Rights group Amnesty International has warned that “Israeli authorities are still committing genocide” in Gaza in spite of the declared ceasefire, including by waging fresh attacks and curbing critical aid access.
Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire deal, more than 500 times in seven weeks, that was meant to end its genocidal war on the devastated enclave that has killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians.
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The rights organisation issued the statement Thursday, as Israeli forces carried out a series of air strikes in southern and central Gaza, including in areas beyond the yellow line where they are supposed to remain withdrawn under the ceasefire deal they have repeatedly violated.
“So far, there is no indication that Israel is taking serious measures to reverse the deadly impact of its crimes and no evidence that its intent has changed,” said Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnès Callamard. “In fact, Israeli authorities are continuing their ruthless policies, restricting access to vital humanitarian aid and essential services, and deliberately imposing conditions calculated to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”
“The world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over,” she said.
Some of Israel’s strikes on Thursday morning targeted buildings in central Gaza’s Bureij camp and eastern Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondents on the ground.
They add to hundreds of attacks that Gaza’s civil defence says are brazen violations of the fragile seven-week ceasefire.
They also come as Israel’s military carried out another wave of raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank, including in the areas of Qalqilya, Tubas, Hebron, Tulkarem and Nablus.
During their raid in Tubas, Israeli forces conducted field interrogations and assaulted at least 25 people who required medical treatment, according to a local Palestinian Red Crescent official quoted by the Wafa news agency.
More Palestinian prisoners released
The first stage of the Gaza truce moved closer to completion on Wednesday after Israel transferred the bodies of 15 Palestinian prisoners to Gaza authorities, a day after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad handed over the body of another Israeli captive.
Palestinian armed groups have now released all living captives and returned the remains of 26 of 28 captives stipulated to be transferred under the deal.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the latest handover shows the group’s “steadfast commitment to fully complete the exchange process and its ongoing efforts to finalise it despite significant difficulties”.
Israel, for its part, has freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and returned the bodies of 345 prisoners, many of whom showed signs of torture, mutilation and execution.
But the ceasefire continues to face major hurdles, including the presence of dozens of Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels on the Israeli-occupied side of the yellow line in southern Gaza – 20 of whom Israel says it has killed over the past week.
On Wednesday, Hamas urged ceasefire mediators to pressure Israel to allow the Hamas fighters safe passage. The group accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire by targeting the fighters who are “besieged in the tunnels of Rafah”.
“We hold (Israel) fully responsible for the lives of our fighters and call upon our mediators to take immediate action to pressure (Israel) to allow our sons to return home,” Hamas said in a statement.
Will the ceasefire progress to phase two?
Meanwhile, discussions are under way on how to transition to the second phase of the ceasefire, which is to include deploying an armed international stabilisation force, tasked with demilitarising Gaza, and developing an international body to temporarily govern the Gaza Strip and oversee reconstruction.
Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian mediators met in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss the second phase, reported Reuters. But major questions hang over nearly every part of the plan, as well as Israel’s commitment to seeing it through.
“Until this moment, Israel has not given up on its plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza,” said Muhammad Shehada, visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations Middle East and North Africa programme, told Al Jazeera. “Either Gaza stays permanently as a refugee camp in ruins that is unlivable, uninhabitable, and that sustains conditions that are designed to bring about collapse to life there … or Hamas retaliates and Israel uses it as an excuse to resume the genocide.”
Amnesty’s Callamard urged for continued global pressure on Israel to abide by international law and to not allow the ceasefire to serve as a “smokescreen for Israel’s ongoing genocide”.
“The international community cannot afford to be complacent: states must keep up pressure on Israel to allow unfettered access to humanitarian aid, lift its unlawful blockade and end its ongoing genocide,” said Callamard.