Palestinians in Gaza face mass ethnic cleansing as Israel orders half the population of the densely populated strip to evacuate amid continued aerial bombardment and dwindling resources on the ground, UN human rights experts warned on Saturday.
“In the name of self-defense, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing,” UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said, noting that “Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war.”
“There is a grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repeat of the 1948 Nakba, and the 1967 Naksa, yet on a larger scale,” she warned, referring to Israel’s mass expulsions of at least 1 million Palestinians from their homes and land in 1947-48 and 1967. “The international community must do everything to stop this from happening again.”