Inside Geneva: the failed militarization of humanitarian relief in Gaza
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Inside Geneva: the failed militarization of humanitarian relief in Gaza
Israel blocked aid into Gaza for 10 weeks. Then the US and Israel came up with a new plan – without the United Nations. Established aid agencies had doubts. Inside Geneva finds out why.
Jan Egeland,secretary general, Norwegian Refugee Council: ‘We would welcome anything that would allow us to resume work for a population that is starving and that has been suffocated by a siege over two months. But this seems to be militarized, politicized, manipulated. People have to walk long distances through the rubble to get aid.’
The new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has had a disastrous start. Dozens of Palestinians have been shot trying to get aid.
+ Swiss foreign minstry staff shocked by Cassis Gaza stance
Chris Lockyear, Secretary General, MSF: ‘This is not child’s play. It is not a military operation. It is a different thing that requires years and decades of experience to get where we’ve got to now. So it breaks my heart to say it, but it wasn’t a surprise to see those horrendous images from the first day of operation of the GHF in Gaza.’
+ Gaza faces famine risk, warn humanitarian groups
It’s not clear who is actually running the new Foundation, but international lawyers warn they could be liable for war crimes.
Philip Grant, Trial International: To lend material aid to the Israeli plan can be construed as complicity in the war crime of forcible displacement of the civilian population. And that would entail first of all the possibility for any state, almost any state in the world to use universal jurisdiction.
+ Is the UN still relevant in the Middle East?
Meanwhile the UN warns that Gaza’s population is now close to famine.
Jan Egeland: We now hope to see Europe, the United Nations and those who are there to defend international law to stand up for principle when Israel is besieging two million Palestinians, where half of them are children and totally innocent.
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