An aid drop into Gaza seen from the Israeli side (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images) On 7 April, marking six months since the start of the war, the Israeli Defence forces (IDF) announced that the 98th Commando Division had been withdrawn from southern Gaza after a battle in the city of Khan Younis had been ‘concluded.’ The division will now ‘recuperate and prepare for future operations.’ The most likely future operation is for this division to a move into Rafah, Hamas’s final redoubt in Gaza. For now there are no Israeli troops in southern Gaza and a single brigade (there were once 50) preventing movement from north to south. Gaza is effectively split. In the south and Khan Yunis, Palestinians can now move relatively freely but they cannot get to the north.
You talk about Western political leaders’ irritation, demand for urgency in humanitarian supplies, and care in distinguishing fighters from civilians, but those who supply arms cannot credibly both support the war and call for peace. They are accountable for how it is carried out. Increasing evidence points to systemic features in the way the war is being conducted that disproportionately harms civilians: the use of AI systems to vastly increase the identification of targets is accompanied by great loosening of allowances for civilian death and injury; ‘kill zones’; using dumb bombs in targeting homes (rather than individuals); impunity for indiscriminate killing; apparent targeted shooting of children. These are not occasional mistakes in the fog of war.
Also the widespread systematic destruction of the means of life – housing, water, sanitation, health, education, agriculture, together with the thwarting of the adequate distribution of aid (both directly and indirectly) are building a predictable trajectory to a catastrophic outcome.
International humanitarian law seems to be as much about prevention as prosecution.
Prevention of catastrophe when there is so little political will to seek a political solution requires leverage and effectively using the mechanisms of accountability. This has to mean more than asking the Israeli authorities whether they are complying with international humanitarian law.
What would it really take to prevent the emerging catastrophe?
I feel one of the under-discussed potential disaster of Israel’s conduct of the war has been that it is undermined the bi-partisan support for it in the USA. For a very long time Israel enjoyed that but Netanyahu’s recklessness with the relationship and making it all too clear that he prefers Republicans (who can forget his foolish address to the Republican dominated Congress in Obama’s term) has made it increasingly acceptable for Democrats to be anti-Israel. Before they were a small minority - now we have a situation where a Democrat President orders his representative in the UN not to veto a UN resolution. Increasingly moderate Democrat politicians are openly criticizing Israel.
I know politicians don’t look to the long term but with support for the Republicans being strongest amongst the old and weakest amongst the young the time may well come when an American (Democrat) government might come to question whether the diplomatic cost of being a strong ally of Israel (there are a lot of countries with large Islamic, pro-Palestinian populations) is worth it, especially when it seems to be busy currying favour with politicians of the other side.
Part of the problem is that "Hamas" is used interchangeably for organized armed combatants, and for employees of the elected civil government e.g. teacher, mailman, police or trash collector. Asking captives to identify friends and neighbours as "Hamas" in order to be released, is not likely to clarify matters. (Shades of Un-American Activities committee hearings...)
Feed these names into existing facial recognition systems, and you have something worthy of Kafka.
You talk about Western political leaders’ irritation, demand for urgency in humanitarian supplies, and care in distinguishing fighters from civilians, but those who supply arms cannot credibly both support the war and call for peace. They are accountable for how it is carried out. Increasing evidence points to systemic features in the way the war is being conducted that disproportionately harms civilians: the use of AI systems to vastly increase the identification of targets is accompanied by great loosening of allowances for civilian death and injury; ‘kill zones’; using dumb bombs in targeting homes (rather than individuals); impunity for indiscriminate killing; apparent targeted shooting of children. These are not occasional mistakes in the fog of war.
Also the widespread systematic destruction of the means of life – housing, water, sanitation, health, education, agriculture, together with the thwarting of the adequate distribution of aid (both directly and indirectly) are building a predictable trajectory to a catastrophic outcome.
International humanitarian law seems to be as much about prevention as prosecution.
Prevention of catastrophe when there is so little political will to seek a political solution requires leverage and effectively using the mechanisms of accountability. This has to mean more than asking the Israeli authorities whether they are complying with international humanitarian law.
What would it really take to prevent the emerging catastrophe?
I feel one of the under-discussed potential disaster of Israel’s conduct of the war has been that it is undermined the bi-partisan support for it in the USA. For a very long time Israel enjoyed that but Netanyahu’s recklessness with the relationship and making it all too clear that he prefers Republicans (who can forget his foolish address to the Republican dominated Congress in Obama’s term) has made it increasingly acceptable for Democrats to be anti-Israel. Before they were a small minority - now we have a situation where a Democrat President orders his representative in the UN not to veto a UN resolution. Increasingly moderate Democrat politicians are openly criticizing Israel.
I know politicians don’t look to the long term but with support for the Republicans being strongest amongst the old and weakest amongst the young the time may well come when an American (Democrat) government might come to question whether the diplomatic cost of being a strong ally of Israel (there are a lot of countries with large Islamic, pro-Palestinian populations) is worth it, especially when it seems to be busy currying favour with politicians of the other side.
Possible typo:
Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is still keeping Israel occupied on its southern border
Did you mean to say northern border?
Part of the problem is that "Hamas" is used interchangeably for organized armed combatants, and for employees of the elected civil government e.g. teacher, mailman, police or trash collector. Asking captives to identify friends and neighbours as "Hamas" in order to be released, is not likely to clarify matters. (Shades of Un-American Activities committee hearings...)
Feed these names into existing facial recognition systems, and you have something worthy of Kafka.