The United Nations has warned that the Israeli forcible mass eviction of approximately 1200 Palestinians from their homes in the Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank amounts to a “war crime.”
In a statement issued Thursday the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that “evictions that lead to displacement if enforced amount to forced forcible deportation and a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and therefore constitute a war crime.”
“The international humanitarian law imposes an absolute prohibition on the forcible transfer of civilians from or within the occupied Palestinian territories and that Israeli authorities must put an end to all coercive measures including planned evictions demolitions and military training in it” the OCHA said.
The OCHA further said that “constant eviction of Palestinians from their ancestral homes and Israel’s decades-long settlements expansion activities have changed realities on the ground and are inconsistent with international humanitarian law and UN Security Council resolutions which are legally binding.”
The statement stated that “215 Palestinian families comprising 1150 individuals including 569 children are currently living in the Masafer Yatta area and are facing threats of home demolition as well as violence from settlers who live in outposts close to them.”
