GAZA, (PIC)
Not a day has passed since the ceasefire agreement between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Israeli occupation came into effect without the enemy violating its terms, whether concerning the main clause, which is the cessation of aggression and targeting Palestinians, or regarding the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the Philadelphi route, or the entry of humanitarian aid and the opening of crossings.
The duration since the agreement began is 53 days so far, during which the Israeli occupation has committed grave violations and numerous breaches, manifested in the daily targeting of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip; the number of martyrs has exceeded 150 to date. These violations also included preventing the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, which consists of food, medicine, construction materials, caravans, and tents. Additionally, the occupation has not completed its withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip as stipulated in the agreement, as it still controls the Philadelphi route to this day.
For its part, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that Israel has killed 150 Palestinians at an average of about 3 people every day since the ceasefire on January 19, 2025, while using siege and starvation as slow killing tools in the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The Euro-Med Monitor clarified that its field team documented the continued Israeli occupation forces committing murder either by sniper fire or drones, or through air attacks against Palestinian citizens, especially while they were trying to check on their homes near the buffer zone imposed along the northern and eastern borders of the Gaza Strip.
Daily targeting
It was reported that an Israeli drone killed “Abdullah Ali Al-Sha’ar” last Monday evening and injured another in eastern Rafah while they were in a safe area. This occurred just hours after another drone attack that killed three brothers northeast of the Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The Euro-Med Monitor indicated that Rafah was the most targeted area by Israeli attacks, where Abdul Moneim Ali Qishtah (53 years old) was killed inside his home by bullets fired by Israeli forces stationed at the border with Egypt, opposite the Al-Salam neighborhood in southern Rafah, on the morning of Saturday, March 8, 2025. On the same day, an Israeli drone targeted two young men with a missile while they were in the Al-Shouka town east of Rafah, killing them instantly.
Euro-Med field team documented the killing of other Palestinians in repeated attacks on the Shuja’iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City and the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip since the beginning of March.
It indicated that Israel has killed 150 Palestinians since the ceasefire, at an average of about 3 daily, and injured 605 others, at an average of 11.8 daily, which confirms its continued systematic targeting of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip without any military justification, despite the cessation of hostilities.
Cutting electricity to Gaza
Further demonstrating Israeli obstinacy in evading the implementation of the agreement’s terms, the Minister of Energy in the occupation government, Eli Cohen, announced last Sunday that he had instructed to stop supplying electricity to Gaza, following a week after the decision to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid into the devastated Strip. He added, “We will use all available tools to recover the hostages and ensure that Hamas does not exist in Gaza the day after the war.”
The only power line between Israel and Gaza supplies the main water desalination plant in the Strip, which serves more than 600,000 people, while the residents of Gaza rely on solar panels and generators for electricity, especially since fuel is transported to the Strip in very limited quantities.
Hamas: war crime
Hamas stated that the continued cutting of electricity to the Gaza Strip for more than 16 months, along with the recent cutting of the limited power line that supplies the water desalination plant in Deir al-Balah, constitutes a war crime that threatens to cause a catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas confirmed in a statement that using water and food as weapons against innocent civilians represents a serious escalation in the Israeli systematic steps to deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. It added that “the government of terrorist Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, continues to commit unprecedented acts of collective punishment against more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas emphasized that cutting water and electricity to the Gaza Strip, and preventing the entry of food, relief, and medical supplies for the eleventh consecutive day, represents a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law. At the same time, it pointed out that the silence of the international community and its failure to assume its moral and legal responsibilities regarding these crimes, along with its disregard for reports and calls from international humanitarian organizations, including the recent call from Amnesty International to prevent the occupation from using water as a weapon of war, encourages the occupation to continue its criminal policies.
Hamas called on Arab countries, the United Nations, and humanitarian organizations to take urgent action to stop these brutal crimes, impose immediate measures to end the blockade on the Gaza Strip, and hold the Israeli officials accountable for their crimes before international justice.
Humanitarian catastrophe
The Euro-Med Monitor pointed out that Israel has not only engaged in widespread killing and the destruction of most of the Gaza Strip over the past 15 months but is also escalating its genocidal policies by imposing more lethal living conditions that lead to gradual and slow death. This is done through an unlawful comprehensive blockade that suffocates the Strip by preventing the entry of humanitarian aid and essential materials, hindering the repair of infrastructure and necessary services for the survival of the population, all in the absence of any effective international intervention.
It warned of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe as the blockade continues, noting that markets are beginning to experience shortages of goods, and many relief centers and soup kitchens have stopped operating, amid the ongoing closure of Gaza’s crossings and the prevention of supplies since March 2. This exacerbates the suffering of civilians and pushes them toward inevitable famine.
It stressed that famine is not the only danger that should mobilize the international community, and action should not wait for its occurrence; denying the population, especially children, sufficient nutrition leads to severe malnutrition that causes irreversible health damage and results in permanent physical and mental disabilities.
It warned that acute nutritional deficiencies during critical growth stages weaken the immune system, increase rates of deadly diseases, and lead to severe delays in cognitive and motor development, leaving lasting health impacts that cannot be reversed even if conditions improve later.
The health sector is destroyed
In press statements, the Director General of Hospitals at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Mohammed Zaqout, confirmed that the Israeli occupation has not allowed the entry of any medical equipment or imaging devices into the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression on October 7 of last year until now. He emphasized that Israel has not adhered to the humanitarian protocol despite the ceasefire in January.
Zaqout continued, “No important medical devices have been brought into the Gaza Strip, except for some supplies and medical items that do not exceed 60% of their usefulness.” He pointed out that the occupation forces destroyed all MRI machines and CT imaging devices, which are essential for diagnosing and following up on patients, during their incursions into the hospitals of the Gaza Strip.
The Euro-Med Monitor confirmed that what Israel is doing exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe and institutionalizes starvation as a tool of genocide, warning that humanitarian aid is a fundamental right for civilian populations that cannot be compromised under international humanitarian law. There is no exception or legal justification that allows Israel to deprive Palestinians of essential humanitarian aid.
It clarified that Israel does not limit its use of aid as a bargaining chip for political or military gains but deliberately implements a systematic starvation policy, attempting to create lethal living conditions that make the survival of the population in Gaza impossible.
The Euro-Med Monitor noted that Israel’s repeated declaration of its full coordination with the current U.S. administration, which has explicitly announced its intention to completely displace the residents of the Gaza Strip, confirms that the crimes of starvation and cutting off humanitarian aid are not merely negotiating pressure tactics or isolated practices. Instead, they are part of a calculated plan that aligns with the American approach to impose forced displacement and to empty the Strip of its inhabitants, as part of a policy of ethnic cleansing that represents an additional indicator of the destructive intent behind the crime of genocide, especially with the imposition of deadly living conditions that make life in Gaza unsustainable.
Genocide
The Monitor confirmed that this Israeli policy institutionalizes the crime of genocide, according to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which prohibits imposing living conditions that lead to the total or partial destruction of a group. Even after the ceasefire, Israel continued to impose lethal coercive conditions aimed at the gradual elimination of Palestinians by depriving them of the essential components of life, as part of a long-term plan that threatens their physical existence as a national group. It warned that the international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the illegal blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, which constitutes one of the most prominent tools of genocide.
The Euro-Med Monitor called on all relevant states and entities to fulfill their legal responsibilities and take urgent action to stop the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip by all means possible, imposing all necessary measures to compel Israel to lift the blockade completely and immediately, allowing for the free movement of individuals and goods without restrictions, opening all crossings without arbitrary conditions, and taking effective steps to save Palestinians from plans of slow death and forced displacement, including activating an urgent response to meet the immediate and appropriate needs of the population, including providing temporary and adequate housing.
The Euro-Med Monitor demanded that the international community impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel due to its systematic and grave violations of international law, including banning the export of weapons to it or purchasing them from it, halting military cooperation with it, and freezing the financial assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians. It also called for suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic advantages, increasing pressure on it to end its crimes against Palestinians.
The Euro-Med Monitor urged the international community to fulfill its legal and humanitarian responsibilities regarding the necessity to implement the International Court of Justice’s order on March 28, 2024, which mandates Israel to take necessary and effective measures, in cooperation with the United Nations, to ensure the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip without obstacles and without delay, in compliance with its obligations under the genocide convention.
It called on the International Criminal Court to expedite its investigations and issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials involved in crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, reminding member states of the Rome Statute of their legal obligations to fully cooperate with the Court and ensure the execution of arrest warrants issued against Israeli officials.
