The IOF have withdrawn from Beit Hanoun, leaving tens of houses, civilian property, and infrastructure destroyed, and a high number of civilians killed and injured.
According to Al Mezan's preliminary field investigations, on July 18 at approximately 1:00am, the IOF withdrew from Beit Hanoun town leaving 60 houses, 4 healthcare establishments, including an UNRWA clinic, 17 institutions including 4 UNRWA schools and a governmental school partially destroyed.
In addition, a mosque and Beit Hanoun cemetery were destroyed.
In addition, the IOF destroyed big parts of the town's main streets, particularly Damra and Abu Ouda streets as well as the road leading to Beit Hanoun cemetery.
Further, they destroyed all electricity, phone, and sewage water networks and 8 vehicles.
They also leveled 50 dunums of agricultural land including 10 greenhouses.
Furthermore, the IOF killed 7 Palestinian civilians in Beit Hanoun: Mo'az Hamza Odwan, Abd Al Karim Yousif Hamad, Shehada Zoheir Al Kafarna, Abd Al Latif Othman Obeid, Ali Maher Atallah, Mohammed Mahmoud Al Kafarna, Mohanna Sa'ed Mesleh.
130 injured were reported, including 5 children.
According to medical reports, 5 of the injured sustained critical injuries.
Moreover, the IOF arrested 4 Palestinians in Beit Hanoun; Imad Qasem Al Kafarna, Ahmed Rateb Shabat, Saddam Jaber Ashour, and Mansour Ahmed Al Kafarna.
The IOF continue to prevent Palestinians from their right to movement as they maintain closed Rafah crossing, the only outlet for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip through which to access the outside world.
However, the crossing is open today for only incoming passengers who have been stranded at the Egyptian side of the terminal since June 25.
Al Mezan gravely condemns the outrageous Israeli Offensive against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and emphasizes that the scale of violations perpetrated by the IOF in Beit Hanoun reveals Israel's deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians and their property.
Al Mezan confirms that the targeting of civilians and property, and the destruction of infrastructure and public institutions, namely educational and health facilities, constitute war crimes and grave breaches of international humanitarian law particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Al Mezan strongly condemns the silence of the international community in light of the drastic impacts of the IOF violations on the humanitarian situation in the OPT, particularly with relation to the continued closure of the Gaza Strip, and the financial boycott of the PNA.
Employment rates have now reached 75% as a result of the deteriorating economic situation in the OPT.
Al Mezan calls upon the international community, notably the high contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their legal and moral obligations under the Convention and provide protection to Palestinian civilians in the OPT.
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