Israel expands its war and uses civilians as a pressure tool amid talk of returning to negotiations

Gaza - Ma'an - The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that Israel appears to be using the displaced and Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip as a tool of political pressure and blackmail by expanding the circle of killing, starving and targeting them, in light of talk about the return of negotiations to reach a ceasefire declaration for the ongoing Israeli war on the Strip since October 7. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor pointed out that the Israeli occupation army's targeting of displacement centers and their surroundings and carrying out mass killings against the displaced and civilians, while Israel continues to prevent the forcibly displaced from returning to their places of residence and continues to starve and deprive them of the basic materials that are indispensable for survival and prevents the entry of humanitarian aid, constitutes an insistence on committing the crime of genocide by all means against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Moni tor said that at approximately 6:55 p.m. on Tuesday, July 9, Israeli aircraft fired several missiles at a group of residents and displaced persons, exhausted by repeated forced displacement and moving from one place to another, at the gate of the "Al-Awda" school in Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, which houses thousands of forcibly displaced persons. The targeting resulted in approximately 32 deaths, including a large number of children and women, some of whom were turned into pieces, in addition to more than 50 wounded. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor explained that its initial information, based on examining the fragments of the bombs used in the bombing, indicates the use of American bombs, which have been repeatedly used in a number of mass killings and targeting of civilians in Gaza. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed that while there is no justification for committing these crimes, the continued implementation of these crimes by the Israe li army aims primarily to use civilians as a tool of pressure and blackmail and to eliminate the Palestinians amid international silence on the crime of genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since last October, as Israel continues to bomb shelters flying the United Nations flag and kill those inside them time after time, without any international position being crystallized to stop it. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor noted that it had observed a significant escalation in the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since talk of a return to negotiations to reach a truce declaration, indicating that Israel is exerting pressure by expanding the scope of targeting, killing and starving civilians, and using them as a political blackmail tool without regard to international law. Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reiterated that Israel is adopting a systematic policy of targeting the civilian population and individuals in the Gaza Strip, who are protected under international humanitarian law, wher ever they are, with the aim of eliminating them by killing, injuring, causing severe suffering and starvation, depriving them of medical care and humanitarian aid, stripping and destroying their property, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture, sexual violence, and forcibly displacing them systematically and widely, and depriving them of any stability, even temporary, in displacement and shelter centers, by intensifying the bombing of these centers on the heads of the displaced people inside them, issuing repeated forced displacement orders, and repeatedly penetrating Palestinian neighborhoods. Based on the above, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor renewed its call for all countries to assume their absolute international responsibilities to stop the crime of genocide, impose effective sanctions on Israel, and stop all forms of political, financial and military support and cooperation provided to it, including the immediate cessation of arms transfers to it, including export licenses and milit ary aid. Otherwise, these countries will be complicit and partners in the crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, including the crime of genocide. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also urged the International Criminal Court to expedite the issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and to expand the scope of investigation into individual criminal responsibility for crimes committed in the Gaza Strip to include all those responsible, issue arrest warrants against them, hold them accountable, and recognize and deal with the crimes committed by Israel as genocide without equivocation. Source: Maan News Agency