AS ISRAELI forces resume and expand their military offensive by air, ground and sea on the Gaza Strip, Palestine, forcibly displacing people and deliberately blocking essential aid, Palestinian lives are once again being systematically destroyed, warns Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The charity said on Wednesday: ‘A series of deadly attacks by Israeli forces have shown a blatant disregard for the safety of humanitarian and medical workers in Gaza.
‘We call on Israeli authorities to immediately lift the inhumane and deadly siege on Gaza, protect the lives of Palestinians, humanitarian and medical personnel, and for all parties to restore and sustain the ceasefire.’
Amande Bazerolle, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said: ‘Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance. We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza.
‘With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care.
‘Humanitarians have been forced to watch people suffer and die while carrying the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies, all while facing the same life-threatening conditions themselves.’
MSF added: ‘Over 50,000 people have been killed since October 2023, nearly a third of whom are children, according to the Ministry of Health. Since the resumption of hostilities on 18 March, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to local authorities.
‘According to the United Nations, at least 409 aid workers, most of whom were UNRWA staff, the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, have been killed since October 2023.
‘Eleven MSF colleagues, some while on duty, have been killed since the start of the war, including two in just the past two weeks.
‘In the latest instance of a ruthless attack by Israeli forces on aid workers, the bodies of 15 emergency responders and the ambulances they were travelling in were found in a mass grave on 30 March in Rafah, southern Gaza.
‘The group was killed by Israeli forces while trying to assist civilians caught in shelling on 23rd March.
‘Recent publicly shared evidence has shown that the workers and their vehicles were clearly marked and identifiable, challenging the initial claims given by Israeli authorities.’
Claire Magone, General Director of MSF France, said: ‘This horrific killing of aid workers is yet another example of the complete disregard shown by Israeli forces for the protection of humanitarian and medical workers.
‘The silence and unconditional support of Israel’s closest allies further emboldens these actions.’
The charity insisted: ‘MSF considers that only international and independent investigations can bring to light the circumstances of, and the responsibilities for, these attacks on aid workers.
‘Although the situation has already been catastrophic for over 18 months, over the past three weeks, MSF has witnessed several incidents involving the killing of humanitarian and medical workers.
‘The coordination of humanitarian movements with Israeli authorities, known as the Humanitarian Notification System, an already imperfect mechanism, has become more unreliable and is now barely affording any protection guarantees.
‘Notified locations, in which humanitarians have informed Israel of their presence, such as health facilities where we work, compounds of humanitarian stakeholders, and MSF offices and guesthouses have been hit by shells or bullets.
‘Areas near healthcare facilities have been subjected to strikes, fighting and evacuation orders.
‘Medical facilities are not exempt from attacks and evacuation orders by Israeli forces. MSF teams have had to leave many facilities, while others continue operating with staff and patients trapped inside, unable to leave safely for hours at a time.’
- An Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday has further jeopardised already limited access to lifesaving medical care in the war-torn enclave, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular news briefing in New York.
Several staff members, including two nurses, were injured in the strike on the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Younis according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health and health agencies, he added.
The incident follows a separate strike on Sunday on Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which had been a key facility treating victims of Israeli airstrikes in the north.
Dujarric said: ‘The latest strikes on hospitals further cripples Gaza’s health care system. There are currently very few beds available in hospitals and patients are being accommodated in tents.’
He added that according to the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), only 21 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain ‘just partially functional’ and almost all have sustained some damage in the conflict.
He further reported that, according to health partners, there is an urgent need for thousands of blood units for life-saving operations. Furthermore, there are serious concerns that food warehouses have reached ‘very low levels’ as no aid has entered Gaza in weeks.
Meanwhile, amid the devastation a rare moment of relief came as humanitarians in Gaza successfully installed a back-up generator at Kamal Adwan Hospital to power a water system producing 20 cubic metres of clean water per hour.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, has warned that time is running out to save Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip from ethnic cleansing, which is also extending to the occupied West Bank.
She emphasised that the United Nations is currently fragmented and completely paralysed in its ability to function as an organisation.
Albanese described the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip as the most sadistic and militarised since the end of World War II in 1945, where people are killed by the dozens and hundreds within hours, saying, ‘nothing remains’.
In an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Tuesday, the UN rapporteur noted: ‘The realities on the ground in the Palestinian territories are extremely tragic, and the illegitimacy of the Israeli occupation and the associated infrastructure have become more apparent.’
She pointed out that the campaign of incitement by many pro-Israel organisations, that preceded the renewal of her mandate, is linked to her work, adding: ‘One of the critical points in my work is to highlight the impunity granted to Israel by member states, particularly Western countries such as Germany, France, Canada, the United States, and the Netherlands.’
Albanese stressed that independent UN experts have been the most outspoken in condemning the grave and horrific violations of international law that have occurred in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Ethnic cleansing and a silent Nakba
Regarding the expulsion of two British MPs after they were detained at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, and the possibility of facing the same fate if she decided to go to Palestine, she said: ‘I have no reason to go to what remains of Palestine through Israel, as Israel has declared me a persona non grata.’
Albanese added: ‘But the important point is that the borders with Jordan and Egypt should not be under Israeli control; this is the most important thing I want your audience to understand, to be aware of, and to raise in discussions with governments. This should be a constant reminder.’
She affirmed that international law obliges all member states not to recognise the consequences of illegal occupation, stressing that the occupation, with its military components, settlements, control over natural resources, airspace, and borders, must come to an end.
She continued: ‘Palestinians must be allowed to enjoy the right to self-determination, that is, the right to exist as a people. It is wrong to allow Israel to continue controlling Gaza or to govern the West Bank.’
The UN rapporteur noted that ethnic cleansing has been a constant feature of Palestinian life under Israeli rule from the Nakba until today in various forms, including what can be described as a silent Nakba.
She expressed her belief that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a ‘great personal interest in the catastrophic extermination attack on Gaza. Now we see many in Israel raising their voices against this attack, but not enough to overthrow Netanyahu.’
A new international reality
Albanese believes that international law and the institutions operating within its framework are going through a ‘critical moment for a multilateral system’ in light of a new international reality following Donald Trump’s rise to power in the US and the increasing strength of right-wing parties in Europe.
She asked: ‘What is the benefit of the international system if it fails to enforce its basic rules? Like the prohibition on the use of force except under certain circumstances; I mean, no one is truly challenging Israel’s “right to self-defence”, emphasising that ‘what Israel is doing is not self-defence, but total destruction for ideological political purposes or mere self-interest, and there is no military necessity for the use of force.
‘Therefore, the UN is now fragmented and completely paralysed in its ability to act as an organisation.’
She continued that international law has failed to stop the genocide, ‘not because of the limitations of the rules-based system, but due to non-functional enforcement mechanisms. International law is as strong as the will of states and their ability to enforce it.’
The UN rapporteur ridiculed French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of Paris’s desire to recognise the Palestinian state ‘thirty years too late’, considering it a distraction from stopping the genocide. She also attacked the ‘audacity’ of German universities that invited her to give lectures and then cancelled without informing her, describing the new era as ‘an era of silencing academics’.
