Israel/ OPT: Catastrophic wave of mass displacement under inhumane conditions as Israel obliterates Gaza City

The intensification of Israel’s brutal military offensive in Gaza City since mid-August has unleashed a new catastrophic phase of mass forced displacement, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians – many of whom have already been uprooted multiple times -into overcrowded enclaves in the south of the occupied Gaza Strip that lack access to clean water, food, medical care, shelter and life-sustaining infrastructure, Amnesty International said today.

Since it escalated its operations in Gaza City, the Israeli military has adopted a series of measures designed to sow panic among the city’s residents and to forcibly displace them, knowingly, into unsafe areas unequipped to receive them. These tactics include issuing unlawful and sweeping mass displacement orders, beginning a campaign to destroy multi-story residential buildings where hundreds of displaced families have been sheltering, deploying explosive remote-controlled vehicles to carry out controlled demolitions, as well as intensifying aerial bombardments on already overcrowded neighborhoods and refugee camps. 

“As Israel steps up its cataclysmic onslaught, it appears hell-bent on obliterating Gaza City, deliberately driving out its entire population, levelling large swathes of the city, and seizing full control. For nearly two years, Palestinians civilians throughout the Gaza Strip have been bombarded, starved, and subjected to wave after wave of mass forced displacement, as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza. Deliberately inflicting yet another devastating wave of mass displacement amidst this suffering is not just inhumane, it is a flagrant violation of international law,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International.

On the morning of 1 October, the Israeli military announced that movement on al-Rashid (coastal) road from south to north would be blocked by noon, indicating that those displaced would not be allowed back and also obstructing movement of the few transportation vehicles available for transferring displaced people and their belongings. Hours later, Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, issued the following statement on X (formerly Twitter): “This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City itself face-to-face against IDF action which continues at full intensity. Those who stay in Gaza [city] will be terrorists and terror supporters.”

“Such is the level of impunity granted to Israeli leaders that the country’s defence minister can unashamedly issue a public statement that effectively nullifies one of the core principles of international humanitarian law: the obligation to distinguish at all times between civilians and military targets. By threatening that the hundreds of thousands who remain in Gaza City will be treated as ‘terrorists’ and ‘terror supporters’ Israel’s defence minister is effectively giving a green light for war crimes, including the targeting of civilians and imposition of collective punishment, said Erika Guevara Rosas.

Hospitals and health facilities in Gaza City are collapsing and humanitarian organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Committee of the Red Cross, have been forced to suspend their operations in the city as a result of the latest escalation.  

While there are no accurate figures for the number of people who have been forcibly displaced from Gaza City since mid-August, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the site-management cluster has recorded over 400,000 movements from north to south Gaza, mainly to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. The waves of displacement have particularly escalated since 5 September, when the Israeli military announced and began a concerted operation targeting high-rise buildings, followed by a mass displacement order to the whole of Gaza City on 9 September.

However, hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped under relentless bombardment in Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip. Many are unable to flee because they cannot afford transportation costs or because the small area designated by Israel for evacuation is overcrowded and not fit for human habitation. For people with disabilities, older people, and people who have long exhausted their support networks, there is effectively no choice but to remain where they are.

We stayed despite the heavy bombardment; we lost count of the number of times we escaped death; every night was worse than the one before.

Shireen, Displaced woman who stayed with her family in al-Shati refugee camp despite displacement orders

“Whether people are staying in Gaza City because they have nowhere else to go, lack the means to flee amidst a dire shortage of fuel and shelter as a result of Israel’s unlawful blockade, or cannot bear yet another humiliating displacement and its consequences, Israel cannot be allowed to deny civilians in Gaza City the protection they are entitled to. They must be granted unimpeded access to services and supplies indispensable to their survival and must be protected against unlawful attacks,” said Erika Guevara Rosas. 

Amnesty International interviewed 16 displaced people who were forced out of Gaza City between 6 and 17 September. They were staying in four different areas of the Deir al-Balah governorate, where they have no access to basic services. For toilets, they have to dig a small hole in the ground just behind their tent and surround it with a thick nylon cover. Younger children, no older than 10, are tasked with carrying a gallon of water to their tent. Seven of the 16 displaced people interviewed had to make the grueling journey from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah, some 20km, on foot. 

‘Leaving my sick daughter behind is my worst nightmare’

On 5 September, the Israeli military announced the start of a campaign to demolish high-rise residential buildings, many already battered by months of Israel’s relentless bombardment. These buildings, and the clusters of tents in their immediate vicinity, had been serving as shelters for thousands of people, mostly displaced families. The buildings were often surrounded by tents in squalid, overcrowded makeshift camps housing people mostly from North Gaza and East Gaza City. The majority of those displaced have already been forcibly displaced multiple times and have nowhere safe to go or are unable to leave because they are malnourished, sick, injured or have disabilities. Demolitions therefore uprooted thousands, compounding a spiraling displacement crisis crafted and engineered by Israel. 

Mirvat, a 46-year-old mother of four, has been sleeping on a traffic island along Salaheddine street in Deir al-Balah after her seventh displacement. Due to chronic pain in her legs, the journey from Gaza City to the central area, on foot, took her two days. 

Mirvat told Amnesty International: “My daughter, 25, has cancer, but I had to leave her behind in Gaza City because she cannot make the journey on foot and because as long as we cannot find a proper shelter here, it’s impossible for her to move. She needs to go to the hospital every month to receive treatment, which she has not been able to do since the end of August, because the road from where she is staying in Tal al-Hawa to al-Nasr Street is too dangerous. Leaving my sick daughter behind is my worst nightmare.”

Weam, a mother of three, was also forced to leave her two children, aged seven and five, with their grandmother in Gaza City until she finds shelter in Deir al-Balah. She said: “I can sleep on the street, but my children are too young. Can you imagine the choice that we have: in Gaza City, my children are staying at a damaged house but the bombing doesn’t stop; here, it is quieter but we have no roof over my head.”

‘The fear of these explosive robots is what forced us to leave’

Israeli forces continue to deploy explosive-laden remote-controlled vehicles, dubbed ‘robots’ by residents, to carry out controlled detonations across Gaza City. Seven people interviewed by Amnesty International said the advance of these vehicles into their neighborhoods left families with no option but to abandon their homes in fear for their lives.

As Israel steps up its cataclysmic onslaught, it appears hell-bent on obliterating Gaza City, deliberately driving out its entire population, levelling large swathes of the city, and seizing full control.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International

Firyal, a mother of six, who was displaced from Shuja’iya on 3 April 2025, sought refuge in al-Jalil secondary school for girls, turned into a makeshift camp for displaced people, in Tal al-Hawa, a neighbourhood of Gaza City. She said she has been looking for a place to stay for over 10 days to no avail, noting that schools turned into shelters have already exceeded their capacity and that renting privately owned land has become prohibitively expensive.

She told Amnesty International that all night they heard the terrifying sounds of bulldozing: “The fear of these explosive robots is what forced us to leave; we set up our tent near the beach, but then they dropped leaflets ordering us to leave again, so we were displaced on Saturday on 17 September. We could not afford to hire transportation…we had already paid everything we have just to buy canned food, so we moved from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah on foot, leaving in the morning, and arriving at night. We couldn’t find anywhere to stay, so as you see we are literally sleeping on the street, on this traffic island in Salaheddine street. We use some of the children’s clothes as blankets. The tent we used to have was torn to pieces after the Israelis bombed a nearby building next to us. We are constantly at risk of being trampled upon by the trucks that pass through here. There is nothing to protect us.”

‘Nowhere else to go’

Over the past month hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents have been displaced either to Deir al-Balah governorate or to al-Mawasi and Khan Younis. Many of those who stayed could not leave because they could not afford to pay for transport, amidst the extreme shortage of fuel. Even if they could afford to pay for transportation, buying a tent, renting a small apartment, or renting a plot of land where the tent could be pitched is beyond the already depleted resources of most.

Raeda, who has been displaced four times since April 2025, first from Shuja’iya to al-Nafaq, then to Tal al-Hawa in Gaza City and now in Al-Zawayda, near Deir al-Balah said:

“I have been sleeping on the streets, without even a tent, for the past 10 days. We are a family of seven, all of us sleep in the open; we cannot rest; we don’t have any privacy, there is no life here. We haven’t showered for days.”

Another displaced woman, Shireen, and her family stayed in al-Shati refugee camp despite leaflets informing them about displacement orders as they had nowhere to go and all the places they asked about in the south were overloaded. On 15 September 2025, they received a phone call from the Israeli military ordering them to leave by name. Shireen said: “We stayed despite the heavy bombardment; we lost count of the number of times we escaped death; every night was worse than the one before; a building near us was bombed and completely destroyed, but we left after the Israeli army called us and ordered us to leave. We told the guy on the phone that we have nowhere to go. So, we came here to Al-Zawayda and since our displacement we have been sleeping in the open air.”

This was the eighth time they have been displaced since the beginning of the war, but this time was the hardest because, as she said: “At least before we could carry with us a tent; we had our solar panel; we had some money; now we have nothing; we paid everything we have to secure the transportation fees.”

“With people and families stretched beyond every limit, a humanitarian catastrophe is further deepening in all its cruelty, day after day. Repeated forced displacements under inhumane conditions, the systematic destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure, and the suffocating blockade form part of Israel’s deliberate policy calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza,” said Erika Guevara Rosas. 

“Palestinians in Gaza have long been passed the point of no return, each day costs lives and crushes humanity. States must uphold their obligations under international law to bring Israel’s genocide against Palestinians to an end. Symbolic acts, such as recognizing the State of Palestine while continuing to supply arms to Israel and failing to address impunity for atrocity crimes, are not effective. States must use their leverage to secure an immediate ceasefire and force Israel to stop its genocide in Gaza. The unlawful occupation of the entire occupied Palestinian territory must end, and Israel’s system of apartheid must be dismantled without delay.”

Note: For the interviewees’ safety, the organization has withheld last names.

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Pakistan: Authorities must protect the right to peaceful protest and lift communications blackout amid Jammu & Kashmir protests 

Responding to reports of the deaths of at least nine people, including six protesters and three police officers, and injuries to hundreds of others during ongoing protests in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir which have taken place amid a communications blackout in the region, Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said: 

“The situation in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir was preventable and now the priority of the authorities must be to ensure that there are no further injuries or loss of life. There should also be an immediate, impartial and transparent investigation into all incidents of deaths and injuries, including investigating the excessive use of force by law enforcement, and all those responsible must be held to account.  

“This is not the first time the authorities have cracked down on peaceful protests in the region. Pakistani authorities have a positive obligation under international human rights law to respect the right to peaceful assembly and to facilitate and protect peaceful protesters. Even in instances where some protesters turn violent, the peaceful participants should not be prevented from protesting peacefully. Law enforcement must assess the situation on a case-by-case basis and should attempt non-violent means first before resorting to the use of force, which must be necessary and strictly proportionate to the seriousness of the offence. 

The situation in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir was preventable and now the priority of the authorities must be to ensure that there are no further injuries or loss of life

Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia

“Regrettably, the total communication blackout in the region has further exacerbated the situation, creating panic, restricting mobility, impacting access to essential services, and increasing the possibility of misinformation. The Pakistani authorities must immediately lift the blanket communication ban to allow people to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and access to information.” 

Background

According to government officials, nearly 172 police personnel and 50 protesters were injured in the protests. Protest organizers have claimed that over 100 protesters have been injured following police use of lethal force. 

The protests have been organized by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), an alliance demanding civil liberties and political rights in the region, demanding an end to special privileges for government officials, restoration of student unions, access to free and quality healthcare and education, among others. The JKJAAC had engaged in talks with the government before calling for a region-wide strike on 29 September. In the lead up to the strike, the government shut down all mobile, landline and internet services in the region since 28 September. 

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Israel’s unlawful interception of Global Sumud Flotilla illustrates its determination to continue deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza 

Responding to reports that Israeli forces have intercepted at least 39 vessels and detained dozens of crew members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was attempting to break Israel’s illegal blockade and deliver essential humanitarian aid to the occupied Gaza Strip, amidst Israel’s ongoing genocide, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard said: 

“Israel’s forceful interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla vessels and detention of its crew off the coast of Gaza is a brazen assault against solidarity activists carrying out an entirely peaceful humanitarian mission. This seizure comes after weeks of threats and incitement by Israeli officials against the flotilla and its participants and after several attempts to sabotage some of its ships.  

“By continuing to actively block vital aid to a population against whom Israel is committing genocide, including by inflicting famine, Israel is once again demonstrating its utter contempt for the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice and its own obligations as the occupying power to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to sufficient food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance.  

“The crew of the intercepted vessels must be immediately and unconditionally released. Their detention is unlawful, and Israel must be held fully accountable for their safety and ensure they are protected against any form of ill-treatment pending their release. 

This interception is not just about blocking aid; it is a calculated act of intimidation intended to punish and silence critics of Israel’s genocide and its unlawful blockade on Gaza.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard

“This interception is not just about blocking aid; it is a calculated act of intimidation intended to punish and silence critics of Israel’s genocide and its unlawful blockade on Gaza. The incitement and threats that preceded it are also a shameless attempt to demonize peaceful solidarity initiatives seeking to end Israel’s genocide and the cruel blockade it has imposed on Gaza since 2007 and significantly tightened since October 2023. We are gravely concerned for the safety of all those who have been detained so far, particularly Arab delegates and solidarity activists who have been targeted by an inflammatory smear campaign.  

“The Global Sumud Flotilla, whose crew composed of human rights defenders, doctors, parliamentarians, activists and journalists from over 40 countries, and other previous peaceful initiatives that attempted to break Israel’s unlawful blockade, have emerged as a powerful symbol of solidarity with besieged, starved and suffering Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The very fact that they had to set sail in the first place is a clear indictment of the international community’s persistent failure to end Israel’s ongoing genocide and to ensure the unhindered flow of aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.  

The decades-long impunity for Israel’s blatant violations of international law must end, nothing can justify genocide. 

Agnès Callamard

“The time for mere condemnation is over. States worldwide must act now and now make clear that they will no longer tolerate Israel’s systematic starvation of Palestinians in Gaza nor its targeting of unarmed civilian humanitarian efforts. The decades-long impunity for Israel’s blatant violations of international law must end, nothing can justify genocide.  

“States must demand the immediate and safe return of all those detained and allow unhindered access to Gaza for the other ships. They must also press Israel to lift its suffocating 18-year blockade and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered through all crossings into and throughout Gaza now.” 

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Madagascar: Authorities must launch investigations into deadly force used against Gen Z protesters

Reacting to the reported deaths of at least 22 people and injuries to more than 100 others, including children, in the ongoing Gen Z movement protests in Madagascar, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Tigere Chagutah said:

“Every death on the streets of Madagascar is a painful reminder that the right to peaceful protest is under violent attack. The authorities must promptly launch thorough and effective investigations into these killings and hold perpetrators to account. All those arrested solely for exercising their right to protest must be immediately and unconditionally released.

“Amnesty International condemns the unlawful and excessive force used by state security officials and urges the exercise of restraint in the policing of these protests. Rather than use force, the authorities must listen to and address the protesters’ demands.

Every death on the streets of Madagascar is a painful reminder that the right to peaceful protest is under violent attack. The authorities must promptly launch thorough and effective investigations into these killings and hold perpetrators to account.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

“Protest is not a crime – it is a right. Instead of respecting, facilitating and protecting the protesters, the authorities have resorted to an outdated 75-year-old repressive law to justify the use of unlawful force in response to protests. This law gives security forces sweeping powers to crack down on protests and criminalize participation, in blatant violation of Madagascar’s human rights obligations under international law.

“Amnesty International calls on the government to repeal this law and enact a new one in line with its international obligations, including the African Union’s Guidelines for the Policing of Assemblies by Law Enforcement Officials in Africa.”

Background
Since 25 September 2025, hundreds of young people – mainly university and high school students mobilized under the Gen Z movement – have been taking to the streets of the capital Antananarivo and other major cities to peacefully protest water and power shortages, seen as emblematic of corruption and bad governance. Civil society actors have also joined in the protests.

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Namibia: Germany must deliver reparatory justice for its brutal colonial past  

Germany must fully acknowledge its legal responsibility for the genocide and other colonial crimes it committed in Namibia and provide reparations to the descendants of victims, Amnesty International said today on the anniversary of one of the “extermination orders” in Germany’s colonial genocide against the Indigenous Ovaherero and Nama peoples. More than a century since the German extermination proclamations, the effects of the genocide continue to be experienced by their descendants. 

Amnesty International further calls on the German and Namibian governments to guarantee the full, effective and meaningful participation of Ovaherero and Nama peoples in any reparation process or mechanism to address past human rights violations and the enduring legacy of the brutal German colonial era. 

The German government continues to deny that it has a legal duty to provide reparations to the Ovaherero and Nama peoples. Under international law, however, states that have engaged in colonial crimes and other violations have a duty to provide full, prompt and effective reparations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. 

“It is shameful that over a hundred years since German colonial forces waged a genocide against the Nama and Ovaherero peoples, Germany has failed to engage in meaningful consultations with these communities or provide reparations,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa. “There cannot be true justice if those affected are excluded from the talks. Victims and affected communities should be at the centre of any processes to redress colonial legacies.”  

In a 2021 joint declaration between the Namibian and German governments, German authorities agreed to pay the Namibian government approximately €1.1bn over a period of 30 years to support “programmes for reconstruction and development.” Development aid, however, is not a substitute for full and effective reparations. Where the former colonial power sets the terms and conditions for the provision of assistance to a former colony, development aid may reinforce and perpetuate colonial legacies and hierarchies of power rather than disrupt them. 

It is shameful that over a hundred years since German colonial forces waged a genocide against the Nama and Ovaherero peoples, Germany has failed to engage in meaningful consultations with these communities or provide reparations.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa.

The negotiations between the two governments leading to the declaration were also flawed as they did not include meaningful participation by representatives of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples.  

Namibia has also failed the Ovaherero and Nama by failing to guarantee the meaningful and effective participation of their representatives in talks with Germany. 

UN treaty bodies and special mandate holders have criticized the lack of participation by the affected communities in the declaration’s development, affirming that the “Ovaherero and Nama themselves must be permitted to shape the process of repair.” 

The first genocide of the 20th century  

In what is now recognised by experts as the first genocide of the 20th century, German colonial troops systematically executed and starved thousands of Ovaherero and Nama men, women and children between 1904 and 1908.  

It is estimated that 80% of the Ovaherero and 50% of the Nama populations were killed during this period. 

Those who survived the massacres were captured by German troops and detained in “konzentrationslager” (‘concentration camps’ in German) established by the colonial authorities across Namibia. Thousands of prisoners died as a result of malnutrition, disease and exhaustion caused by the inhumane conditions, torture, and brutal forced labour they were subjected to. Women and girls were also systematically raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence. The skulls of prisoners who died in the camps were shipped to German universities and museums for racist pseudo-scientific research, many of which remain in Germany to this day.   

Enduring Legacies of the Genocide 

The dispossession of ancestral lands and loss of cultural heritage because of the genocide has caused irreparable damage and transgenerational harm for Nama and Ovaherero descendants.  

“Today, the Ovaherero and Nama remain a minority in Namibia. Our small numbers are the living consequence of the genocide, and this reality continues to haunt us. It has left us politically vulnerable, with little chance to shape the direction of the country through the ballot box. Hence, the Namibian government’s indifference to our demands to participate in the negotiations about us.” said Jephta Nguherimo, a Namibian activist and founder of the OvaHerero People’s Memorial & Reconstruction Foundation

Over a hundred years after the dispossession of their land, the Ovaherero and Nama are still prevented from accessing some of their ancestral land and cultural heritage sites.  

Today, the Ovaherero and Nama remain a minority in Namibia. Our small numbers are the living consequence of the genocide, and this reality continues to haunt us. It has left us politically vulnerable, with little chance to shape the direction of the country through the ballot box

Jephta Nguherimo, Namibian Activist

“It is unconscionable that the descendants of the victims require permission to access their ancestral lands to commemorate and pay respect to their ancestors,” said Tigere Chagutah. “As if that colonial dispossession was not enough, Indigenous Peoples in Namibia today are also facing new forms of dispossession driven by the extraction of natural resources and the transition to renewable energies.” 

The Ovaherero and Nama peoples are demanding the return of the bodies of their ancestors killed during the genocide and the stolen artefacts still being held in German museums and universities.  

They are also calling for the preservation of the burial grounds of their ancestors who died in the concentration and forced labour camps.  

“We the Nama Gaogu will continue fighting for restorative justice, as our former Chairperson of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), Gaob PSM Kooper eloquently put: Let us Die Fighting,” said the NTLA. 

Background 

On 2 October 1904, General Lothar von Trotha, the commander of German imperial forces, issued a proclamation calling for the extermination of the Ovaherero people. A few months later, on 22 April 1905, General von Trotha issued a proclamation calling for the extermination of the Nama people.  

It is estimated that over 75,000 Ovaherero and Nama people were killed between 1904 and 1908, alongside thousands of other Indigenous Peoples, including among the San and the Damara. 

In 2023, representatives of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, the NTLA, and the Landless Peoples Movement filed a case in the High Court of Namibia to have the joint declaration between Namibian and German governments declared unlawful, arguing that the agreement violates Namibia’s constitution and international law. 

The planned construction of a major renewable energy project by a British-German joint venture on Nama ancestral land in the Tsau ||Khaeb National Park has been challenged by the NTLA for perpetuating colonial patterns of land dispossession. In a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the NTLA and civil society partners have argued that the Nama people have not been meaningfully consulted on the development of the project, violating their rights as Indigenous People to self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. 

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