Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) said that the international community has failed once again to rein in the occupation’s full-fledged genocidal war aimed at ethnically cleansing the Palestinians in Gaza and forcibly displacing them.
Following one week of a fragile humanitarian truce, the death toll of civilians continued to increase as the Israeli occupation war resumed on December 1, 2023, resulting in the killing of 178, and the injury of more than 700 others, in addition to further destruction of the infrastructure and civilian homes in Gaza.
Before the truce, and after 48 days of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the continuous Israeli bombing has resulted in the killing of more than 16,000 Palestinian civilians, most of whom are women and children. It also caused the injury of 36,000 civilians, in addition to the displacement of about 77% of the population of the Gaza Strip. Despite the horrific and unprecedented extermination war in recent history, it was not a good reason enough for the international community to take a serious stance to end the war completely and save the lives of more than two million people from a dark fate.
The aggression on the severely affected residents of the Gaza Strip continues amid a scarcity of food and fuel. The quantities of aid that entered during the truce were totally insufficient, and the health system is almost completely paralysed, as the necessary medical supplies were not delivered due to the Israeli control over the supplies entering the Strip through the Rafah crossing.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced its collapse due to the ongoing Israeli siege and targeting, and the lack of the necessary equipment required for recovering the bodies of thousands of victims in the Gaza Strip -especially those buried under the rubbles in the north of the Gaza strip- despite appeals of medical and relief groups to allow the entry of these machines and supplies.
The humanitarian truce, which lasted for one week, was an opportunity to reach a complete ceasefire, however, the international community continued to ignore the war crimes and massacres carried out by the Israeli occupation before the truce and did not take any steps to hold the Israeli war criminals accountable. As a result, the occupation resumed its massacres on the first day after the truce.
AOHR UK condemned the ongoing besiege of the Gaza Strip by the Egyptian side.
It pointed out that although the truce was a great opportunity to break the siege, the Egyptian regime remained fully submissive to the will of the Israeli occupation and its supporters, led by the USA, which resulted in worsening the catastrophic situation in Gaza.
The double standards of the Western countries, silence over the Israeli genocide crimes, and the complete impunity enjoyed by the occupation leaders are the reasons behind ending the humanitarian truce to carry out the Israeli plans to kill as many Palestinian citizens as possible and displacing the rest.
While some statements of Western officials are the result of popular pressure calling for sopping the killing of civilians, the official position never called for a complete ceasefire. Rather, arms shipments and military deals continue to take place between these countries and the Israeli occupation.
AOHR UK called on human rights defenders and activists around the world to put pressure on their governments to pressure the Israeli government to stop the genocidal war and to hold the occupation leaders accountable for the war crimes they committed.
AOHR UK also urged the Egyptian regime to control its Rafah crossing, expedite the evacuation of the injured, and stop the Israeli occupation forces from violating Egyptian sovereignty by controlling the crossing, as there are thousands of injured civilians who needed to leave the strip for treatment, however only a very small number were allowed to leave.
Several testimonies recorded the death of a number of injured people while waiting at the crossing to leave for treatment. The United Nations stated that between November 2, to November 9, the Egyptian authorities allowed the exit of only 131 injured out of tens of thousands of those injured and waiting at the crossing.
Likewise, medical teams were prevented from entering the Gaza Strip to help alleviate the suffering of the injured, and only two field hospitals were established in the southern Gaza Strip, while the central and northern Gaza Strip remain in dire need of urgent medical teams given the increasing number of victims falling due to the lack of medical care.
AOHR UK renewed its call on the governments of the Arab and Islamic countries to stop watching the massacres and to respond to the demands of the people to sever all relations with the Israeli occupation and to work collectively to stop the genocide of civilians in Gaza.
