The UN human rights chief said today that the Israeli army’s destruction of buildings in the border zone with Israel in Gaza, with the aim of establishing a “neutral zone”, constitutes a “war crime”.

“Disasters aimed at creating a ‘neutral zone’ for security reasons do not meet the criteria (…) of international humanitarian law,” Volker Turk said in a press release.

“I insist to the Israeli authorities that Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the destruction by the occupying power of privately owned property, unless such destruction has become absolutely necessary for military operations,” he pointed out.

“The massive destruction of buildings, not justified by military orders and carried out in an arbitrary manner (…) constitutes a war crime”, underlined the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also said that since October, his agencies have recorded “widespread destruction and demolition of civilian infrastructure by the (Israeli) army.”

These are mainly “residential buildings and universities in zones where fighting has not taken place or is no longer taking place”.

Such destruction has been seen in recent weeks in Beit Hanoun and Gaza City in the north of the besieged Palestinian enclave, as well as in the Nuseirat camp and Khan Younis in the south.

“Israel has not provided convincing reasons to justify this massive destruction of civilian infrastructure,” Turk stressed.

These destructions seem “to have the aim or effect of making it impossible for civilians to return to these zones”.

“I remind the authorities that the forcible displacement of civilians can constitute a war crime,” he underlined.