NEW YORK—The Biden administration has delivered a report on whether Israel is conducting its war in Gaza in a way that violates international laws and impedes the delivery of US-supported humanitarian aid.
The US Department of State’s report concluded that it is “reasonable to assess” that Israel has violated international humanitarian law in Gaza, though there is not enough information available to verify if any US weapons were used in specific incidents that contravened the law or US weapons policy.
In seven months, 35,000 people—mostly civilians—have been killed, including nearly 500 health workers. Israeli forces have obstructed aid by attacking humanitarian convoys and bombing and raiding hospitals. They have forced medical staff to hastily evacuate health care facilities and leave patients behind.
The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) alone has been attacked 20 times, and five of our colleagues have been killed.
Avril Benoît, chief executive officer of MSF USA, said of the report:
“The Biden administration’s analysis of Israel’s war in Gaza has not proceeded as a good faith effort to uphold US law. Instead, excuses about the impossibility of monitoring the deployment of American assistance serve to deflect responsibility.
The horrific reality we witness on the ground in Gaza is that Israeli military operations continue to maim and kill civilians and block the provision of lifesaving humanitarian aid. This can’t be chalked up to unintended consequences of war; the massive death, destruction, collective punishment, and forced displacement are the result of military and political choices that blatantly disregard civilian lives.
As the leading provider of military and financial support to Israel, the US has an obligation to assess if the conduct of the war is consistent with international and US laws designed to protect civilians and to apply the appropriate legal procedures.
While Israeli authorities have taken some measures to allow humanitarian access, steps taken thus far fall far short of what it promised and what is needed in a place where 85 percent of the population has been forced from their homes. Many live in makeshift tents without even basic necessities such as food, clean drinking water, and toilets.
Israel has also failed humanitarian organizations trying to provide impartial aid to people in Gaza. Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank have repeatedly attacked our Doctors Without Borders colleagues and facilities, and have failed to establish adequate deconfliction measures to ensure the protection of aid workers and patients. On May 6, a violent Israeli military incursion in Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps in the West Bank damaged a Doctors Without Borders-supported health facility and other essential infrastructure.
Even when Israel orders evacuations, international law requires it to protect civilians. Its military offensive currently underway in Rafah threatens to shatter the humanitarian response and destroy the local health system that has already been struggling to cope with overwhelming demands for months. A continued military escalation would represent a direct attack on a trapped population, with catastrophic consequences.
The closure of the Rafah border crossing makes it near-impossible for humanitarian organizations to sustain lifesaving operations, with fuel, food, medicines, and water supplies all running dangerously low.
Military activity in Rafah has already disrupted Doctors Without Borders operations, forcing us to move staff to safer locations and to anticipate evacuation orders of health care facilities full of patients. The few field hospitals or alternative structures being built will not be able to cope with a massive influx of wounded civilians on top of overwhelming medical needs.”
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