At the end of January, the International Court of Justice in The Hague obliged Israel in an urgent decision to become significantly more effective in the war against Hamas Protective measures and adequate humanitarian care for the civilian population. With the planned ground offensive by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on the city of Rafah, it has become clear that Israel has no intention of doing one or the other.
In this city in southern Gaza, around 1.4 million people, i.e. over half of the civilian population, currently live crammed into tents, houses and cars. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the planned attack on Rafah a “humanitarian catastrophe.” The USA, Israel’s closest ally alongside Germany, is now publicly criticizing Israel’s actions. There is every reason for this, because this can neither be legitimized by the right to self-defense nor by Israel’s claim to have won the decisive victory in Rafah Hamas civilians are being used as protective shields. But this humanitarian catastrophe has been going on for months.
Israel has repeatedly pointed out that it protects civilians from its own attacks whenever possible by designating “safe zones” into which Palestinians can flee. Rafah was one of the last safe zones. Amnesty International and other NGOs have now documented numerous IDF attacks that violate international law in areas that were designated as safe. According to NGO research, entire families were wiped out without any indication that the buildings in which they were staying were used by Hamas.
300,000 people are at risk of hunger
Already last November Human Rights Watch (HRW) of systematic Israeli attacks on hospitals and ambulances in violation of international law Gaza spoken. An “obvious war crime,” is how the Americans describe it Health expert Annie Sparrow and former HRW director Kenneth Roth the destruction of the medical infrastructure. Such attacks violate the core of international humanitarian law – namely, minimizing the suffering of civilians – “and are often an omen of worse atrocities to come.”
In the largely destroyed north of Gaza there are Information from the UN emergency relief office OCHA 300,000 people are now threatened with hunger – also because over half of all aid transports to this part of the area were blocked by Israeli troops last month. Using hunger as a weapon is also a war crime.
So anyone who is serious about international law cannot just rely on verbal protests and diplomatic pressure. He must stop military aid to Israel. To lament the enormous scale of civilian casualties in Gaza, as the governments of the USA and Germany are now doing it more and more often, and at the same time continuing to supply ammunition and weapons to Israel is simply hypocrisy. The conditioning of aid must not be limited to Gaza. It must also apply to the West Bank, where attacks by Jewish settlers and the Israeli army on Palestinians have increased sharply since October 7th.
This is anti-Israel, some will now shout. Counter-question: Why should it be pro-Israel to provide military support to a government that, after Hamas’s horrendous terrorist attack, subjected over two million people in a sealed-off territory to massive air strikes and ground offensives – and which has obviously weakened Hamas militarily but strengthened it politically? ? What is pro-Israel about remaining inactive when members of this government openly call for the ethnic expulsion of Palestinians and at best promise them a future as second-class citizens under Israeli occupation?
At the end of January, the International Court of Justice in The Hague obliged Israel in an urgent decision to become significantly more effective in the war against Hamas Protective measures and adequate humanitarian care for the civilian population. With the planned ground offensive by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on the city of Rafah, it has become clear that Israel has no intention of doing one or the other.
In this city in southern Gaza, around 1.4 million people, i.e. over half of the civilian population, currently live crammed into tents, houses and cars. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the planned attack on Rafah a “humanitarian catastrophe.” The USA, Israel’s closest ally alongside Germany, is now publicly criticizing Israel’s actions. There is every reason for this, because this can neither be legitimized by the right to self-defense nor by Israel’s claim to have won the decisive victory in Rafah Hamas civilians are being used as protective shields. But this humanitarian catastrophe has been going on for months.