Israel's oppression of Palestinians 'crime against humanity' — HRW

Israel's repression of Palestinians, undertaken as part of a policy to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over them, amounts to "the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution," Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

HRW released the World Report 2024 during a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday.

"In 2023, civilians were targeted, attacked and killed at an unprecedented scale in the recent history of Israel and Palestine," the report said.

Israeli air strikes "incessantly" pounded Gaza, hitting schools and hospitals and reducing large parts of neighbourhoods to rubble, including in attacks that were "apparently unlawful," it added.

Stressing that Israeli forces "unlawfully used white phosphorous" in densely populated areas, the report said they ordered the evacuation of all people from northern Gaza and displaced 1.9 million people.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, which Tel Aviv said killed around 1,200 people.

At least 23,357 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 59,410 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

'Move risks forced displacement, a war crime'

Israel's order to evacuate northern Gaza did not take into account the needs of older people, people with disabilities and patients, many of whom are unable to leave, the report said, adding "the move risks forced displacement, a war crime."

Since October 7, Israeli authorities sealed the crossings into Gaza, blocking the entry of people and goods, including residents in need of urgent medical care, from leaving Gaza via Erez, it said.

"Israeli authorities have regularly resorted to such measures, which target civilians and amount to unlawful collective punishment," it stressed.

Underlining that Israel's repression of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank intensified during 2023, especially after October 7, the report said Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups' launch of thousands of "indiscriminate" rockets at Israeli communities are also "war crimes."

"Many states condemned the Hamas-led October 7 attacks. Far fewer, though, condemned Israeli authorities' grave abuses," it said.

Stressing that US President Joe Biden and other US officials travelled to Israel several times to urge civilian protection and to lobby Israeli officials to allow aid into Gaza, the report said "The US had not conditioned its military support to Israel on abiding by those requests."

Human rights system 'under threat'

Speaking at the news conference, HRW Executive Director Tirana Hassan said 2023 showed that the system to protect the human rights of people everywhere was "under threat."

Stating that every time governments overlook or reject universally accepted principles, Hassan said someone pays the price, adding: "We see this in Israel and Palestine."

She said many of the governments that condemned Hamas's war crimes have been reserved in responding to those by the Israeli government.

"These governments' unwillingness to call out Israeli government abuses follows from the refusal by the US and most European Union member countries to urge an end to the Israeli government's 16-year unlawful closure of Gaza and to recognise the ongoing crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians," Hassan added.

Turning to the case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Hassan welcomed the move by South Africa to bring Israel's military campaign against Gaza to the top UN court.

"If Israel does not comply with the measures or orders of the court, then it is up to the international community to ensure that they are leveraging whatever pressure that they can to encourage Israel to actually implement the measures," she said.

Hassan said it would go to the UN Security Council, but added that UN member states can exercise their support for the decisions of the court through political statements, sanctions and arms embargoes.