The United States' veto in the UN Security Council on Friday of a possible ceasefire in Gaza is the latest blow to an extreme situation that is worsening by the minute. The humanitarian crisis that NGOs, which have almost no capacity due to the Israeli blockade, are trying to combat is worsening. The landscape is hellish: Hundreds of people in the Gaza Strip are queuing in front of a latrine, aid trucks and warehouses are being robbed, children are being amputated without anesthesia, tens of thousands of people are being left behind. This is the scenario for 1.8 million displaced people in the south, transformed into a giant mousetrap of war. Local authorities under the control of the Palestinian Hamas militia now put the death toll at 17,500.
In the south, the population lives increasingly confined to fewer and fewer square kilometers, while the Israeli army increases its attacks and continues to block access to aid supplies. “Those who survive the bombings are at imminent risk of dying from hunger or disease,” warns Alexandra Saieh from the NGO Save The Children. Despite everything, the Israeli army continues its policy of forcible displacement of civilians and this Saturday ordered them to leave six areas of the city of Khan Younis, the southern stronghold of Hamas and the scene of intense fighting. Health authorities showed images purportedly from Nasser Hospital showing scores of victims of all ages receiving help amid pools of blood on the floor.
With its veto at the United Nations, Washington has put a stop to the claims and aspirations of countries like Spain that are calling for a ceasefire and respect for international humanitarian law. The United States is joining the toughest path advocated by Israel, which confronts Hamas with its military steamroller without regard for the hundreds of thousands of civilians outside the conflict. Of the current 15 members of the Security Council, 13 supported the resolution calling for a ceasefire. The United Kingdom abstained. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the US veto for “the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and the elderly.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated what he called the “correct position” because “it is impossible, on the one hand, to support the elimination of Hamas and, on the other hand, to demand an end to the war.” Therefore, “Israel will continue its just war,” continued he away. Criticism of the blocking of the ceasefire at the United Nations is increasing around the world.
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Makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.SAID KHATIB (AFP)
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In addition, important human rights organizations sharply criticized Washington's decision. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reiterated that President Joe Biden's administration is providing “diplomatic cover for atrocities in Gaza.” “The United States has shown a callous disregard for the suffering of civilians in the face of the incredible death toll, widespread destruction and unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in a statement. “The United States risks complicity in war crimes with its weapons and diplomatic reporting on Israel’s “atrocities,” commented Louis Charbonneau, head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) at the United Nations.
The United Nations' ambitions towards national governments are very low. And meanwhile, people continue to suffer, says Jesús Núñez Villaverde, co-director of the Institute for Conflict Studies and Humanitarian Aid (IECAH), reflecting the failure of the international community. He believes Israel is aiming for a “quick and brutal” operation, although its army “certainly does not lack the technology and means to distinguish between civilians and combatants if they want to.”
A column of smoke this Sunday after an Israeli attack in the south of the Gaza Strip. MENAHEM KAHANA (AFP)
Hunger as a weapon of war
There are relevant NGOs in the humanitarian sector with decades of experience in conflicts and with teams stationed in the Gaza Strip who, in a telematic appearance on Thursday, denounced the use of starvation, access to health care and forced displacement, partly as “weapons of war,” by the occupying forces in Gaza. They are demanding not only a ceasefire, but also that an “independent” international organization such as the United Nations take control of the importation of aid into the Palestinian enclave, where only a meager percentage of the necessary funds reaches due to the Israeli blockade.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), in some areas 9 out of 10 people have gone an entire day and night without eating anything. The situation has continued to deteriorate since the military ground operation following the end of the week-long ceasefire on December 1 expanded to the center and south of the Gaza Strip, where heavy fighting is taking place these days with militiamen from the armed factions. Palestinians. However, this does not prevent violence between both parties from remaining intense in areas in the north, such as the Jabalia refugee camp or the Shujayia neighborhood in Gaza City, where the vast majority of the population has fled.
The reality is that civilians cannot escape much further south because they encounter the border with Egypt. In Rafah, the southernmost city, more and more people are improvising huts and tents made of plastic, tarpaulins or blankets to live in. The result is that hundreds of thousands of residents are increasingly concentrated in an “alarming” manner in the south of the territory, where the enclave was one of the most densely populated places on the planet before the conflict, according to Shaina Low, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
The lack of help leads to desperate situations such as the mass attack of trucks or warehouses in search of food. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) experienced a case on Tuesday, but “unfortunately it wasn’t food.” It was just medicine,” said the organization’s president, Isabelle Defourni, explaining the level of need. Also this week, the NRC lost contact with the office team, which had to improvise in Rafah “because the internet cable was cut to use it for a tent,” explains Low.
The planned map presented by Israel last week to supposedly warn residents of the planned attack site has turned out to be a fiasco, despite the order to evacuate these six areas of Khan Younis this Saturday. Humanitarian organizations claim this has failed to prevent deaths and has only multiplied the number of internally displaced people in an area where 60% of buildings are destroyed or damaged.
“It is a cruel system,” emphasizes Defourni of Doctors Without Borders, regretting that they do not even allow the wounded to be brought to Egypt. In view of this, the supposed safety zones that the army speaks of are a “smokescreen,” says Saieh from Save The Children. For Bushra Khalidi from the NGO Oxfam, it is nothing more than a “fata morgana” because these are places that in reality “offer no protection, are not cared for and are inaccessible”.
They refer to areas such as Al Mawasi, a desert area in southwest Gaza where tens of thousands of people are being forcibly displaced. “There are no services there. There are no schools. There are no health centers. There is nothing there,” confirms Danila Zizi from Handicap International. These representatives spoke last Thursday at an NGO meeting open to journalists and attended by MSF, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Refugees International, Save The Children, Doctors of the World, Action Against Hunger (ACH) and Handicap International.
“People break into houses looking for bathrooms. The population is very angry, depressed and desperate about what they are experiencing. “He is afraid,” summarizes Chiara Saccardi (ACH), who warns about the lack of basic products such as diapers, wet wipes and detergent. “Water is sold in the market at a high price. “That means an expense of around $20 (18.5 euros) per day for a family,” he adds. Poor hygiene and consumption of poor quality water have led to about 80,000 patients suffering from diarrhea, a particularly dangerous disease at a young age because children become easily dehydrated. About half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are minors.
There are Israeli officials who describe the residents of the Gaza Strip as “human animals” and “from then on there is no reason to give them food, drink or anything like that,” denounces Núñez Villaverde. For this security analyst, “we are faced with a theatrical farce in which the United States pretends to apply pressure but in reality provides diplomatic and military cover so that Israel can achieve its objectives at the pace and in the manner it sees fit But he sees a problem that will come to light in the coming weeks or months, and that is that Israel “will never eliminate Hamas because it is militarily impossible.”
Retired Israeli general Giora Eiland defends his country's blockade of humanitarian aid to achieve its goals. He believes that it is necessary to prevent the arrival of “any supplies to Gaza, especially fuel,” as this will ultimately benefit Hamas. He does not understand that Israel continues to allow a few trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter the country without receiving the release of more hostages in return. This Friday the death of one of them was announced following a failed rescue attempt by troops stationed in the Gaza Strip. As of October 7, there are still 138 abductees, 16 of whom have died. On that day, Hamas opened war and, according to Israel, murdered around 1,200 people. This was the largest attack in the country's 75-year history.
The Palestinians are hoping for food distributed by volunteers in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (Portal)
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