UN Warns of ‘Another Nakba’ As Israel Plans Mass Expulsions in Gaza

The UN committee on Friday said Israel is inflicting “unimaginable suffering” on Palestinians and condemned its campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The warning follows Israel’s announcement of a plan to transfer hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza into six designated encampments.

“For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the Nakba,” the committee said, referring to the mass expulsion of Palestinians during the establishment of Israel in 1948.

“Israel continues to inflict unimaginable suffering on the people living under its occupation, whilst rapidly expanding confiscation of land as part of its wider colonial aspirations,” the UN committee stated.

“What we are witnessing could very well be another Nakba,” it added, following the conclusion of its annual mission in Amman.

According to the report, “The goal of wider colonial expansion is clearly the priority of the government of Israel.”

“Security operations are used as a smokescreen for rapid land grabbing, mass displacement, dispossession, demolitions, forced evictions and ethnic cleansing, in order to replace the Palestinian communities with Jewish settlers,” it said.

The committee also accused Israel of systematic human rights abuses.

“According to testimonies, it is evident that the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including sexual violence, is a systematic practice of the Israeli army and security forces, and is widespread in Israeli prisons and military detention camps,” the report said.

“The methods read as a playbook of how to try to humiliate, derogate, and strike fear into the hearts of individuals.”

The committee’s findings coincide with an ongoing Israeli blockade that has halted aid to Gaza for weeks.

“It is hard to imagine a world in which a government would implement such depraved policies to starve a population to death, whilst trucks of food are sitting only a few kilometers away,” the committee said.

“Yet, this is the sick reality for those in Gaza.”

The UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1968.

The Nakba, or “catastrophe,” saw roughly 760,000 Palestinians displaced during the formation of Israel.

Today, descendants of around 160,000 Palestinians who remained in Israel represent about 20 percent of its population.

The current committee includes ambassadors from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Senegal.