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55988
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: US demands proof that Israel does not have starvation policy in Gaza
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The US has demanded proof on the ground that Israel does not have a policy of starvation in northern Gaza as it turned up the pressure on the Netanyahu government to allow more aid into the territory. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the security council on Wednesday at a meeting convened by France UK and Algeria that such a policy “would not just be horrific and unacceptable” but also had “implications under international and US law”. “The government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will be watching to see that Israel’s actions on the ground match this statement,” she added. Her warning came after a US government letter sent to Israel privately on Sunday, warning it would partly cut off arms supplies unless the supply of aid was permanently transformed within 30 days. The sudden surge in pressure is in part a response to growing fears that Israel may be trying to force Palestinians to leave northern Gaza using starvation, but also reflects a new assertive line being pushed by the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, worried her election prospects will be damaged if the administration is seen to have presided over an enforced mass exodus. Thomas-Greenfield also warned that civilians must not be declared combatants by Israel if they fail to obey instructions to leave northern Gaza. Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said Israel “remains committed to working with our international partners to ensure aid reaches those who need it” in Gaza. He denied there was a shortage of aid in Gaza and said the “problem is Hamas, which hijacks the aid – stealing, storing and selling it to feed their terror machine”. UN statistics show the number of convoys crossing into Gaza collapsed in October. Joyce Msuya, the acting head of UN humanitarian affairs, accused Israel of impeding food convoys and told the security council: “Given the abject conditions and intolerable suffering in north Gaza, the fact that humanitarian access is nearly nonexistent is unconscionable.” She said that nearly 400 Palestinians had reportedly been killed and almost 1,500 injured in the past week in Gaza. “The world has seen the images of patients and displaced persons, sheltering near al-Aqsa hospital, burning alive,” she told the security council. “Scores of others, including women and children, are suffering the excruciating pain of severe life-changing burns. There is no way to get them the urgent care they need to survive and manage such injuries. If such horror does not awaken our sense of humanity and propel us to action, what will?” In its volte-face over the weekend, Washington sought commitments to open border crossings that have been kept shut since the beginning of October, after months of refusing to use US weapons supplies as leverage on Israel. Past pressure from the US over the supply of aid into Gaza has normally led to Israel lifting the blockages, but it has subsequently reverted to well- documented stricter bureaucratic controls on aid once diplomatic pressures eased. |
55996
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: au contraire
URL: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/16/biden-israel-arms-aid-00184028
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Aid groups allege that Israel is preventing their organizations from taking alternate trucking routes through Gaza — pathways that would avoid crowds and gangs inside the enclave known to steal food and medicine packages. Politico - EXCLUSIVE Biden envoy told aid groups Israel too close an ally for US to suspend arms "Attendees of the late August meeting with Lise Grande said her remarks were surprisingly candid, shocking many in the room. The top U.S. official working on the humanitarian situation in Gaza told aid groups in August that the U.S. would not consider withholding weapons from Israel for blocking food and medicine from entering the enclave — a rare admission by someone in the administration. At the Aug. 29 meeting in Washington, Lise Grande told the leaders of more than a dozen aid organizations that the U.S. could potentially consider other tactics to convince Israel to allow life-saving aid into Gaza — such as applying pressure through the United Nations, but stressed that the administration would continue to support Israel and would not delay or stop weapons shipments. That account is based on conversations with three people in the meeting and two others who were briefed on it, along with a set of detailed notes from the encounter reviewed by POLITICO. The people were granted anonymity in order to speak more freely about Grande’s assessment and because they feared their organizations’ work might be further interrupted in Gaza. A humanitarian aid official who attended the meeting said Grande noted that Israel is one in a “tight circle of very few allies” that the U.S. will not oppose, nor will it “hold anything back that they want.” “She was sort of saying, with certain allies, we can’t play bad cop,” the aid official said. While Grande’s statements were made more than a month ago, her candid assessment of the odds of the U.S. taking action on weapons for Israel raises questions about the seriousness of recent Biden administration threats to do just that. On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel in which they threatened to withhold weapons to Israel if it does not drastically improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The administration is giving Israel 30 days to correct course. When reporters pressed the administration on Monday as to why the ultimatum to Israel in Sunday’s letter included a grace period, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “We believe it’s appropriate to give them a chance to cure the problem.” An Israeli official said the country is taking the letter seriously and that it “intends to address the concerns raised in this letter with our American counterparts.” But the August meeting has aid organizations skeptical that any action is coming now. In the nearly two-hour long meeting, aid representatives detailed the ways in which Israel was blocking access in Gaza and raised concerns about the U.S. refusing to restrict weapons shipments. They also argued to Grande that Israel was violating international humanitarian law, which broadly prohibits countries from restricting or blocking humanitarian aid or the movement of humanitarian workers in conflict zones. “She was saying that the rules don’t apply to Israel,” one person who attended the meeting said. Multiple attendees described Grande’s words as alarmingly blunt and forthcoming, surprising many in the room. The U.S. has not made an official determination as to whether Israel is violating international humanitarian law. A State Department report from May stated that it is “reasonable to assess” that Israel is violating the laws in Gaza but it stopped short of making a final determination. The State Department and the National Security Council declined to comment on the August meeting or its interpretation by aid organizations. The Israeli embassy did not respond to a request for comment on its actions regarding aid in Gaza. Several people who attended the August meeting said Grande was not expressing her own opinions, but rather explaining U.S. policy toward Israel. MOST READ election-2024-harris-11075.jpg ‘Pennsylvania is such a mess’: Inside Team Harris’ unusual levels of finger- pointing Trump team preps list of banned staffers The October Surprise May Be Arriving Shortly Elon Musk’s politics are crashing hard into his business Why North Carolinians probably won’t take the federal buyouts after Hurricane Helene Grande has a long history working in the humanitarian field and was the CEO of the U.S. Institute of Peace prior to joining the Biden administration in April as the special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues. Several of the people who spoke to POLITICO also expressed support for Grande. “It’s unfortunate she is the person representing this duplicity in American policy when she’s not the one responsible for it,” said another humanitarian aid official. “Lise has been a breath of fresh air and supported humanitarian professionals in the U.S. government to get the senior folks to understand the importance of ongoing humanitarian access priorities” in Gaza. The meeting with Grande and the groups came following her return from the region and during a time in which the Biden administration was growing increasingly skeptical about the chances for a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel has been battling Hamas militants since last October. Some group leaders said they felt as though they had done all they could to come up with creative solutions to getting more aid into the enclave. None of those solutions have worked, they said. Others said they were considering pulling out of Gaza over rising fears for their staff’s safety. Grande also said that if aid groups chose to pull out, Israel had a plan to use the commercial sector to deliver aid and that neighboring countries would help coordinate. Aid groups allege that Israel is preventing their organizations from taking alternate trucking routes through Gaza — pathways that would avoid crowds and gangs inside the enclave known to steal food and medicine packages. According to the detailed note document obtained by POLITICO, Grande told attendees of the meeting that Israel had passed intelligence to the U.S. that indicated that Hamas was stealing some aid and using it to bolster its ranks. The administration believes in that assessment, she said. Grande said that as long as international organizations were overseen by COGAT, Israel’s government office in charge of overseeing aid disbursement in Gaza, they will have a difficult time changing operations on the ground. COGAT, Grande said, was a “mailbox” for the IDF, according to the notes from the meeting. It received its instructions from the IDF, the war cabinet and the Israeli intelligence branches — each of which had its own requests on how to conduct humanitarian operations in Gaza. The U.S. has tried to move the international aid groups’ work in Gaza out from under COGAT to be overseen by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. It’s unclear where those efforts stand. A spokesperson for COGAT declined to comment. A State Department official who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the administration’s thinking said COGAT and the IDF are “vital partners” and “integral to the success of humanitarian efforts.” |
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55997
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Israel ‘starting to implement’ north Gaza starvation plan, say rights
URL: https://www.ft.com/content/c0c9e82c-3c83-4bda-a7f9-157ce32d8c12
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Israel ‘starting to implement’ north Gaza starvation plan, say rights groups "‘Generals’ Plan’ calls for closed military zone and evacuation, with those remaining treated as combatants and denied aid ☝🏿Palestinian families arrive in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalia area. Under the Generals’ Plan, civilians would be ordered to leave north Gaza © Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images James Shotter in Jerusalem, Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv and Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper in London OCTOBER 15 2024 Israel appears to be starting to implement a controversial plan to force Hamas into submission by laying siege to the north of Gaza and starving those who remain, Israeli human rights groups have warned. The so-called Generals’ Plan, created by former national security adviser Giora Eiland, calls for Israel to order civilians to leave north Gaza for other areas of the enclave, and then declare the north a closed military zone. Those who did not leave would be considered military targets, and totally cut off from supplies of food, water and medicines. Eiland said the plan — which he presented to parliament’s defence committee last month — was designed to ratchet up pressure on Hamas to release the 101 Israeli hostages that the Palestinian militant group still holds in Gaza. But human rights groups say it would trap civilians, and that carrying out the plan would breach international law. The Israeli military has denied implementing Eiland’s plan. On a call with journalists on Sunday, Nadav Shoshani, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said: “We have not received a plan like that.” According to two people with knowledge of internal Israeli deliberations, senior Israeli security officials are unwilling to officially approve the plan, with some considering parts of it to be violations of international law. But Israeli media reported last month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told MPs he was considering the scheme. On Monday, four human rights groups — Gisha, B’Tselem, PHR-I and Yesh Din — said there were “alarming signs” that Israel was “quietly” starting to implement it, and called on the international community to stop it. The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment. Eiland said he put forward his plan because a year of fighting had failed to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages it holds in Gaza, some of whom are believed to have died. Israel could increase pressure on Hamas by besieging and taking total control of northern Gaza, and threatening to keep control “theoretically speaking forever” if Hamas did not free the hostages, he said. But human rights groups said that many civilians would be unable to leave the north, and that even if they did, there was nowhere safe to go in Gaza. Treating those remaining in the north as combatants simply because of their presence there, and issuing open-ended evacuation orders, were both clear breaches of international law, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha. “People who can’t go — and also anyone who chooses to stay — don’t lose their status as non-combatants. They continue to be civilians,” she said. “And Israel still has an obligation to protect them and to follow the rules of international humanitarian law.” Israel launched a new, massive offensive 10 days ago in northern Gaza, which was the strip’s most densely populated area before the war. Most of the north’s population has been forced to leave and prevented from returning. But the UN estimates that more than 400,000 people are still sheltering there. Israel’s military began by bombarding and then encircling Jabalia, before expanding the offensive to cover other areas nearby. Israel launched almost as many attacks and air strikes in north Gaza in two days last week — 118 — as the total for all of September, which came to 140, according to the UN. It has also issued a renewed wave of evacuation orders, telling people to head south to an overcrowded area that Israel describes as a humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi on the coast in southern Gaza. Israel has repeatedly bombed the area, claiming that militants are using it as cover and to launch rocket strikes at Israel. There has also been a sharp reduction in aid deliveries. According to Israel’s own figures, the average amount of aid that arrived in the entire enclave each day so far this month is less than quarter of the amount delivered per day in September. Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the UN had “not been allowed to provide any assistance including food” to northern Gaza since September 30. On Monday, amid a growing international outcry, including from US vice- president Kamala Harris, Israel said 30 trucks of flour had been allowed to enter north Gaza, and an additional 100 through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south of the strip. Analysts dismissed that as far too little to meet the population’s needs but, according to one person with knowledge of Gaza’s humanitarian situation, it might indicate that Israel was backing down. “The numbers [for aid] are minuscule, and not only in the north. De facto there was a change in policy and what we were seeing fit all the parameters for implementing Eiland’s plan,” the person said. “But I think today’s resumption of semi-normal aid delivery reflects an understanding that the plan cannot actually be executed in practice, in the real world,” they added. Hussam Abu Safiyeh, director of Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, said no food or medicine had reached the hospital for 10 days, depleting its already meagre supplies and forcing it to scale down medical services. “There’s a full siege on the north of Gaza. Medicine, treatments, food — everything is prevented from reaching us,” he said. “In the coming days, if no solution arises, we will face another catastrophe: famine.” The hospital had received an evacuation order two days ago, he added. But the doctors did not leave and new patients kept arriving, with the intensified bombing leaving the hospital’s wards overflowing. “There are many people still in the north, still needing medical treatment. It’s very difficult to evacuate such a hospital that provides humanitarian services,” he said. “No one is going to leave. No safe place exists in Gaza for people to go to anyway.” Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia. The hospital received an evacuation order but doctors have stayed, with new patients arriving © Palestine Red Crescent Society/Reuters One of those who did leave was Ahmad, a 33-year-old father from Jabalia. Initially, he was reluctant to leave the place he had remained throughout a year of brutal war and near starvation. But as the Israeli attacks intensified, his family decided they had no choice. Under fire from quadcopters — which shot a neighbour who was running behind them in the leg — the family fled to Saftawi, before being forced to flee again when that area was also subject to an evacuation order. They ended up in the Shati refugee camp in the ruins of Gaza City. It was only as they left Jabalia, and the Israeli military began to close off the roads behind them, that it occurred to him that Israel might be trying to force the remaining population out of Gaza’s north permanently. “If I had been sure that this was the most likely scenario — the ‘Generals’ Plan’ and the emptying out of north Gaza—I would not have left Jabalia,” he said. “Even if that had meant death.” Cartography and data visualisation by Aditi Bhandari" |
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