On the 42nd day of genocide in the Gaza Strip, thousands of civilians who were forced to flee their homes under the heavy Israeli bombing to the south of the Strip continue to face horror and tragedies. Those displaced have walked 14 kilometres on foot for more than 10 hours in search of safety, yet they were targeted and killed during their journey. They are currently displaced in camps and shelter schools, suffering from hunger, thirst, and the lack of the most basic needs of life.
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) received testimonies from the displaced people who succeeded in reaching the south, including details on the horrors they experienced on their journey. They stated that bombing and targeting them continued throughout their journey. They passed through checkpoints of the occupation army on the Salah al-Din Road, and the occupation soldiers intentionally killed some of them by random targeting, and subjected others to detention in a humiliating manner. Some were forced to strip and walk naked in front of their families and other displaced people, then they were taken to an unknown place.
The Israeli checkpoints carried out cold-blooded field executions, the most famous of which was Hajj Bashir Hejji, 74, of whom the occupation soldiers took pictures as they helped him cross the road, in order to promote a false image of themselves on social media before killing him in cold blood in front of the rest of his family.
On their journey, those displaced pass by the remains of children and the bodies of the dead that have begun to decompose. They breathe contaminated air full of the smell of rotten bodies, led and white phosphorus. On the way, there is no food or water to drink. Patients and people with special needs suffered double. Some families moved their injured members on intensive care beds or on wheelchairs, and some were forced to take their premature babies from the incubators and risk their death.
The overcrowded tents and shelter schools are very cold and lack blankets, mattresses, or even clothes to protect the displaced from the cold of winter weather.
The displaced, who number over a million, also suffer from the lack of personal hygiene, access to clean drinking water or food to keep them alive, in light of the shortage of humanitarian supplies, the closure of the Rafah crossing, and the occupation’s control of the entry of aid and the exit of the injured to receive treatment in Egypt.
As part of the targeting of hospitals, Al-Shifa Medical Complex and those in it are being exterminated in full view of the whole world. Patients suffering from cancer, kidney failure, the wounded, and premature babies are falling one after the other, and the only concern of the occupation gangs is proving that the complex is being used by Palestinian factions for military purposes.
The occupation is working on directing a fake propaganda to justify their crime, and the claim they made of the existence of weapons in rooms below the hospital incriminates them and proves their false allegations.
AOHR UK is closely monitoring the submission of the international community to the Israeli occupation, and its inability to reach a decision to cease fire or even a truce, or to curb the massacres of the arrogant occupation which guaranteed its control of the decision of the governments of the world.
The current situation is a death certificate of the international legitimacy and international humanitarian law, which has been squandered by the occupation and the countries supporting it, thus turning it into worthless and ineffective conventions. These laws are now posing a threat to the international peace and security as it failed to curb the crimes of the Israeli occupation or to provide minimal protection for children, women, the sick and the elderly.
AOHR UK calls on all the peoples of the world to continue rejecting the Israeli genocide of the people of the Gaza Strip, and to express their rejection of the weak position of their governments, especially the countries supporting the occupation, led by the USA. It also stressed on importance of the continued protests that would result in changing the political reality and withdrawing the support that the occupation receives from the world powers.
