A theme that is prevalent in regards to what is happening in Gaza and Israel right now is that it is possible for two things to be true at the same time.
You can oppose the brutality of the Hamas attacks that triggered the escalation of violence by Israel and at the same time oppose the genocide being carried against the whole population of Gaza. You can oppose Israeli violence and not be anti-Semitic.
It is true that Israel has a right to defend itself, but what cannot be also true is that Israel can target civilians and ignore international humanitarian and human rights law in the process.
Read more:
- Tom Collins: It's always innocents who pay price of war
- Tom Kelly: Violence begets violence and grief in Middle East
- Patrick Murphy: Israel's role in creation of Hamas demonstrates how today's problems begin with yesterday's decisions
Israel Palestine - war and collective punishment
The Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians were appalling and unjustifiable. The announcement that Israel would implement a ‘complete siege’ on Gaza, in addition to the ongoing blockade, means that innocent civilians do not have access to food, water, or electricity.
According to the Special Procedures group of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Israel’s actions in Gaza “amounts to collective punishment. There is no justification for violence that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, whether by Hamas or Israeli forces. This is absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime”.
The Israeli military’s demand for 1.2 million civilians in northern Gaza to relocate to the south within 24 hours, "absent of any guarantees of safety or return, could amount to the war crime of forcible transfer", according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
This forced displacement creates the conditions where Israel may claim that Palestinians who are unable to flee northern Gaza can be erroneously held as directly participating in hostilities, and targeted.
Gaza Strip population
Half of the population of Gaza are children. BBC Newsnight this week interviewed Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon currently in Gaza treating people who have been wounded. He stated that 40% of those injured were children ranging in age from newborn to teenagers. These are children who were taken from the rubble of their homes when their homes were targeted.
He spoke of three children whom he had treated in two days who had no surviving family; children who were facing the prospect of multiple surgeries throughout their lives to deal with the life-changing injuries they had sustained and who no longer had any family to support them.
As heartbreaking as Professor Abu-Sittah’s account of what is happening on the ground was, what was much more sinister is that British anti-terrorist police visited the surgeon’s family in London. They asked his wife what part of the hospital he worked in, why he had gone to Gaza, who paid for his trip, what charity he worked for. His wife and three young sons watching the horror unfold now have the added worry of whether someone who is engaged in humanitarian work is being targeted or deliberately put at risk.
Humanitarian aid workers, human rights activists, medical personnel have a duty to bear witness to the carnage that they are witnessing so that it will put pressure on the Israeli government to stop.
A Reuters cameraman, Issam Abdallah, was killed by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon when a team of journalists were deliberately targeted. Two Al Jazeera journalists and two reporters from Agence France Presse were also injured in the attack. In a separate incident, two BBC journalists were taken from their vehicle clearly marked as media and assaulted by members of the Israeli military.
Support for vulnerable Palestinians
Attempting to silence those who report on what is happening in Gaza and Israel is a significant ratcheting up of the propaganda war.
We know from history that there is no straightforward solution to what is happening in Palestine, but in order to get to that solution there must be an immediate ceasefire and a release of all hostages.
The Irish government has a responsibility to use its influence to ensure humanitarian access and protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure as mandated under international law. It must also maintain support and aid to vulnerable Palestinians.
As hostilities continue, innocent civilians will pay the highest price unless the international community acts.
