Israel 'committing crimes against humanity' in Gaza, warns report

US-based Human Rights Watch condemns use of forced evacuation orders

- Peter Beaumont

Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the "deliberate and massive forced displacement" of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch that says the policy amounts to "crimes against humanity".

The US-based group added it had collected evidence suggesting "the war crime of forcible transfer [of the civilian population]" and describing it as "a grave breach of the Geneva conventions and a crime under the Rome statute of the international criminal court".

The report was published amid mounting evidence that Israel is accelerating efforts to cut the Gaza Strip in two with a buffer zone and is building infrastructure to support a prolonged military presence, which has intensified demolitions and destruction.

Residents in northern Gaza said Israeli forces were besieging displaced families and the remaining population - which some estimated at a few thousand - by ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp from Gaza City.

Men were held for questioning but women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.

Calling for Israel's policy of forced displacement to be investigated by the international criminal court, Human Rights Watch (HRW) also urged targeted sanctions against Israel, such as cessation of arms sales.

The international rights group's report - titled Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged: Israel's Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza - takes aim at one of Israel's most controversial policies: the use of evacuation orders that have driven mass displacement in Gaza, with many people displaced on multiple occasions.

As a result, more than 90% of the population - 1.9 million Palestinians - have been displaced and much of Gaza destroyed in 13 months.