Soaring Gaza civilian toll casts doubt on Israeli claims of compliance with law of war

Since Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza began on Oct. 27, there have been numerous incidents in which civilians have been killed. (AFP)
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Updated 04 June 2024
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Soaring Gaza civilian toll casts doubt on Israeli claims of compliance with law of war

  • Since Israel’s ground invasion began, there have been numerous incidents in which innocent lives have been lost
  • Soaring civilian toll could tip the scales of justice if Israel’s wartime leaders end up in the dock in The Hague

LONDON: In August 1949, just 15 months after its foundation, the State of Israel became a signatory to the UN’s Treaty No. 973.

On the same day, the UN member states ratified three other conventions, updating and strengthening international agreements that had been put in place for the protection of sick, wounded and captured combatants in time of war.

But it was the still-raw memory of the multiple horrors that had been endured by millions of civilians during the long years of the Second World War, in which non-combatants accounted for more than 60 percent of all deaths, that prompted the need for the new convention.

Never before in the history of modern warfare had so much barbarity been visited upon so many civilians, including that meted out by the Nazis during the German occupation of much of Europe between 1939 and 1945.




A Palestinian girl who received treatment at a WHO-supported stabilization centre after being diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition and dehydration. (WHO)

In 1949, few states had better cause to support the adoption of the so-called Fourth Geneva Convention than Israel, which since the war had become home to tens of thousands of European Jews who had survived the Holocaust, but who would carry with them forever the memory of the 6 million members of their community who had not escaped the Nazis’ “final solution.”

Small wonder, then, that on Aug. 12, 1949, Dr. Menahem Kahany, Israel’s delegate at Geneva, put his hand eagerly to Treaty No. 973, the “Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war.”

The convention is exhaustively comprehensive, its 159 articles describing and proscribing almost every imaginable humanitarian outrage an armed force might commit against defenseless civilians.

For the avoidance of any doubt about the humanitarian responsibilities of armies in occupied territory, an amendment was later added. This was “Protocol 1” specifically prohibiting “indiscriminate attacks,” which it defined as “incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.”

Fast-forward 75 years to 2024 and to what even the US, Israel’s staunchest supporter, considers to be the unacceptable scale of destruction and loss of civilian life in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli army.

Since Israel’s retaliatory ground invasion of Gaza began on Oct. 27, there have been numerous incidents in which its heavy-handed warmongering has cost civilian lives.

One of the most widely publicized of these — ironically, perhaps, given that six of the seven victims were Westerners, and only 25-year-old Saifeddin Abutaha was a Palestinian — was the attack on a World Central Kitchen aid convoy on April 1.




Never before in the history of modern warfare had so much barbarity been visited upon so many civilians. (AFP)

The Israeli army, aware that the eyes of the world were on it, carried out a hasty internal inquiry. Its report concluded that its drone team responsible had mistaken a bag for a gun, but managed also to include some victim-blaming, claiming the vehicles’ large rooftop markings were not visible at night.

The army admitted the attack was a “grave accident” and sacked a colonel and a major it deemed responsible.

Barely a month later, on May 27, a week after the UN’s International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, an airstrike on a camp for refugees in the city set fire to tents and killed at least 45 people, including women and children, and wounded dozens more.

Faced with global revulsion, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the airstrike had been a “tragic mishap.”

But as distressing as such individual incidents are, it is the sheer scale of the death and destruction visited upon Gaza and its civilians that would tip the scales of justice should the International Criminal Court have its way and Israel’s leaders end up in the dock in The Hague.

According to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health — issued on Sunday, June 2 —  since Oct. 7 more than 36,000 Palestinians, including over 15,000 children, have been killed in Gaza. More than 10,000 are missing, presumed buried under rubble, and more than 80,000 have been wounded.

Even if the war stopped tomorrow, Israel’s systematic campaign of destruction has left Gaza mostly in ruins, with more than half its homes, over 200 mosques and most of its schools and hospitals damaged or destroyed.




Israel attacked a World Central Kitchen aid convoy on April 1, killing seven. (AFP)

On May 20, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the ICC, issued applications for arrest warrants for five individuals on charges of war crimes. The first three were for Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip; Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (also known as Deif), commander-in-chief of Hamas’ military wing; and Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau.

But in a move that outraged the government of Israel, but surprised few even among the country’s friends, Khan went on to accuse Netanyahu, and Yoav Gallant, his minister of defense, of “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza Strip) from at least 8 October 2023.”

The charges were brought under several articles of the ICC’s governing Rome Statute, which Israel signed in 2000 but later declared it would not ratify.

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Announcing the warrants and revealing the vast amount of evidence the court’s investigators had accrued, Khan said Israel’s crimes against humanity had been committed “as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to state policy.”

Israel had “intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”

Like all states, he added, Israel had a right to take action to defend its population. But that right “does not absolve Israel or any state of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.

“Notwithstanding any military goals they may have, the means Israel chose to achieve them in Gaza — namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population — are criminal.”




The World Central Kitchen workers who were killed by Israeli airstrikes. (AFP)

The Israeli government has strongly rejected any comparison between its actions and those of Hamas.

Of course Hamas leaders are also, according to the ICC, guilty of war crimes. The rapes, murders and kidnapping during the assault on Israel on Oct. 7 shocked right-thinking people across the world, including in the Middle East.

But Israel is not a militant group. It is a state, a member of the UN and, according to its founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, committed to the historic moral mission of being “a light unto the nations.”

As such, say its critics, it should be held — and should hold itself — to a higher moral standard.

“Yes, Hamas’ behavior is a threat, but that doesn’t give you a right to do what Israel is doing in Gaza,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Program at London-based policy institute Chatham House.

INNUMBERS

• 36,470+ Palestinians killed in Gaza since Israel launched assault, according to local health ministry.

• 120 Hostages seized by Hamas and allies who are still unaccounted for.

• 1,2000 People killed during Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

“I don’t think it’s morally right and I think that in the long term it is counterproductive for Israel’s survival and well-being.”

The “terrible atrocities that have taken place,” he added, were a breach of the written — and unwritten — rules of civilized behavior.

“Israel benefits from being a so-called liberal democracy, with all the support and the trade agreements and the military support, and so on, that comes with it,” he said.

“It's like belonging to an exclusive club — it comes with adhering to certain rules of behavior.

“But Israel, especially after Netanyahu, wants to have its cake and eat it, and it will take years to recover Israel’s reputation.”




“Forewarned repeatedly, the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and the defense minister (Yoav Gallant) should be held accountable under international law,” said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer. (AFP)

Many Israelis and their supporters find themselves conflicted in the wake of the ICC’s accusations.

“I think the decision is not justified,” said US-based Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, the host of podcasts Israel Explained and History of the Land of Israel.

“The ICC is there to deal with the most glaring violations of international law, such as the intentional targeting of civilians as a matter of policy. Meanwhile, Israel is running a war where the goals are military.

“Don’t get me wrong,” added Ben-Ephraim, who describes himself as a “liberal Zionist.”

“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has not always followed humanitarian law. Terrible mistakes have been made. In particular, the soldiers have not always been disciplined, and civilians have been killed when it may have been prevented.

“But I am confident that the overall Israeli policy remains one of avoiding disproportionate harm to civilians and many of us feel the ICC is unfairly singling out Israel.”

That said, he added, “Israel could have avoided this if it had been more careful. Netanyahu has always preferred to keep his domestic interests ahead of his international ones. Especially since his government was toppled in 1999 by the right, that is a mistake he has vowed never to repeat.




Since Israel’s retaliatory ground invasion of Gaza began on Oct. 27, there have been numerous incidents in which its heavy-handed warmongering has cost civilian lives. (AFP)

“But he has neglected foreign interests far too much in this war and is now paying the price for it. Indeed, he is said to be completely obsessed with these warrants and wishes he had done more to prevent them.”

Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer and peace negotiator whose nongovernmental organization, Terrestrial Jerusalem, works to highlight illegal Jewish settlement activities in East Jerusalem, believes Israel “was well … within its rights to respond militarily to Oct. 7, and there can be no military action without inevitable civilian casualties.”

But “Israeli action in Gaza often went well beyond any reasonable interpretation of a proportional response. Forewarned repeatedly, the prime minister and the defense minister should be held accountable under international law.”


Israel accuses Turkiye of ‘malice’ over UN arms embargo call

Updated 05 November 2024
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Israel accuses Turkiye of ‘malice’ over UN arms embargo call

  • Turkiye’s letter, seen by AFP Monday, called the “staggering” civilian death toll “unconscionable and intolerable”

UNITED NATIONS, United States: Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Monday accused Turkiye of “malice,” after Ankara submitted a letter signed by 52 countries calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel over the war in Gaza.
“What else can be expected from a country whose actions are driven by malice in an attempt to create conflicts with the support of the ‘Axis of Evil’ countries,” said Ambassador Danny Danon, using a pejorative term to describe the Arab countries who signed the letter.
Turkiye’s foreign ministry said Sunday it had submitted the letter to the United Nations, with the signatories including the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel has faced international criticism for the conduct of its war in Gaza, where its offensive has killed at least 43,374 people, most of them civilians, according to health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.
The war was sparked by Palestinian armed group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
“This letter is further proof that the UN is led by some sinister countries and not by the liberal countries that support the values of justice and morality,” said Danon.
Turkiye’s letter, seen by AFP Monday, called the “staggering” civilian death toll “unconscionable and intolerable.”
“We therefore make this collective call for immediate steps to be taken to halt the provision or transfer of arms,  munitions and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the letter said.
It added that the UN Security Council (UNSC) must take steps to ensure compliance with its resolutions “which are being flagrantly violated.”
The UNSC called in March for a ceasefire in Gaza, but has struggled to speak with a unified voice on the issue due to the veto wielded by Israel’s key ally, the United States.
Asked about the joint letter on Monday, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had not seen it.


Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Updated 05 November 2024
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Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

  • Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.


Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case

Updated 05 November 2024
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Israel hostages forum demands probe in secrets leak case

  • “The (hostage) families demand an investigation against all those suspected of sabotage and undermining state security,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement

JERUSALEM: A Gaza hostages campaign group called Monday for an investigation into the alleged leak of confidential documents by an ex-aide to Israel’s premier, which may have undermined efforts to secure their release.
A court announced Sunday that Eliezer Feldstein, a former aide to Benjamin Netanyahu, had been detained along with three others for allegedly leaking documents to foreign media.
The case has prompted the opposition to question whether Netanyahu was involved in the leak — an allegation denied by his office.
“The (hostage) families demand an investigation against all those suspected of sabotage and undermining state security,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“Such actions, especially during wartime, endanger the hostages, jeopardize their chances of return and abandon them to the risk of being killed by Hamas terrorists.”
The forum represents most of the families of the 97 hostages still held in Gaza after they were seized in the unprecedented October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war.
The Israeli military says 34 of them are dead.
“The suspicions suggest that individuals associated with the prime minister acted to carry out one of the greatest frauds in the country’s history,” the forum said.
“This is a moral low point like no other. It is a severe blow to the remaining trust between the government and its citizens.”
Critics have long accused Netanyahu of stalling in truce negotiations and prolonging the war to appease his far-right coalition partners.
Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet and the army launched an investigation into the breach in September after two newspapers, British weekly The Jewish Chronicle and Germany’s Bild tabloid, published articles based on the classified military documents.
One article claimed a document had been uncovered showing that then Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar — later killed by Israel — and the hostages in Gaza would be smuggled into Egypt through the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The other was based on what was said to be an internal Hamas leadership memo on Sinwar’s strategy to hamper talks toward the liberation of hostages.
The Israeli court said the release of the documents ran the risk of causing “severe harm to state security.”
“As a result, the ability of security bodies to achieve the objective of releasing the hostages, as part of the war goals, could have been compromised,” it added.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli soil, mostly civilians, according to AFP’s count based on official Israeli data, including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 43,341 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures as reliable.
Meanwhile, late on Monday Netanyahu asked the attorney general to begin investigating other alleged leaks from cabinet meetings during the war.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have witnessed an incessant flood of serious leaks and revelations of state secrets,” he said in a letter to the attorney general, which was posted on his Telegram channel.
“Therefore, I am appealing to you to immediately order the investigation of the leaks in general.”


UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO

Updated 05 November 2024
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UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’: WHO

  • “This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” Tedros says

GENEVA: The chief of the World Health Organization on Monday denounced Israel’s decision to cut ties with the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, saying it would not make the country safer while increasing civilian suffering in Gaza.
“Let me be clear: There is simply no alternative to UNRWA,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video posted on X.
“This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” Tedros added.
His comments came after Israel said it had formally notified the UN of its decision to sever ties with UNRWA, after Israeli lawmakers backed the move last week.
The suspension of the agency, which coordinates nearly all aid in war-ravaged Gaza, sparked global condemnation including from key Israeli backer the United States.
The move is expected to come into force in late January, with the UN Security Council warning it would have severe consequences for millions of Palestinians.
Israel has accused a dozen UNRWA employees of taking part in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the deadliest in Israeli history.
A series of probes found some “neutrality related issues” at UNRWA but said Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.
The agency, which employs 13,000 people in Gaza, fired nine employees after an internal probe found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October.”
UNRWA, which was established in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli conflict following Israel’s creation a year earlier, provides assistance to nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
“Every day, it provides thousands of medical consultations and vaccinated hundreds of children,” Tedros said, adding that many humanitarian partners rely on UNRWA’s logistical networks to get supplies into Gaza.
He said that the UNRWA staff his organization had worked with were “dedicated health and humanitarian professionals who work tirelessly for their communities under unimaginable circumstances.”
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers to be reliable.


GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait

Updated 04 November 2024
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GCC’s chief urges regional collective action at counter-terrorism conference in Kuwait

  • Meeting gathers ministers, UN agency representatives, international organizations

KUWAIT CITY: Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Al-Budaiwi addressed a high-level conference on counter-terrorism and border security on Monday.

The conference, which is being held in Kuwait and ends on Tuesday, has been organized by Kuwait in partnership with Tajikistan and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism.

It gathered ministers, UN agency representatives, and international and regional organizations to help bolster international counter-terrorism efforts.

Al-Budaiwi said: “This important regional conference focuses on border security and combating terrorism, which are vital issues requiring collective action.”

Al-Budaiwi spoke of the GCC’s achievements in security collaboration, including information-sharing and laws targeting terrorism financing.

He added: “The GCC countries have built a common security system through joint agreements, enhancing cooperation in border protection and addressing security threats.”

He stressed the region’s proactive approach in utilizing technology and training personnel to safeguard borders against transnational threats like arms and human trafficking.