Geneva – Saba:
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the horrific massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army Thursday morning against a large number of civilians in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip reflects a systematic Israeli policy of using starvation as a weapon, followed by the killing of civilians as they attempt to access food.
In a statement received by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba), the Observatory considered this crime a flagrant violation of all rules of international humanitarian law and a direct result of international silence that has effectively empowered the perpetrators.
The statement stated that at approximately 7:15 a.m. on Thursday, an Israeli drone targeted a gathering of dozens of civilians waiting to receive food aid and child supplements in front of the headquarters of Human Appeal International, opposite Tayaran Junction north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The strike resulted in killing 15 people, including 10 children and 3 women and injuring approximately 35 others, most of them children.
Medical sources expect the death toll to rise due to the presence of a number of critically injured children.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated: "The initial field investigation conducted by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor team shows that the targeted site was not only a food aid distribution point, but also housed several humanitarian and medical institutions, including World Food Programme warehouses, a medical point, and an orphanage called "Friends Without Borders."
It added: "It was clear that dozens of civilians, particularly women and children, had gathered at the site since the early hours of the morning, hoping to obtain food to satisfy their hunger, given the complete collapse of food security in the Gaza Strip."
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor noted that the Israeli army possesses surveillance and reconnaissance means, along with highly advanced and precise fire and targeting systems, confirming beyond doubt that the airstrike that killed this large number of women and children was deliberate, direct, and planned, and that the army deliberately used precision munitions to inflict the greatest possible number of civilian casualties, a crime fully consistent with the context of the genocide committed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip for more than 21 months.
It explained that With the recurrence of similar crimes and the lack of any responsible international response, the Israeli enemy army has, in most cases, ignored issuing statements to justify its crimes against civilians because it feels no pressure to prosecute, hold accountable, or even question or protest from concerned states and organizations.
The Monitor pointed out that the crime against civilians in Deir al-Balah Thursday represents an example of Israeli attacks that make civilians, especially children and women, direct targets, in violation of all human rights conventions and international humanitarian law.
It stressed that this crime comes within the context of a repeated and systematic pattern of Israeli targeting of aid distribution centers and humanitarian gatherings.
In less than two months, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented the killing of more than 850 Palestinians while trying to access food, whether in queues at distribution points imposed by the Israeli enemy itself as part of the so-called "field coordination system," or at aid trucks, or in front of markets, or even at "food tents" set up by local residents in an attempt to survive.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor held the international community responsible for allowing the continuation and escalation of the systematic crimes committed by the Israeli enemy army against civilians, the starving people of the Gaza Strip.
It emphasized that the failure of influential states to take deterrent measures and their inability to exert any real pressure to halt Israel's crimes, including the continued operation of its inhumane aid distribution mechanism, provided political and practical cover for its continued use of these centers as arenas for mass killings, encouraged similar killings elsewhere, and carried out practices that violate the most basic rights of Palestinians and degrade their human dignity.
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