed Al Mufti School in Al-Nuseirat camp, which houses displaced people, killing 22 civilians, including 15 children and a woman, in addition to wounding 80 others with varying injuries.
In a horrific massacre at dawn on October 14, occupation aircraft targeted tents for displaced people in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, killing at least four people and wounding others. Tragic videos showed the charred bodies of children and elderly people, as well as one of the living victims who was burning alive without anyone being able to save him after the tents caught fire due to the bombing. Such scenes reveal the extent of the horrific inhumane and deliberate crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces, as the besieged displaced people, who fled their homes due to the bombing, face killing and starvation even in their temporary shelters, which provides protection for them under international law.
AOHR UK received an audio recording of a resident of the northern Gaza Strip saying that “The situation there is deteriorating drastically. Bodies have been scattered and left in the streets for days, and families cannot bury their loved ones due to the siege. The area is completely isolated from Gaza, in what seems like a suffocating ambush. Residents are suffering from a severe shortage of food and water, and hunger and thirst are the norm now, with basic supplies completely being cut off. The occupation is using explosive devices, and they are roaming the streets randomly, adding more horror to the situation.”
AOHR UK denounced the position of the Arab normalizing countries, who were not moved by the killing, burning, destruction and starvation shown live on social media platforms and TV channels, and continued normalizing ties with the occupation, while countries such as Nicaragua, Colombia and Bolivia severed their relations with the occupation in protest against the Israeli genocide, despite not being neighbouring countries to Palestine.
AOHR UK called on all human rights activists and people with a living conscious, including influencers, artists, and writers, in addition to student movements and civil society organisations around the world, to raise their voices in support of the residents of northern Gaza and the whole Strip in general, who are facing an unprecedented genocide in modern history. It also stressed the need to coordinate efforts to pressure governments to take a firm stance against the crime of genocide committed without deterrence in broad daylight by the Israeli occupation against civilians in Gaza.
AOHR UK also stressed the importance of organised popular action to support the Palestinian people, and called for intensified efforts to pressure governments to take serious measures to stop the aggression and protect innocent civilians, especially those countries that contribute to the continuation of the genocide by supplying the occupation with lethal weapons. It called for immediate intervention by the international community to stop these massacres, and to establish humanitarian corridors to deliver necessary aid to the besieged population, in addition to holding Israeli leaders accountable before international courts for these horrific crimes.
AOHR UK condemned the hesitation and delay of the International Criminal Court in issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Galant. More than four months have passed since the request was submitted by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue these warrants to the Pre-Trial Chamber, but until now the Chamber has not issued any decision, which indicates that this court has succumbed to the threats it received from the occupation and its allies, who they want to escape punishment by blocking the path of justice.
