How the Israeli-Palestinian war challenges humanitarian aid

The current conflict in the Middle East is the most violent in decades. An Inside Geneva special asks what the rules of law allow, and what they forbid. 

Marco Sassòli, Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva, says: “the massacre Hamas committed among those festival visitors are clear violations of international humanitarian law. [...] The entire northern Gaza Strip is not a military objective. So, an attack is a specific act of violence against one target, and the entire northern Gaza Strip is not possibly a target.”

What are the challenges for aid workers? 

“We need to ensure safety of civilians and safety of health workers, humanitarian workers on the ground. Our colleagues from the Palestine Red Crescent were telling us, yes we have no food, yes we have no water, yes we have none of these. But we don’t even know if we’ll be alive tomorrow,” says Benoit Carpentier from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 

Can anything prevent a humanitarian disaster in Gaza? 

“We’ve heard about 20 or 30 trucks only being allowed in, which obviously for a population of 2 million people is a drop in the ocean,” says Carpentier.  

Do we expect too much of humanitarian law? 

“We shouldn’t misunderstand humanitarian law, for instance humanitarian law does not prohibit Hamas to attack Israel, and does not prohibit Israel to attack Hamas fighters, military objectives and so on in the Gaza Strip, and other cities. And humanitarian law was never meant as saying wars are wonderful. No, wars are terrible, but they are much less terrible if the parties make an effort to comply with humanitarian law,” concludes Sassòli.  

Join host Imogen Foulkes on the Inside Geneva podcast. 

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