International body: Home demolitions, forced displacement of Palestinians amount to war crimes

Dr Salah Abdelatty, head of the International Commission to Support the Rights of the Palestinian People, said on Wednesday that demolishing homes, forcibly evicting residents, repeatedly displacing them and targeting civilians to terrorise them and force them to leave their homes amount to war crimes.

Speaking by phone to Egypt’s Extra News TV, Abdelatty said forced displacement is among the most serious crimes committed during the war and as Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territories continue.

He said such practices form part of genocide and ethnic cleansing and have expanded during Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and in Palestinian refugee camp areas in the northern occupied West Bank.

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More than 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced within Gaza and are living in catastrophic conditions across an area of less than 30 per cent of the territory, while between 60,000 and 70,000 Palestinians have been displaced from northern parts of the occupied West Bank and other areas, he said.

Abdelatty said condemnation and denunciations are no longer enough, calling on countries to fulfil their moral and legal obligations by boycotting Israel and imposing sanctions on it, as well as imposing a comprehensive ban on arms and goods exports to Israel.

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