Humanitarian Law and Severe Food Insecurity in Gaza

A fundamental objective of International Humanitarian Law is to reduce the death and suffering of civilian populations in the midst of war. In Gaza, Hussein Ibish, Arab Gulf States Institute, defines Hamas as a millenarian group, apocalyptic, believing a divine mandate with a religious imperative. Israel is understood to be a modern democracy with a rules based system of justice. Respect for International Humanitarian Law is expected of Israel and not a realistic expectation for Hamas.

Damage in Gaza

Jason Burke, in Jerusalem, writing for the Guardian, reports the finding of ‘utter annihilation’ in travel by a UNICEF representative in Gaza.

James Elder, a spokesperson with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), described the prospect of an attack into Rafah as “terrifying”.

“A military offensive in Rafah would be utterly catastrophic. The last remaining water points and hospitals [in Gaza] are there and there is nowhere else to go. Khan Younis, Gaza City barely exist any more,” he said. “Rafah is Gaza’s last hope and it is utterly bewildering that a conversation on a potential military operation is still continuing.” (Burke, n.d.)

On March 22,2024, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for talks aimed at ensuring more aid gets into Gaza, amid increasingly tense relations between the two allies over the war.

“One hundred per cent of the population of Gaza is experiencing severe levels of acute food insecurity. We cannot, we must not allow that to continue,” Blinken told a news conference late on Thursday March 2, 2024. (Burke, n.d.)

Blinken is also expected to discuss Israel’s intention to launch a ground offensive on Rafah, where more than half of the population of Gaza is sheltering in makeshift accommodation.

Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to launch an attack into the city, which he says is the final stronghold of Hamas. The US president, Joe Biden, has said this would cross a “red line” for the US.

The war was triggered by a surprise attack into southern Israel by Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, mostly civilians. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent Israeli bombardments, mostly civilians, Gaza health authorities say. (Burke, n.d.)

 

Julian Borger in Washington, Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels and Peter Beaumont in London report, for the Guardian, that EU leaders call for ‘immediate humanitarian pause’ while the US is expected to bring a UN resolution calling for truce without delay.

The Biden administration has argued that an unconditional ceasefire would undermine leverage on Hamas to release its captives, seized during its 7 October attack on Israel, in which hundreds of civilians were killed. If the hostage talks in Doha fail however, the Biden administration will be faced with a dilemma: whether to continue to insist on the linkage between hostages and a ceasefire in the face of a clear warning this week from a UN panel of experts that a catastrophic famine in Gaza is imminent. At the UN, the French envoy, Nicolas de Rivière, said: “It’s time to save lives.”

“The death toll is around 32,000 men and women. It needs to stop now. This is why I will encourage the security council to take action before the end of the week, before the weekend,” de Rivière said. “Each time there is a crisis in the world, the first thing the security council is asking for a ceasefire, and then talks. This is what we have to do on Gaza as well. There should not be an exception.” 

The new text sends Israel the clearest message yet of the Biden administration’s growing frustration with its prosecution of the war, and comes after a warning from the UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, that Israel may be committing a war crime by using “starvation as a method of war”. (Borger et al., n.d.)

UN experts and agencies are increasingly concerned that there will be severe famine in Gaza as a consequence of the rejection by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of efforts by the US, EU, and UN to create ceasefire conditions that will save civilian lives from death by starvation.

References

Borger, J., O'Carroll, L., & Beaumont, P. (n.d.). EU and US pile on pressure for Gaza ceasefire. the Guardian. Retrieved March 23, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/21/eu-and-us-pile-on-pressure-for-gaza-ceasefire 

Burke, J. (n.d.). Unicef official tells of ‘utter annihilation’ after travelling length of Gaza. the Guardian. Retrieved March 23, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/22/unicef-official-utter-annihilation-gaza 

Evidence for Support

As the war in Gaza continues, divisions are intensifying in many countries around the nature of support that should be given to the combatants by the government. International humanitarian law and the principle of the rule of law are morally acceptable guidelines for action by states that desire to support the combatants.

Image: the Economist

Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a weekly columnist for The National (UAE) and Now Media, and a monthly contributing writer for The International New York Times in an interview with Matt Galloway on CBC The Current defines Hamas in this way. 

This is a religiously millenarian group, that it is apocalyptic and that it believes that it's doing the will of God. And so all of this is divinely mandated and there's a kind of religious imperative here. So I think there is also an irrational belief on the part of Hamas that in the end, if they are sufficiently fervent that there will be some kind of divine aid as well. (Monday October 16, 2023 Full Transcript, 2023) (Galloway, 2023)

The attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and the capture of hostages is evidence that the Hamas combatants are not observant of International Humanitarian Law and religious zealotry is not consistent with observance of the Rule of Law.

Israel, as a nation that adheres to the Rule of Law, and has one of the most sophisticated and capable military and intelligence organizations in the world is obligated by these abilities to observe the principles of Discrimination and Proportionality in the conduct of hostilities against Hamas.

“Jus in Bello” is Latin for Justice in War. Michelle Maiese has published an article identifying the two central principles of jus in bello, discrimination and proportionality, that establish rules of just and fair conduct during warfare. The principle of discrimination concerns who are legitimate targets in war, while the principle of proportionality concerns how much force is morally appropriate.

The doctrine of double effect suggests that civilian casualties are justifiable so long as their deaths are not intended and merely accidental.[13] Targeting a munitions factory, for example, aims to destroy military capabilities and not to kill munitions workers. This is a way of "reconciling the absolute prohibition against attacking noncombatants with the legitimate conduct of military activity."[14] Any harm to noncombatants must be a secondary result, indirect and unintentional.[15]

Some just war theorists have added the further stipulation that the foreseeable threat posed to civilian lives be reduced as far as possible and every effort taken to avoid killing them.[16] Most agree that the deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target. Thus, munitions workers, or others employed in industries associated with the war effort, are legitimate targets while at work in the factory. But they are not liable to attack when in their homes. (Maiese, n.d.)

The principle of proportionality deals with what kind of force is morally permissible in warfare. 

It suggests that the injury caused should be proportional to the objective desired, and that the extent and violence of warfare must be tempered to minimize destruction and casualties.[21]

Central to proportionality is the notion that parties should oppose force with similar force, and "thwart the assailant's purpose using the minimum force necessary to do so."[23] One may not kill the opponent if it is possible to achieve the desired end by only injuring him. In addition, "the evil produced by the war must not be greater than the good done or the evil averted by it."[24] Costs must not outweigh benefits.

Just as the jus ad bellum principle of right intention suggests that wars must be fought for limited objectives, the notion of limited war suggests that there must be restraint with regard to the quantity and quality of weaponry used during warfare.[25] First, weapons that do not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants cannot be used. The use of asphyxiating or poisonous gases, the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, and the destruction of objects that are indispensable to the civilian population are prohibited.[26] In addition, weapons that cause long-term environmental damage are prohibited.[27] This includes destruction or contamination of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, and drinking water. (Maiese, n.d.)

The Economist reports that the Gaza Strip could see 58,000 excess deaths over the next six months if fighting continues.

Since Israel’s ground offensive began in October last year, medical facilities have been a key battlefield. Tens of thousands of Gazans have sought shelter in hospital compounds, many of which have been attacked by Israeli forces who say that Hamas operatives are sheltering there. According to the who, 85% of the nearly 800 health workers and hospital patients killed in conflicts around the world in the past year died in the occupied Palestinian territories, most of them in the ten-mile-wide Gaza strip. Some 60% of the 1,500 attacks on health-care facilities in all conflict zones occurred there, too. (The Wrecking of Gaza's Health System Goes Beyond Its Hospitals, 2024)

CP 24 reports that Canada's future funding for UN relief organization in Gaza Strip still in limbo.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is in the Middle East to discuss the Israel-Gaza conflict with her counterparts in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Israel.

Joly's office said Wednesday it could not speak to the Hussen plan.

Canada's discussions come after the European Union opted late last week to proceed with a partial delivery of its UNRWA funding.

In a statement, the European Commission said it had reached an agreement with the agency that includes allowing the EU to audit it and “review the control systems to prevent the possible involvement of its staff and assets in terrorist activities.”

The EU said it would initially disperse 60 per cent of its funding - about US$54 million - and hold back another US$32 million pending the implementation of the terms of the agreement.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters in an interview Wednesday he thought the countries that had pulled their funding were going to restore it soon.

Eide said he felt most countries were having second thoughts about punishing all Palestinians in Gaza as a result of the allegations against a small number of them.

Norway, the agency's fifth biggest donor, did not cancel its funding and was among several countries, including Portugal and Spain, that increased their donations after the Israeli allegations emerged. (Canada's Future Funding for UN Relief Organization in Gaza Strip Still in Limbo, 2017)

An article in the Guardian, Friday, March 1, 2024, is summarized in the post Update on Evidence against UNRWA. The policy of neutrality within UNRWA certainly makes it highly improbable that the terrorist activity of Hamas can be supported in any way.

Canada’s Minister of Foreign, Affairs Mélanie Joly, is reported as being increasingly concerned about the role of Canada in supplying arms to Israel in the wake of the recent Interim Ruling by the International Court of Justice on the accusation by South Africa of genocide by Israel in the war against Hamas in Gaza.

John Ivison, writes in an opinion piece in the National Post that Canada has stopped issuing export permits for selling military equipment to Israel.

There has been intense pressure on the government from civil society groups to join the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Italy and Spain in suspending all shipments of export-controlled items to Israel. Belgium cited the International Court of Justice’s interim ruling in January which found that it was “plausible” that there was genocide in Gaza, although the court did not confirm it and did not order Israel to stop fighting. The ruling has apparently spooked other governments, including Canada’s.

Heather McPherson, the NDP’s foreign affairs critic, has called for a ban on all Canadian military exports to Israel, citing the Arms Trade Treaty (to which Canada is a party) that forbids the export of military goods and technology where there is risk of human rights abuses. “Canada…may be complicit in serious crimes because of ongoing arms sales,” she said.

Joly may be starting to feel the heat from her own lawyers. Earlier this month, Nicaragua said that it will take Canada, the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands (which only recently stopped supplying arms) to the International Court of Justice over the Gaza war, claiming that the four countries have violated the Genocide Convention by supplying ammunition and technology to Israel.

The foreign affairs minister has repeatedly expressed her own concerns about Israel’s conduct in Gaza, particularly with regard to the impending assault on Rafah near the Egyptian border. She said the Israeli government’s demand that the population move again is “unacceptable, because they have nowhere to go.”

Speaking to reporters last week, she called for a “sustainable ceasefire” and a hostage deal. (Ivison, 2024)

Increased caution and investigation are prudent for governments that are trying to be observant to International Humanitarian Law and increase the professional delivery of aid to the starving people of Gaza.

References

Canada's future funding for UN relief organization in Gaza Strip still in limbo. (2017, November 9). CP24. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://www.cp24.com/news/canada-s-future-funding-for-un-relief-organization-in-gaza-strip-still-in-limbo-1 

Galloway, M. (2023, October 16). Monday October 16, 2023 Full Transcript. CBC. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/monday-october-16-2023-full-transcript-1.6998168 

Ivison, J. (2024, February 22). John Ivison: Liberals don’t deny blocking military exports to Israel. National Post. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://nationalpost.com/opinion/canada-wavers-on-military-exports-to-israel 

Maiese, M. (n.d.). Jus in Bello. Beyond Intractability. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/jus-in-bello 

The wrecking of Gaza's health system goes beyond its hospitals. (2024, February 22). The Economist. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/02/22/the-wrecking-of-gazas-health-system-goes-beyond-its-hospitals 

Three Strikes and?

The policies of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have come under scrutiny since the horrible attack of Hamas terrorists on Israeli citizens on October 7 2023. At least “three strikes” against Netanyahu have been the subject of news commentary. Is it now time to call him out of this conflict?

Calling Netanyahu Out

Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a weekly columnist for The National (UAE) and Now Media, and a monthly contributing writer for The International New York Times in an interview with Matt Galloway on CBC The Current defines Hamas in this way.

this is a religiously millenarian group, that it is apocalyptic and that it believes that it's doing the will of God. And so all of this is divinely mandated and there's a kind of religious imperative here. So I think there is also an irrational belief on the part of Hamas that in the end, if they are sufficiently fervent that there will be some kind of divine aid as well. (Monday October 16, 2023 Full Transcript, 2023)

Ravi Nessman, Associated Press, and  Amy Teibel, Associated Press, reporting for PBS comment that many Israelis are furious at their government’s chaotic recovery efforts after the Hamas attack. STRIKE ONE!

“It has to be clear. The government is completely incompetent,” said Ruvi Dar, a clinical psychologist and Tel Aviv University professor who has been counseling survivors evacuated from their homes.

Critics have accused Netanyahu of recklessly ignoring a raft of issues. The police force is understaffed, and the military was caught off guard on Israel’s southern flank as forces were more heavily stationed in the occupied West Bank, home to half a million settlers. The government did little to address the spiraling cost of living and rampant killings in Israel’s own Arab communities, while ultra-Orthodox Jewish and pro-settlement coalition partners have received billions of dollars for pet projects. (Chehayeb & Teibel, 2023)

Evan Dyer of CBC News reports notes Netanyahu's Hamas policy came back to haunt him — and Israel. STRIKE TWO!

A symbiotic relationship between Netanyahu and Hamas has been remarked on for years, by both friends and enemies, hawks and doves.

Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, told the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in 2013 that "if we look at it over the years, one of the main people contributing to Hamas's strengthening has been Bibi Netanyahu, since his first term as prime minister."

In August 2019, former prime minister Ehud Barak told Israeli Army Radio that Netanyahu's "strategy is to keep Hamas alive and kicking … even at the price of abandoning the citizens [of the south] … in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah."

The logic underlying this strategy, Barak said, is that "it's easier with Hamas to explain to Israelis that there is no one to sit with and no one to talk to." (Dyer, 2023)

Matt Galloway on the CBC program, the Current, discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict and its deadly impact on civilians inside Gaza on Nov. 2, 2023  with Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut.

Rami Khouri observes that the situation has been disastrous. He focuses on the Palestinian territories, Middle East geopolitics and American foreign policy in the region.

But, you know, part of it is the Palestinian leadership's fault, and part of it is by design of Israel to divide and conquer the Palestinians. And they've worked that very well, including by helping entrench Hamas in the Gaza Strip. I mean, this is the plan from Netanyahu as well. I mean, it's been leaked and reported in the Israeli press that he found Hamas's governance of Gaza Strip useful to him and useful to the Israelis. (The Current With Matt Galloway | Live Radio, n.d.)

The lessons from past wars on terror indicate that Netanyahu’s policy to obliterate Hamas is unrealistic. STRIKE THREE!

policy to obliterate Hamas is unrealistic

The Economist International article on Fighting Hamas comments that Hamas is at the same time a religious idea, a social movement, a political party, a government and a hybrid militia wedded to terrorism. Whatever happens in Gaza, Hamas remains a powerful political force in the West Bank.

“We will obliterate Hamas. We will triumph. It might take time, but we will end this war stronger than ever.” The words of Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, are intended not only to convey resolve, but also to signal that his war in Gaza is different. No longer is Israel aiming to punish and deter Hamas. Now it wants to destroy it altogether.

In private conversations, Israeli military officials are defining the objective more narrowly: to seize the main urban centre, Gaza City; wipe out Hamas’s top political and military leadership in the territory; and destroy as much of its military capacity as possible. (Israel Needs to Resist Irrational Retaliation, 2023)

Yossi Melman, in Tel Aviv, is a defense and security analyst for Haaretz. Dan Raviv, in Washington, is a former CBS News correspondent. They write that Israel’s vow to ‘eliminate Hamas’ is unrealistic. 

Among the clearest voices saying the hostages’ welfare must come first is that of Tamir Pardo, a former head of the Mossad who was himself an IDF commando soldier. Known for thinking outside the box, he expressed to us that military rescues—even with the well-practiced expertise of Israel’s most elite fighters—would be impossible, with hostages divided into many groups in perhaps unreachable underground lairs. Pardo, and now many others in the security establishment, have reached the conclusion that negotiations are the best route to save hostages’ lives. Using Egypt and especially Qatar as mediators, four women were set free in the first releases.

While Netanyahu and the army promise to “eliminate Hamas,” that is not realistic. Hamas is an extreme Islamic ideology, a set of ideas—including total refusal to accept a Jewish state right alongside—that cannot be wiped out. But their quasi-government in Gaza can be shut down. Of course, there will then be the challenge of finding someone to govern that poverty-stricken areas needing reconstruction and a new, hopefully more positive, beginning. (Melman & Raviv, 2023)

Three strikes and you are out. The track record of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should make the insistence on policies of Gaza occupation and continuous conflict instead of negotiations toward cessation of war very likely to fail and should not be supported by the community of nations, including the United States, NATO, and the EU.

References

Chehayeb, K., & Teibel, A. (2023, October 26). Many Israelis are furious at their government's chaotic recovery efforts after Hamas attack. PBS. Retrieved November 13, 2023, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/many-israelis-are-furious-at-their-governments-chaotic-recovery-efforts-after-hamas-attack 

The Current with Matt Galloway | Live Radio. (n.d.). CBC. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63-the-current 

Dyer, E. (2023, October 28). How Netanyahu's Hamas policy came back to haunt him — and Israel. CBC. Retrieved November 1, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-1.7010035 

Israel needs to resist irrational retaliation. (2023, October 16). The Economist. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://www.economist.com/international/2023/10/16/israel-needs-to-resist-irrational-retaliation 

Melman, Y., & Raviv, D. (2023, October 28). Column: Israel's Vow to 'Eliminate Hamas' Is Unrealistic. Time. Retrieved November 13, 2023, from https://time.com/6329637/israel-hamas-war-netanyahu-strategy/