“The Israeli military has intensified its efforts to forcibly displace the entirety of the civilian population in the area north of Wadi Gaza to the south, starting with the North Gaza governorate, forcing civilians to choose between starvation or displacement, while their homes and streets are relentlessly pounded by bombs and shells.
“The world must stop standing by while Israel uses siege, starvation and atrocity crimes to forcibly displace and destroy civilians and civilian life.
In a few hours, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing a joint session of Congress.
His visit comes as daily military strikes in Gaza, powered by U.S.-made weapons, are killing children and tearing families apart.
A human rights thread.⬇️
Here are the facts.
Netanyahu has evaded calls for a ceasefire and denied critical aid, even as Palestinian civilians are being starved and remain at risk of genocide.
Specifically, Amnesty International’s findings have uncovered an immense scale of violations, including:
❌Evidence of war crimes committed by Israeli forces, which have targeted civilians and wiped out entire Palestinian families using U.S.-made weapons.
❌Torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, and mass detention of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children.
❌Escalating attacks and limitations on humanitarian aid have combined to kill more than 38,000 people and internally displaced at least 75% of Gaza’s total population. amnestyusa.org/blog/no-weapon…
“No one is above international law: no leaders of armed groups, no government officials – elected or not, no military officials. Regardless of the cause they are pursuing, no one is above the law.
“This move by the ICC Prosecutor sends an important message to all parties to the conflict in Gaza and beyond that they will be held accountable for the devastation they have waged on the peoples of Gaza and Israel.
“One day President Biden expresses concerns about the actions of Israeli forces in Rafah, the next day he plans to send them weapons. This is at best mixed messages, or worse, total complicity.
"He knows that Rafah will be an unmitigated—and unlawful— disaster of human suffering and death that he and the U.S. government is enabling with U.S. taxpayer dollars.
“Amnesty International’s devastating research findings link US-made weapons to civilian killings. This demands urgent attention and action by President Biden and the U.S. Congress.
“The United States has an outsized role and responsibility to do everything in its power to ensure civilians are protected, including suspending the supply, sale, or transfer of arms until there is no longer a risk they will be used unlawfully.
“Secretary Blinken’s trip to Ethiopia comes at a critical time in the implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH)...
" ...and when the Ethiopian government is actively mobilizing support to terminate the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE).