May 15: 76 years since the mass expulsion and displacement of over 800,000 Palestinians, forced to abandon their homes, part with their possessions and loved ones and live in continuous deprivation. This traumatic event went down in history as “Nakba” (“catastrophe”) and remained engraved in the collective Palestinian conscience, which from that moment on was fragmented and dispersed between the newly born state of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon . Over the years the international community should have watched closely to ensure that this did not happen again and countless UN resolutions have enshrined the inalienable right of Palestinians to return to their homes and properties, from which they were displaced but in some cases confidently kept the keys.
Unfortunately, today, in addition to the people displaced in 1948, there are over one million displaced people within the Gaza Strip. Men, women and children who in some cases have already been displaced from their homes 3 or 4 times in their lifetime and who now live in a perpetual state of food insecurity, victims as they are of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
To date there have been over 33,000 victims in the Gaza Strip alone, including at least 13,000 children, while at least 10,000 people are still missing following the Israeli bombings. An enormous tragedy, for which the real risk of genocide could arise, as confirmed by the decision of the International Court of Justice to take charge of the accusation of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel and to order on 26 January last provisional measures to stop the massacre of civilians.
It is impossible to remain silent, it is necessary to speak out, it is imperative to rekindle public awareness by denouncing the very serious violations of human rights taking place.
Governments around the world must commit to stopping transfers and sales of arms to Israel and Palestinian armed groups, thus avoiding culpably fueling the conflict and being indirectly responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli authorities must give the highest priority to the protection of the civilian population, immediately and unconditionally releasing all hostages taken since October 7, the former, and ending the illegal blockade and illegal attacks on Gaza, the latter.
The request to all parties in the conflict is to respect international humanitarian law without compromise, to cease fire and to put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe.
