Targeting Shelter Centers in Gaza Violates International Law: Human Rights Monitor

Geneva: The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the Zionist occupation is still escalating its military attacks that directly target shelter and displacement centers in the Gaza Strip.

The Zionist occupation plans to forcibly displace residents from the Gaza Strip, instill in them the feeling that there is no safe place in Gaza, and exacerbate their suffering in light of the ongoing genocidal war since 7 October 2023.

The Euro-Med Monitor stressed in a statement that the occupation’s deliberate military attacks against shelters and displacement centers explicitly violate the rules of international law, especially international humanitarian law. The basic principle is that the identified shelter and displacement centers are safe places and it is the responsibility of the Zionist occupation to ensure their safety and security.

The statement referred to the public statements issued by many senior officials in the Zionist entity regarding seeking the forced displacement of the residents of the Gaza Strip and the search for countries that would receive the largest numbers of them.

The statement pointed out that since 12 October 2023, the Zionist forces warned about 1.1 million residents of the northern part of the Gaza Strip to move to the south without guaranteeing that they would be allowed to return in the future or ensuring security for them during their displacement. On the contrary, the occupation targeted them directly on many occasions during their displacement on roads that had previously been declared safe corridors.

In its statement, the Euro-Med Monitor stressed that the occupation’s insistence on keeping the vast majority of the population of the Gaza Strip displaced means that they continue to be unable to obtain the necessary health care, especially with regard to those suffering from chronic diseases, in light of the occupation’s continued prevention and obstruction of the entry of humanitarian aid including food supplies and medical supplies to meet the actual need of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

While the displaced are forced to build tents and crowd in open areas in the city of Rafah and the central governorates of the Gaza Strip, they remain unable to access basic health facilities and supplies, which exacerbates the spread of infectious diseases and threatens a large-scale health disaster, it added.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that it documented the occupation forces relentless targeting of shelters for displaced persons and residential homes where displaced people were taking shelter in various regions of the Gaza Strip.