Amnesty International reminds that the ruling issued by the International Court of Justice ordered six provisional measures including for Israel to refrain from acts under the Genocide convention, prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide, and take immediate and effective measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. Crucially, the Court also ordered Israel to preserve evidence of genocide and to submit a report to the Court, within one month, of all measures taken in line with its order.
Warning of Famine
Julian Borger in Washington, Toby Helm, Lorenzo Tondo and Quique Kierszenbaum in Jerusalem, writing for the Guardian, report that when the US allowed a ceasefire resolution to pass at the UN, the warning was clear – and concern is rising elsewhere.
Gilad Erdan, the Israeli envoy to the UN, sat before the security council to rail against the ceasefire resolution it had just passed, he cut a lonelier figure than ever in the cavernous chamber. The US, Israel’s constant shield at the UN until this point, had declined to use its veto, allowing the council’s demand for an immediate truce – even though it contained, as Erdan furiously pointed out, no condemnation of the Hamas massacre of Israelis that had begun the war.
A red line for the US until Monday, had made a ceasefire conditional on a release of hostages.
But after nearly six months of constant bombing, with more than 32,000 dead in Gaza and a famine imminent, those red lines were allowed to fade, and the American ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, kept her hand still when the chair called for votes against the resolution. (Borger et al., 2017)
There were other signs that the west was changing its position, at least in terms of its rhetoric.
On Tuesday, Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, announced that Berlin would be dispatching a delegation to remind Israel pointedly of its obligations under Geneva conventions, and warned the country not to proceed with a planned offensive on the city of Rafah, in the very south of Gaza. It was a notable change in tone from a country that has been Israel’s second biggest supporter and arms supplier.
UK, foreign secretary David Cameron has been ratcheting up his criticism of Israel – particularly over its blocking of aid into Gaza – while at the same time being ultra-careful to deflect questions as to whether the Foreign Office now believes Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been breaching international humanitarian law. Trying to strike that balance has created real and increasingly obvious strains within the British government, and the Tory party.
The number of trucks crossing into Gaza rose slightly to about 190 a day – less than half the peacetime daily total. Israeli inspectors were still turning back 20 to 25 each day, NBC News reported, citing an Egyptian aid official, on grounds as arbitrary as the wooden pallets bearing the food not being exactly the right dimensions. Israel has banned UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in the region, from using the crossing. A US state department official told Reuters on Friday that famine had already taken hold in some parts of Gaza, echoing a similar finding last week by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. (Borger et al., 2017)
Alicia Kearns – a former employee of the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence – told a Tory fundraising event in north London on 13 March that Cameron’s department has been given legal advice that Israel has broken international humanitarian law, but has chosen not to make it public.
Indeed, even if the legal advice suggested there was a “risk” of Israel having been in breach, it would have to stop exports. Some say the UK would even have to cease sharing intelligence with the US because the US might hand it on to Israel.
In a recent letter to Cameron, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, homed in on this same point about arms exports, referring to criterion 2c of the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, which requires the government to “not grant a licence if it determines there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”. (Borger et al., 2017)
The Leaders Brief in the Economist recommends that America should help Israel find a better strategy.
Today Israel has destroyed perhaps half of Hamas’s forces. But in important ways its mission has failed.
There is still a narrow path out of the hellscape of Gaza. A temporary ceasefire and hostage release could cause a change of Israel’s government; the rump of Hamas fighters in south Gaza could be contained or fade away; and from the rubble, talks on a two-state solution could begin, underwritten by America and its Gulf allies. It is just as likely, however, that ceasefire talks will fail. That could leave Israel locked in the bleakest trajectory of its 75-year existence, featuring endless occupation, hard-right politics and isolation. Today many Israelis are in denial about this, but a political reckoning will come eventually. It will determine not only the fate of Palestinians, but also whether Israel thrives in the next 75 years. (At a Moment of Military Might, Israel Looks Deeply Vulnerable, 2024)
If you are a friend of Israel this is a deeply uncomfortable moment. In October it launched a justified war of self-defence against Hamas, whose terrorists had committed atrocities that threaten the idea of Israel as a land where Jews are safe. Today Israel has destroyed perhaps half of Hamas’s forces.
First, in Gaza, where its reluctance to help provide or distribute aid has led to an avoidable humanitarian catastrophe, and where the civilian toll from the war is over 20,000 and growing. The hard-right government of Binyamin Netanyahu has rejected plans for post-war Gaza to be run by either the Palestinian Authority (pa) or an international force. The likeliest outcome is a military reoccupation. If you add the West Bank, Israel could permanently hold sway over 4m-5m Palestinians.
Israel has also failed at home. The problems go deeper than Mr Netanyahu’s dire leadership. A growing settler movement and ultra-Orthodox population have tilted politics to the right and polarised society. Before October 7th this was visible in a struggle over judicial independence. The war has raised the stakes, and although the hard-right parties of the coalition are excluded from the war cabinet they have compromised Israel’s national interest by using incendiary rhetoric, stoking settler violence and trying to sabotage aid and post-war planning. Israel’s security establishment is capable and pragmatic, but no longer fully in charge. (At a Moment of Military Might, Israel Looks Deeply Vulnerable, 2024)
Julian Borger in Washington and Ruth Michaelson in Istanbul, writing for the Guardian, report on an Israeli proposal to disband the Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, even as Aid officials warn that transferring UNRWA’s functions to other bodies with famine looming would be disastrous
Some UN officials see the Israeli plan as an attempt to portray the UN as unwilling to cooperate if there is famine in Gaza, which humanitarian organisations have warned is impending. On Thursday the international court of justice, which is examining genocide charges against Israel, ordered the Israeli government to take “all necessary and effective measures” to ensure the large-scale delivery of aid to Gaza “in full cooperation with the United Nations”. (Borger & Michaelson, 2017)
Some inside the UN, other aid agencies and human rights groups also see the Israeli proposal as the culmination of a long Israeli campaign to destroy UNRWA.
Israel has claimed that up to 11% of UNRWA employees are affiliated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and that as many as 30 took some part in the 7 October attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed.
Israel has yet to provide evidence for the allegations, which led to the suspension of $450m in funding by 16 major donors at a time when the 2.3 million people in Gaza were sliding towards famine.
Earlier this month, the US Congress voted for a spending bill that included a clause blocking future US financing of UNRWA, but other national donors have resumed their funding in the weeks since the UN launched two inquiries. One is an investigation of the specific Israeli allegations, which reported a month ago that it was yet to receive evidence from Israel for its allegations but was hopeful about future cooperation.
The second inquiry, chaired by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna and supported by three Nordic research agencies, is a broader review of the agency’s integrity. An interim report by the Colonna inquiry on 20 March said UNRWA had a “significant number of mechanisms and procedures” to ensure its neutrality but that critical areas still needed to be addressed.
The IDF halted cooperation with UNRWA as Australia, Canada and Sweden, Finland and Japan said they would resume funding the agency. (Borger & Michaelson, 2017)
The Economist explains post reports that some parts of the Gaza strip are already experiencing “catastrophic hunger.”
On March 18th the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (ipc), a UN-backed initiative responsible for a scale that measures hunger, said that 30% of Gaza’s population is experiencing catastrophic food insecurity. It was able to analyse 95% of the population, about 2.1m people, and concluded that none of them were “food secure”. Since it was established 20 years ago the IPC has declared only two famines: in Somalia in 2011, and in South Sudan in 2017. Unless there is a ceasefire and faster supplies of aid, the ipc believes it will have grounds to declare a third in Gaza’s northern governates by May, and in southern Gaza by July. (Gaza Could Face a Famine by May. What Does That Mean?, 2024)
Since more than forty years, Médecins Sans Frontières has delivered emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. MSF's work is based on humanitarian principles and they offer a practical guide to humanitarian law.
In internal or international armed conflicts, humanitarian law authorizes relief actions that are of an exclusively humanitarian and impartial nature if civilians are suffering undue hardship owing to a scarcity of supplies essential for their survival, such as foodstuffs and medical supplies (APII Art. 18.2; GCIV Arts. 17, 23, and 59; API Art. 70).
This right to relief and supply has also become an obligation in customary international humanitarian law. Rule 55 of the customary IHL study provides that “parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need, which is impartial in character and conducted without any adverse distinction, subject to their right of control.” (Doctors Without Borders, n.d.)
Many nations, including the United States, who have been long time supporters of Israel are increasingly wary of the military action by the IDF, and political moves against UNRWA that may intensify the starvation of civilians in Gaza and bring Israel and nations supporting the war into violation of International Humanitarian Law and the possible consequences in the International Court of Justice.
References
At a moment of military might, Israel looks deeply vulnerable. (2024, March 21). The Economist. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/03/21/at-a-moment-of-military-might-israel-looks-deeply-vulnerable
Borger, J. (n.d.). Israel-Gaza live: UN security council passes resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, as US abstains. the Guardian Live. Retrieved March 25, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/25/israel-gaza-live-unrwa-aid-north-gaza-un-security-council-vote-ceasefire-middle-east-latest#top-of-blog
Borger, J., Helm, T., Tondo, L., & Kierszenbaum, Q. (2017, November 9). Israel alone? Allies’ fears grow over conduct – and legality – of war in Gaza. the Guardian. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/31/israel-alone-allies-fears-grow-over-conduct-and-legality-of-war-in-gaza
Borger, J., & Michaelson, R. (2017, November 9). Israel lodges proposal with UN for dismantling of Palestinian relief agency. the Guardian. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/31/israel-plan-un-dismantle-palestinian-relief-agency-unwra
Doctors without borders. (n.d.). Doctors without borders | The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/famine-1/
Gaza could face a famine by May. What does that mean? (2024, March 26). The Economist. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2024/03/26/gaza-could-face-a-famine-by-may-what-does-that-mean
Israel-Gaza live: UN security council passes resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, as US abstains. (n.d.). the Guardian Live. Retrieved March 25, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/25/israel-gaza-live-unrwa-aid-north-gaza-un-security-council-vote-ceasefire-middle-east-latest#top-of-blog
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