“While Israeli forces say their airstrikes target Hamas assets, dropping explosive weapons on densely populated areas causes foreseeable significant harm to civilians and raises the risk of unlawfully indiscriminate attacks. More than 2.2 million people live in the Gaza Strip, which is about the physical size of Philadelphia. Children make up almost half the population. The area has been mostly closed off to the outside world by fences, walls and the Israeli navy, which patrols Gaza’s waters. If evacuating more than a million people in a densely populated area weren’t hard enough, the Gaza Strip’s crossings with Egypt and Israel are closed, so moving to the overcrowded homes of relatives and friends in southern Gaza is currently the only option. The roads are strewn with rubble. Fuel is scarce. For many older people, people with disabilities and hospital patients, evacuation is impossible.”
– Human Rights Watch / MSNBC