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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/un-expert-warns-mass-expulsion-israel-issues-new-evacuation-order">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">UN expert warns of mass expulsion as Israel issues new evacuation order</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-blog"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability">Rights and Accountability</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">24 December 2023</span></span> </p>
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<p>Palestinians leave al-Bureij refugee camp following Israeli evacuation orders on 22 December.</p><small>
<span>APA images</span></small>
<p>Israel’s military operations in Gaza are aimed at deporting the
“majority of the civilian population en masse,” an independent UN human
rights expert has warned.</p>
<p>“Gaza’s housing and civilian infrastructure have been razed to the ground,” <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/12/israel-working-expel-civilian-population-gaza-un-expert-warns">said</a> Paula Gaviria Betancur, the UN special rapporteur on internally displaced persons.</p>
<p>This widespread destruction impedes “any realistic prospects for
displaced Gazans to return home, repeating a long history of mass forced
displacement of Palestinians by Israel,” Gaviria added.</p>
<p>Some 1.9 million people – the vast majority of Gaza’s population of
2.3 million – have been internally displaced since 7 October. Israel’s
forcible transfer orders have concentrated ever more Palestinians into
increasingly overcrowded areas.</p>
<p>On Friday, the Israeli military issued <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/fresh-orders-flee/43086">evacuation orders</a> in a new area covering some 9 square kilometers, including al-Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps.</p>
<p>“Instructions accompanying the map call residents to move immediately
to shelters in Deir al-Balah, which is already overcrowded, hosting
several hundred thousand” displaced people, the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-76">stated</a>.</p>
<p>Nowhere is safe in Gaza, as Israel has bombarded areas that it ordered evacuated, as well as areas that it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/100000009208814/israel-gaza-bomb-civilians.html">ordered civilians to move to</a>.</p>
<p>On Friday, Israeli airstrikes killed 76 Palestinians from the
al-Mughrabi family in Gaza City, “making the attack one of the deadliest
of the war,” the AP news agency <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-12-23-2023-982fae4d0802b20d2a90423445c9f64b">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Among those killed were <a href="https://www.undp.org/speeches/statement-killing-undp-staff-member-and-family-gaza">United Nations Development Program worker Issam al-Mughrabi</a>, his wife Lamya and their five children, ranging in age from 13 to 32.</p>
<p>In Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, TV journalist Mohammed Khalifa and 14 others were killed in Israeli strikes.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-starves-death-toll-climbs-past-20000">More than 20,000 Palestinians</a>
have been reported killed in Gaza since 7 October. Several thousands
more remain missing, many of them under the rubble of destroyed
buildings.</p>
<h2>Rendering return impossible</h2>
<p>Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/most-gazas-population-remains-displaced-and-harms-way">recently stated</a> that the Israeli military appears to be “taking actions that render return impossible” for displaced Palestinians.</p>
<p>The New York-based group published satellite imagery showing that
agricultural lands that were green in mid-October had been destroyed by
24 November.
</p>
The razing of farmland and orchards in Gaza will exacerbate the already
dire economic situation in the territory, which had been subjected to 16
years of blockade before the current Israeli offensive.
<p>The collapsing of Gaza’s food systems is worsening food insecurity as Palestinians face starvation.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israel is systematically targeting and destroying Gaza’s health system.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzAzMzA3NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA0Njg5OTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDMzMDc2MDAsImp0aSI6ImJhMjI0OTVmLWVkNjQtNGQ2Ni1hNTU2LTEzZWJjMmI4MmI2NCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9pbnZlc3RpZ2F0aW9ucy9pbnRlcmFjdGl2ZS8yMDIzL2lzcmFlbC13YXItZGVzdHJ1Y3Rpb24tZ2F6YS1yZWNvcmQtcGFjZS8ifQ.mrwttR4wJ0q9n3fv0iZOfhh_lLUz83oY5qfqzdPW6-w&itid=gfta">analysis</a> by <em>The Washington Post</em> found that “Israel has carried out its war in Gaza at a pace and level of devastation that likely exceeds any recent conflict.”</p>
<p>The paper also found that Israel “has conducted repeated and
widespread airstrikes in proximity to hospitals, which are supposed to
receive special protection under the laws of war.”</p>
<p>As of Friday, only nine out of 36 of Gaza’s hospitals are partially functional, all of them in the south, <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-76">according to</a> the World Health Organization.</p>
<p>Satellite imagery “revealed dozens of apparent craters near 17 of the 28 hospitals in northern Gaza,” <em>The Washington Post</em> reported. Ten of the craters “suggested the use of bombs weighing 2,000 pounds, the largest in regular use,” the <em>Post</em> added.</p>
<p>Léo Cans, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Palestine, was quoted by the <em>Post</em> saying that there was a planned Israeli campaign “to close down all the hospitals in the north.”</p>
<p>Experts <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/13/politics/intelligence-assessment-dumb-bombs-israel-gaza/index.html">told CNN</a>
that the widespread use of unguided “dumb bombs” in Gaza “undercuts the
Israeli claim that they are trying to minimize civilian casualties.”
</p>
<h2>“Nakba 2023”</h2>
<p>Israel’s defense minister and military spokesperson have stated,
respectively, that “Gaza will never be the same” and that “we’re focused
on what causes maximum damage.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/Genocide%20Convention-FactSheet-ENG.pdf">According to</a>
a 1948 convention, genocide includes acts deliberately inflicting on a
people “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part.”</p>
<p>Avi Dichter, former head of Israel’s secret police the Shin Bet and a minister in the security cabinet, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabinet-member-calls-north-gaza-evacuation-nakba-2023/0000018b-c2be-dea2-a9bf-d2be7b670000">described</a> the evacuation orders as “rolling out the Gaza Nakba.” Israel’s war will end with “Gaza Nakba 2023,” he added.</p>
<p>The Nakba – Arabic for catastrophe – is the ethnic cleansing of Palestine carried out by Zionist forces between 1947 and 1949.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/14/israeli-minister-supports-voluntary-migration-of-palestinians-in-gaza">Bezalel Smotrich</a>, Israel’s far-right finance minister, and <a href="https://twitter.com/dannydanon/status/1736404538985173422?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">Danny Danon</a>,
a lawmaker in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, are among the many
politicians in the country advocating “voluntary immigration” from Gaza.</p>
<p>Israel has also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-informs-arab-states-it-wants-buffer-zone-post-war-gaza-sources-2023-12-01/">declared its intention</a>
to establish buffer zones that would cut into the already narrow Gaza
Strip, and likely prevent Palestinians from cultivating the territory’s
most fertile land along the periphery.</p>
<p>Israel’s plan to pump seawater into alleged tunnels under Gaza is a
deliberate attempt to render the territory uninhabitable, while
destroying historical cultural heritage sites, <a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/22394.html">according to</a> the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.</p>
<p>The British research group Forensic Architecture has <a href="https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/living-archaeology-in-gaza/">documented</a>
newly installed water pumps at the now mostly destroyed significant
archaeological site in Gaza City’s Beach refugee camp dating back to the
Iron Age.</p>
<h2>Biden’s role</h2>
<p>The US, widely seen as a full partner to Israel’s military campaign, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-would-object-buffer-zone-inside-gaza-strip-state-dept-2023-12-06/">claims</a> to oppose any measure that would decrease the size of Gaza.</p>
<p>But the Biden administration’s statements in support of Gaza’s
territorial integrity and the safety of civilians are belied by the
material and diplomatic support it is providing to Israel.</p>
<p>Washington has <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/25/biden-israel-weapons-stockpile-arms-gaza/">lifted virtually every restriction</a> on Israel’s access to US weapons stockpiled in the country for use in regional conflicts while <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/un-security-council-votes-increase-gaza-aid-not-ceasefire">obstructing</a> calls for a ceasefire at the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>Joe Biden, who has on multiple occasions acknowledged the “indiscriminate” nature of Israel’s bombing in Gaza, has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/20/israel-gaza-crow-letter-haines/">come under pressure</a> from lawmakers in his own party seeking greater transparency in Washington’s provision of weapons Israel.</p>
<p>Biden and his secretaries of state and defense are being <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/palestinians-sue-biden-stop-gaza-genocide">sued by Palestinians</a> for their failure to prevent the genocide unfolding in Gaza and for their complicity in the commission of genocide.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers have recorded multiple videos of
themselves celebrating the detonation of civilian infrastructure in
Gaza:
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