Stop the Genocide

If the IDF is killing Palestinians because they are Palestinians, that action is evidence for a charge of genocide against the State of Israel. If the IDF is ignoring their responsibility to exercise discrimination and proportionality in their attacks in Gaza then there is evidence for violation of International Humanitarian Law and charges of war crimes against those responsible for conducting the war. In recent months, the assessment of some human rights organizations and moral leaders has been leaning to accusations of genocide and war crimes at the hands of the armed forces of Israel.

(

Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP via Getty Images)

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, Director of Al-Shifa Hospital, in an article with supporting references in the Lancet concludes that more than 85% of Gaza’s population have been displaced, at least 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, and 70,000 civilians have been injured.

Since the attacks by Hamas against Israel on Oct 7, 2023,1 the Israeli retaliatory strikes, bombings, and strict sieges have almost never stopped. So far, more than 85% of Gaza's population have been displaced,2 and as of April 13, 2024, at least 33 000 Palestinians have been killed (more than a third of them are children)3 and 70 000 civilians have been injured.4 Approximately 7000 Palestinians are reportedly missing—most are likely dead.3,4 This massacre has taken place in just 180 days and is still ongoing.3 Gaza has now been described as a graveyard of children by the UN.4 According to WHO and Médecins Sans Frontières, hospitals in southern Gaza are at “breaking point” while all the hospitals in northern Gaza have been destroyed and are out of service.5 There is very limited access to ambulances, electricity, and clean drinking water, and injured patients are being transferred to medical institutes by donkey carts.6 The UN announced that the number of health-care workers killed by Israeli strikes is the highest in any single conflict in the organisation's history.7 Josep Borrell, a High Representative for the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has described the destruction in Gaza as being proportionally greater than that which Germany experienced in World War 2.8

A key aspect of this war is the deliberate targeting of civilians by the Israeli military—for example, in just one investigation by Amnesty International, US-made munitions were found to be used by the Israeli military in two deadly, unlawful air strikes on homes containing civilians in Gaza.9 These air strikes were either direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks and Amnesty International is calling for them to be investigated as war crimes.9

(References cited above are detailed in web article) (Abu Salmiya, n.d.)

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, reports that Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now. (Callamard, n.d.)

On 14 November 2024 the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices* said in a new report that Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians.

The report documents how Israel’s extensive bombing campaign in Gaza has decimated essential services and unleashed an environmental catastrophe that will have lasting health impacts. By early 2024, over 25,000 tons of explosives—equivalent to two nuclear bombs—had been dropped on Gaza, causing massive destruction and the collapse of water and sanitation systems, agricultural devastation, and toxic pollution.

“By destroying vital water, sanitation and food systems, and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come,” the Committee said. (UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices, n.d.)

The report raises serious concerns about Israel’s use of AI-enhanced targeting systems in directing its military operations, and the impact it has had on civilians, particularly evident in the overwhelming number of women and children among the casualties.

“The Israeli military’s use of AI-assisted targeting, with minimal human oversight, combined with heavy bombs, underscores Israel’s disregard of its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and take adequate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths,” the Committee said. (UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices, n.d.)

The concerns of human rights organizations about the possibility of genocide and war crimes being committed by Israel follow similar concern that Giada Zampano from AP Rome reports that Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide, according to excerpts released from an upcoming new book ahead of the pontiff’s jubilee year. 

References

Abu Salmiya, M. (n.d.). Stop the Gaza genocide immediately. thelancet. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00135-1/fulltext 

Callamard, A. (n.d.). ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza. Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. https://amnesty.ca/gazagenocide/ 

UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices. (n.d.). UN Special Committee finds Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war. OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide 

Balance of Probabilities UNRWA

CBC News has learned that the Canadian federal government is resuming funding to UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians.

A Palestinian man carries flour bags distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in November. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Catherine Cullen, of CBC News, reported last month that Canada had not seen evidence backing up the allegations against the employees before making the decision.

Martin Griffiths, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator pointed to two investigations underway into the Israeli government's allegations, saying he hoped they would provide sufficient assurance to Canada and other countries to keep funding UNRWA.

"We're necessary. We're doing what I think is almost the most difficult humanitarian operation," he said, pointing out that more than 150 staff members have been killed in Gaza. (Cullen, 2024)

The Israeli government has long complained about UNRWA and has sought to have the agency defunded.

It accuses UNRWA of perpetuating a Palestinian refugee crisis, allowing members of armed groups to infiltrate it and use its facilities, and allowing its schools to indoctrinate Palestinian children in an ideology of armed resistance to Israel.

UNRWA says it makes great efforts to avoid infiltration by armed groups and works to educate its employees about the importance of neutrality. (Cullen, 2024)

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)

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.

References

Cullen, C. (2024, March 5). Canadian government will resume funding to United Nations relief agency for Palestinians: source. CBC News. Retrieved March 6, 2024, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-government-resume-unrwa-funding-1.7134961 

Galloway, M. (2023, October 16). Monday October 16, 2023 Full Transcript. CBC. Retrieved March 6, 2024, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/monday-october-16-2023-full-transcript-1.6998168 

Update on Evidence against UNRWA

Julian Borger reports for the Guardian that a month after Israeli allegations that a dozen United Nations staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack, UN investigators have yet to receive any evidence from Israel to support the claims, though they expect some material to be forthcoming “shortly”. This article provides supplemental details to The First Casualty article posted February 23, 2024.

Palestinian people queue for food distributed by a charity in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Allegations against 12 employees led major donors to suspend funding to UNRWA. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) launched an investigation on 29 January in the wake of the Israeli allegations initially presented to UNRWA in January, and delivered an update on its work to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Wednesday.Diplomats who saw the OIOS preliminary report said it contained no new evidence from Israel since the initial presentation of the claims in January – which were not backed by any proof. In summarising the findings, the UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, confirmed that the investigation had yet to receive corroborating material from Israel. (Borger, 2024)

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, notes that:

“It is a little bit shortsighted to believe that UNRWA can just technically hand over all its activities to other UN agencies or NGOs,” Lazzarini told journalists in Jerusalem on Thursday.

“It’s an agency [that’s] quite unique because we are … primarily providing government-like services to one of the most destitute communities in the region,” he said.

“The World Food Programme itself has said that it cannot stave off starvation which is already impacting hundreds of thousands of people,” Christopher Gunness, a former UNRWA spokesperson, said. “That can only be done by UNRWA, with its 13,000 workers, its warehouses and its food distribution centres.” (Borger, 2024)

The threat of extreme starvation in Gaza requires an end to the delay from Israel in providing evidence to support the claims that caused the United States and other countries to suspend support for UNRWA.

References

Borger, J. (2024, March 1). Israel has not yet provided evidence to back Hamas 7 October attack claims against UNRWA, UN says. The Guardian. Retrieved March 1, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/01/unrwa-funding-pause-employees-october-7-hamas-attack-claims-no-evidence-un?