Addressing the Doha Discussion board, Ayman Safadi says Israel’s operation in Gaza meets the ‘legal definition of genocide’.
Jordan and the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees have accused Israel of aiming to cleanse Gaza of its individuals by way of an “indiscriminate and brutal offensive” in response to the October 7 Hamas assault.
Talking on the Doha Discussion board held within the Qatari capital on Sunday, Jordan’s International Minister Ayman Safadi stated Israel was implementing a coverage of pushing the Palestinians out of Gaza by way of a conflict that he stated meets the “legal definition of genocide”.
“What we are seeing in Gaza is not just simply the killing of innocent people and the destruction of their livelihoods, but a systematic effort to empty Gaza of its people,” Safadi stated.
“We have not seen the world yet come to the place we should come to … an unequivocal demand for ending this war, a war that is within the legal definition of genocide.”
Safadi argued that Israel’s avowed aim of destroying Hamas was belied by the extent of destruction amongst Gaza civilians, which he described as “indiscriminate”.
Philippe Lazzarini, the top of the United Nations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), additionally accused Israel of planning a mass expulsion of individuals from Gaza into Egypt.
“The United Nations and several member states, including the United States, have firmly rejected forcibly displacing Gazans out of the Gaza Strip,” Lazzarini stated in his handle on the Doha Discussion board.
This can be a recognition to the lifesaving work of our @UNRWA groups.
That is nevertheless not a time for celebration as UNRWA mourns 134 colleagues killed within the brutal conflict in #Gaza, however a time to pay tribute.https://t.co/pnZBqNDf7C pic.twitter.com/NwWNgqefiR
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) December 10, 2023
“But the developments we are witnessing point to attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt, regardless of whether they stay there or are resettled elsewhere.”
Lazzarini stated the widespread destruction within the Palestinian territory’s north and the ensuing displacements had been “the first stage of such a scenario”, including that forcing civilians from the southern metropolis of Khan Younis nearer to the Egyptian border was the following stage.
“If this path continues, leading to what many are already calling a second Nakba, Gaza will not be a land for Palestinians any more,” Lazzarini stated, utilizing the Arabic time period for the exodus or pressured displacement of 760,000 Palestinians throughout a conflict that coincided with Israel’s creation in 1948.
The Israeli authorities rejected the accusations, with its spokesperson Eylon Levy calling them “outrageous and false”.
“Israel is fighting to defend itself from the monsters who perpetrated the October 7 massacre, and the purpose of our campaign is to bring those monsters to justice and ensure they never again hurt our people,” he stated.
Levy stated Israel has been urging civilians in Gaza to relocate from battlegrounds for their very own security and want to see different nations echo that decision.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Ministry additionally responded to the statements made by the UNRWA chief, saying: “There is not, never was and never will be an Israeli plan to move the residents of Gaza to Egypt. This is simply not true.”
Nevertheless, in latest months, a number of Israeli ministers have publicly made feedback suggesting the Israeli operation is aimed toward pushing the Palestinians out of Gaza.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel final month stated “one option” after the conflict may very well be “to promote the voluntary resettlement of Palestinians in Gaza, for humanitarian reasons, outside of the Strip”.
And former Israeli officers have instructed in TV interviews that Egypt may construct huge tent cities in its Sinai desert, with worldwide funding, for the displaced Palestinians.
