Friday briefing: How fresh Israel offensives have made Gaza ‘uninhabitable’ for Palestinians

Good morning.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a detailed report accusing Israel of forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza, in actions it describes as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The US-based organisation asserts that evidence points to a systematic, state-driven policy of forcible transfer, adding that Israel’s actions may align with the definition of ethnic cleansing. Currently, 1.9 million people – about 90% of Gaza’s population – are displaced. The report emerges amid ongoing accusations that Israel is intentionally clearing northern Gaza.

On 6 October, Israeli forces returned to northern Gaza in a renewed offensive that killed more than 800 people by the end of last month. While Israeli officials state that their operations are aimed at eliminating a “Hamas resurgence” in response to the 7 October atrocities last year, tactics such as blocking aid and demolishing buildings have plunged civilians into another severe humanitarian crisis. Israel denied the allegations laid out by HRW, with the foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein dismissing its findings as “completely false and detached from reality”.

Numerous other human rights organisations and UN investigations have accused Israel of war crimes. Yesterday a UN special committee said that Israeli policies and practices in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.

For today’s newsletter, I spoke with Guardian journalist Kaamil Ahmed as well as Milena Ansari, a Palestinian lawyer and researcher at Human Rights Watch, about the unfolding displacement crisis in Gaza. That’s right after the headlines.

Five big stories

1. US politics | Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US secretary of health and human services has prompted widespread criticism towards Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who has also embraced a slew of other debunked health-related conspiracy theories.

2. Middle East | Israel intensified its air offensives on three fronts, launching dozens of new strikes in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria. One strike targeted two residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday and killed more than a dozen people, the Syrian state news agency SANA said.

3. UK politics | Leading Conservatives Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden were on the committee that backed plans for the “rushed and misjudged” £15m purchase of an asbestos-ridden site for asylum accommodation, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has disclosed.

4. Social care | More than 250 unpaid carers risk criminal prosecution after falling foul of draconian benefit rules in the past six months, official figures reveal.

5. Education | England’s universities face financial turmoil with nearly three in four expected to be in the red next year, according to gloomy forecasts from the higher education regulator.

In depth: ‘We can’t overemphasise how bad the situation is there’

In its report, HRW analysed 184 evacuation orders issued by Israel between last October and this August to designated safe zones.

Israeli officials argued that evacuation orders – which hold no legal status – demonstrate its commitment to protecting civilians, a claim that HRW heavily contests. Instead, HRW’s report found that the system of evacuation itself put people in harm’s way and has driven mass displacement – the instructions given by Israeli forces were “unclear, inaccurate and sometimes contradictory”, Milena Ansari says, adding that often civilians are given little to no notice. Residents have also said that combat activity including active fire makes it almost impossible to leave safely.

According to the UN, 79% of Gaza is under Israeli-issued evacuation orders – down from 84% last month – which is forcing civilians into “humanitarian zones” that have regardless been targeted and bombed. HRW has also said that the evacuation routes have been “repeatedly” targeted by Israeli forces.

Unable to return

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 75,000 Palestinians remain in the north of Gaza, and that more than 100,000 people have been evacuated to Gaza City. Under international law, evacuation is temporary – and Israel is compelled to ensure the return of displaced populations to their homes once conflict is over. But over the past 13 months, Israel’s offensive has destroyed hospitals, schools, water and sanitation, communications, energy and transport infrastructure, which HRW argues has created conditions that make return impossible – particularly in the north.

The northern Gaza Strip is under siege. When Israel renewed its offensive, aid plunged to its lowest level since the first month of the war, as agencies accused Israel of blocking trucks from getting in.

Israeli forces have split the territory into two and control all travel between each side through the Netzarim corridor, a heavily fortified security path that runs across Gaza. The IDF bulldozed agricultural land, orchards, water pipelines and homes to create the corridor, while denying Palestinians access to their homes.

Access to northern Gaza had been significantly hindered in October according to OCHA – it found that out of 98 attempts to provide humanitarian assistance to northern Gaza through one checkpoint, only 11 movements were facilitated by the Israeli authorities. Hundreds of trucks are unable to get to the north and languish uncollected by the UN for distribution.

The non-stop bombing of northern Gaza has totally flattened so much of the landscape. “Our investigation found that some of these areas have become completely uninhabitable,” Ansari says. The report concluded that the “destruction is so substantial that it indicates the intention to permanently displace many people”.

The first quote in the HRW report is from Dr Hassan, a 49-year-old man who fled with his family from his home near Jabalia in northern Gaza to Khan Younis in the south. “He told us the first thing he thought of during the evacuation and displacement was the Nakba,” Ansari says. “This has triggered a generational trauma for Palestinians.”

Why is Israel doing this?

Satellite imagery has indicated that Israel is building long-term infrastructure and widening roads to support a prolonged military presence – one report by Israeli outlet Haaretz estimated that Israel plans to remain in Gaza until the end of 2025. The plans have also fuelled fears that the destruction and permanent displacement are paving the way for Israelis to resettle the enclave.

The idea has support from members of the Israeli government such as finance minister Bezalel Yoel Smotrich, who has called for settlements in Gaza and for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians who live there.

“While I cannot say if these plans are imminent, what we can say is our research is proving that these statements might come with more active implementation on the ground,” Ansari says.

Life in northern Gaza

The people who remain in northern Gaza are living in a “catastrophic situation beyond imagination,” Ansari says. UN officials last week described the northern Gaza Strip as “apocalyptic” and said everyone there was “at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence”. The World Health Organization warned that there is “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip”.

There is an even worse shortage of medicine, food and safe water in this area. “Many people queue for hours and hours, from 7am to 2pm, for a piece of bread,” Ansari says. A person sheltering in a camp in Jabalia told CBC News last month: “Life essentials do not exist. We’re continuing to live without life essentials.”

“We can’t overemphasise how bad the situation is there,” says the Guardian’s Kaamil Ahmed, who has heard from many in Gaza as their situations have worsened in the past year. The evacuation routes that Palestinians are told to take were once roads that have now been turned to “dust”, he adds. “People who have been surrounded for a year by destruction and displacement, they are saying that the situation right now is unimaginable,” Kaamil says.

Civilians who are desperate to get on with their lives are unable to. “I spoke to one guy in Jabalia who returned to his damaged home and he decided to start a little garden to grow some vegetables – but now he’s had to leave again and his home is demolished,” Kaamil says. “Even when civilians try to carve out a way to survive they are forced away.” There has been a huge psychological toll on many people, he adds: “Another person I spoke to keeps telling me he’s unwell, depressed and just struggling mentally. That’s the sense I get from everyone I speak to: they are on the edge of trying to cope and survive but are really struggling to find the will.”

Sport

Football | An early strike from Ollie Watkins and a clever finish by Curtis Jones earned England a 3-0 Nations League win over Greece. Evan Ferguson’s fourth senior international goal handed Republic of Ireland a 1-0 victory over Finland as Caoimhín Kelleher saved a penalty to see them across the line.

Rugby | Freddie Steward has been recalled to the England side to face South Africa, with Steve Borthwick making four changes for Saturday’s meeting with the back-to-back world champions.

Social media | St Pauli have become the first major football club to leave X, describing the social media site as a “hate machine” and expressing concern that it may influence the outcome of the forthcoming German election.

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