{"id":10730,"date":"2024-06-13T16:18:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T20:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charityandsecurity.org\/?p=10730"},"modified":"2024-06-14T17:06:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T21:06:27","slug":"accountability-under-ihl-legal-consequences-for-blocking-humanitarian-assistance-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charityandsecurity.org\/analysis\/accountability-under-ihl-legal-consequences-for-blocking-humanitarian-assistance-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountability Under IHL: Legal Consequences for Blocking Humanitarian Assistance in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"
Washington, D.C. – The Israeli assaults on Rafah, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestine, began May 6 and have drawn worldwide anger, yet failed to trigger the U.S. \u201cred line,\u201d indicating that there are actually no limits to U.S. support of the Israeli war in Gaza. In particular, the horrific scenes following an Israeli <\/span>bombing<\/span><\/a> on May 26 \u2013 using an <\/span>American made bomb<\/span><\/a> \u2013 of a tent camp in Rafah that <\/span>killed 45 people<\/span><\/a> brought <\/span>international outrage<\/span><\/a> and further attention to the continued attacks on civilians by the IDF. The \u201c<\/span>Rafah Tent Massacre<\/span><\/a>\u201d and similar horrific attacks against Palestinian civilians contribute to a larger and more insidious Israeli strategy that has killed thousands and has the potential to escalate into the scale of mass atrocity: the closing of humanitarian spaces in Gaza.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These latest assaults on Rafah are part of Israel\u2019s sustained U.S.-backed military campaign in Gaza and their relentless strategy of attacking civilian and humanitarian spaces, including <\/span>hospitals<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>schools<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>refugee camps<\/span><\/a>. The Rafah assault, however,\u00a0 represents a particularly grim milestone: the combination of the level of destruction, lack of access, and near impossible border access means that the Israeli government has now effectively cut off all parts of Gaza and over 2.3 million people from any hope of humanitarian assistance. This is devastating for the people of Gaza, who are already struggling daily to stay alive and survive, and constitutes violations of international law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Before the Rafah assault began on May 6, there were already limited options to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and even the few access points that were open <\/span>were not safe<\/span><\/a>. Since Oct. 7, 2023,\u00a0 <\/span>at least 35,000 Gazans<\/span><\/a> have been killed (the true number is likely much higher, given the number of deaths still unaccounted for and the number of individuals still trapped in rubble); the vast majority of those killed were civilians. The UN states that of those whose identities have been <\/span>fully verified<\/span><\/a>, 52% are women and children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, over <\/span>224 humanitarian personnel have been killed<\/span><\/a> in Gaza \u2013 a death toll that, eight months in, is already more than three times higher than ever recorded in a single conflict in one year. In late Feb. 2024, <\/span>over 100 people were killed<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>more than 750 were injured<\/span><\/a> in the <\/span>first \u201cflour massacre<\/span><\/a>\u201d when the Israeli military opened fire on a crowd waiting for aid to be distributed in Gaza City; the Israeli military still <\/span>maintains that it was returning fire<\/span><\/a>. A <\/span>subsequent \u201cflour massacre<\/span><\/a>\u201d was carried out by the IDF in March. In April, the danger for humanitarian workers in Gaza was again brought to light after <\/span>Israeli airstrikes<\/span><\/a> on an aid convoy killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers. Further, as of April, <\/span>254 aid workers in Gaza have been killed<\/span> and<\/span><\/a> as of May <\/span>aid workers have been targeted<\/span><\/a> 308 times. <\/span>74% of the aid workers killed in Gaza<\/span><\/a> worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), with the <\/span>overwhelming majority comprising of national Palestinians<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The International Court of Justice (ICJ) publicly recognized the dire situation in Gaza back in January, observing that the Israeli operation in Gaza since Oct. 7 \u201c…has resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries, as well as the massive destruction of homes, the forcible displacement of the vast majority of the population, and extensive damage to civilian infrastructure\u201d (See <\/span>Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (S. Afr. v. Isr.), Order (Jan. 26)<\/span><\/a>). In its order, the ICJ ruled that it is \u201cplausible\u201d that Israel is violating the <\/span>Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide<\/span><\/a> (Genocide Convention), and <\/span>ordered<\/span><\/a> Israel to take steps to prevent genocide, including ensuring access to adequate food and water. On May 24, the ICJ <\/span>expanded<\/span><\/a> this order, requiring Israel to \u201cimmediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in\u2026Rafah,\u201d and emphasizing \u201cthe catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.\u201d Despite these orders from the ICJ, Israel has continued to expand its operations in Rafah.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres echoed these concerns, stating that after the invasion of Rafah \u201c<\/span>for people in Gaza, nowhere is safe now<\/span><\/a>\u201d and that \u201c<\/span>the horror and suffering must stop immediately<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Until May, a limited number of aid trucks were able to enter Gaza. However, the assault on Rafah effectively <\/span>cut off all of Gaza<\/span><\/a> from sufficient international aid. While the <\/span>Kerem Shalom crossing<\/span><\/a> is technically open, the limited ability to access and utilize it combined with the total closure of Rafah means that <\/span>fewer than 1,000 aid trucks<\/span><\/a> have entered Gaza in the <\/span>past month<\/span><\/i>, compared to the <\/span>500 aid trucks per day<\/span><\/i><\/a> that the UN has stated are necessary to prevent widespread famine. The aid is there \u2013 <\/span>more than 2,000 trucks<\/span><\/a> from the UN and other international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) are waiting on the Egyptian side of Rafah as thousands of pounds of food aid rots in the sun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Due to the lack of ground access, the U.S. government has previously tried to airdrop food and other humanitarian supplies. Not only is the amount of aid facilitated by these drops woefully inadequate to meet the need in Gaza, but problems with the drops themselves mean that the supplies are sometimes wasted. Prior airdrops have resulted in aid packages landing in <\/span>sewers and garbage dumps<\/span><\/a>, and safety failures in a U.S. airdrop on March 8 resulted in the <\/span>death of five Palestinians<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n To address the challenges of getting aid in without ground access and the inadequacy of attempts to bring in humanitarian access via air and <\/span>sea<\/span><\/a>, the U.S. government, in cooperation with the Israeli government, built a <\/span>$320 million<\/span><\/a> temporary pier in southwest Gaza City. Construction finally finished on May 16, but by May 19 \u2013 a mere two days after the pier opened \u2013\u00a0 <\/span>operations were suspended<\/span><\/a> after deliveries were overrun. Although it reopened on May 20, damage from bad weather and high winds forced the <\/span>pier\u2019s closure<\/span><\/a> on May 28, just over a week after it became operational. After extensive repairs the pier resumed operations on Jun. 8, but <\/span>\u201cpaused\u201d operations<\/span><\/a> again a mere 24 hours later due to safety concerns. Some experts <\/span>posit that these failures were inevitable<\/span><\/a>, and it is clear that even a fully functioning pier <\/span>would not come close to solving the humanitarian crisis<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Furthermore, as the U.S. continues to try to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, it is simultaneously sending <\/span>unfettered military assistance<\/span><\/a> and arms transfers to Israel. The fact that the U.S., as an ally of Israel, even needed to construct a pier to safely deliver humanitarian assistance in the first place demonstrates just how dire the humanitarian access situation is in Gaza. It is also evidence that the <\/span>U.S. is violating its own laws<\/span><\/a>, which state that the U.S. may not provide military assistance to a country that is <\/span>restricting the delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Andrea de Dominico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs\u2019s (OCHA\u2019s) Office in Palestine, summarized the dire situation in a <\/span>briefing last week<\/span><\/a>: \u201cWe are trying to save lives every day, but the reality is that our hands have been tied (behind) our backs since the very beginning\u2026We used to say, months back, that someone had broken our legs and now all of sudden asked us to run. I think we have learned to run with crutches\u2026and now they have taken away the crutches also.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In this intentionally dysfunctional environment, the Israeli government has effectively cut off over 2.3 million Palestinians from aid and humanitarian assistance. International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the set of rules that apply during armed conflict, clearly states that civilian populations in conflict zones are <\/span>entitled to humanitarian assistance<\/span><\/a>. Under the <\/span>Geneva Conventions<\/span><\/a>, the treaties that form the core of IHL, civilian populations \u201chave a <\/span>right to request humanitarian assistance<\/span><\/a>, [and] nations and non-state armed groups may not arbitrarily or capriciously refuse humanitarian NGOs offers to provide such assistance.\u201d Parties involved in an armed conflict, including occupying States\u2013as an occupation triggers the law of armed conflict under IHL\u2013must <\/span>at a minimum accept <\/span><\/i>offers of humanitarian relief where failing to do so would violate IHL\u2019s prohibition of \u201c<\/span>starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare.<\/span><\/a>\u201d Violation of this prohibition constitutes a <\/span>war crime<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>crime against humanity<\/span><\/a> under international law. Starvation of and denial of vital resources to a targeted population is also a recognized method of <\/span>genocide<\/span><\/a> under international law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Israeli government has repeatedly denied that it is purposefully <\/span>blocking humanitarian aid<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>targeting humanitarian spaces<\/span><\/a> and workers, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that it is <\/span>Israeli policy<\/span><\/a> to allow as much aid as needed into Gaza. The reality on the ground, however, does not reflect this supposed policy; even where crossing points have been officially \u201c<\/span>reopened<\/span><\/a>,\u201d like Karem Shalom, sufficient aid is still not reaching Gazans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Whatever the posited reasons, it is clear that Gaza and its population of over 2 million people are starving. According to the <\/span>World Food Program<\/span><\/a> (WFP), over 1.1 million Gazans (over half the population) have completely exhausted all of their food supplies and are facing catastrophic hunger and starvation. Under the <\/span>Integrated Food Security Phase Classification<\/span><\/a> (IPC, the main tool for determining severity of food security in use since 2004), a majority of Gazans are facing IPC 5, the highest level of starvation. This is the <\/span>highest number of people<\/span><\/a> ever recorded by the IPC facing catastrophic hunger.<\/span><\/p>\n The dire situation in Gaza is a direct result of the Israeli <\/span>policy of obstruction<\/span><\/a>. Blocking humanitarian aid and attacking humanitarian spaces are, by design, part of the Israeli government\u2019s broader war apparatus and strategy, in violation of international law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is <\/span>expressly prohibited<\/span><\/a> in Additional Protocol I (<\/span>Article 54<\/span><\/a>) and Additional Protocol II (<\/span>Article 14<\/span><\/a>) to the Geneva Conventions, as well as in the International Criminal Court (ICC) Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the ICC as a permanent court to address the core crimes in IHL (<\/span>Article 8(2)(b)(xxv)<\/span><\/a>). It is also prohibited by the U.S. military in the Department of Defense\u2019s (DoD) <\/span>Law of War Manual<\/span><\/a> and in Israel\u2019s <\/span>Manual on the Rules of Warfare<\/span><\/a>. While Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, Palestine is; this <\/span>gives the ICC jurisdiction<\/span><\/a> over IDF soldiers if they violate IHL in Palestinian territory, as well as over any Israeli official complicit in alleged IHL crimes. This is particularly important as the ICC is the only permanent international court that can <\/span>prosecute individuals<\/span><\/a> for the most serious IHL crimes, including <\/span>war crimes<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>crimes against humanity<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>The Limited Humanitarian Space Before Rafah<\/b><\/h2>\n
Rafah and the Closing of Remaining Civic and Humanitarian Access<\/b><\/h2>\n
Blocking Humanitarian Aid Is a Violation of International Law<\/b><\/h2>\n
Starvation of Civilians as a War Crime<\/span><\/h3>\n