Israeli-designated 'safe zones' in Gaza furthering genocide: Rights group report

The Palestinian human rights non-profit organisation Al-Haq has published a new report pointing out how "evacuation orders" and alleged "safe zones" determined by Israel are only furthering the act of genocide across Gaza.

Entitled How to "Hide a Genocide: The Role of Evacuation Orders and Safe Zones in Israel's Genocidal Campaign in Gaza," Al-Haq pointed to "mass atrocities... taking place amidst regular evacuation orders instructing the entire population of the North to move south immediately so [Israel] can resettle the area."

"Since the very first week of its genocide, Israel has methodically cleared vast stretches of the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants through its unlawful issuance of evacuation orders. These are presented to the public as proof of its efforts to minimise civilian casualties and to support its alleged compliance with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law (IHL)," the report said.

"However, they achieve the direct opposite," it added. 

"Despite being unilaterally established by Israel, the Israeli military routinely targets both the [safe] zones themselves as well as the routes it has instructed forcibly displaced Palestinians to use as they flee in search of ever-evasive safety. Crowded together with no place of refuge, Palestinians are either killed by Israeli strikes, severely physically and mentally injured by the IOF’s physical and psychological warfare, or subjected to a slow death from the environment of total deprivation into which they have been plunged."