Famine looms over the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, with the occupation army threatening to storm it and evacuate its residents (Al Jazeera)

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced that 600,000 children are living in the camps of the city of Rafah (south of the Gaza Strip) without food or medicine and in extremely dangerous conditions, and that there is no safe place in Gaza and aid is not arriving adequately, after the aggression launched by The Israeli occupation army has been in control of the Gaza Strip for 140 days.

The World Food Program also announced last Tuesday that it would stop bringing humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip, after stopping all types of aid for 3 weeks as a result of the Israeli bombing of aid that was on its way to the besieged Strip.

Al Jazeera Net opens the humanitarian file in Rafah, where about 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip are suffering under extremely bad humanitarian conditions, in light of threats from the Israeli occupation army to storm the city, evacuate its people to the unknown, and bomb humanitarian aid that crosses into the Gaza Strip, which made most families there unable to She has minimal access to food, according to the International Crisis Group.

Criminal liability

Professor of International Law at the Arab American University, Raed Abu Badawiya, said that the principles of international law distinguish between civilians and civilian objects and military targets, and therefore it prohibits the siege of civilians, and if the goal is to deliberately expose them to hunger, then it is considered a crime according to the description of international law.

He also pointed out that the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court considered the deliberate starvation of civilians a war crime in accordance with international humanitarian law, including preventing the entry of basic needs necessary for the survival of these civilians, as well as the destruction of life-sustaining resources and objects such as agricultural lands and water sources.

Regarding who bears criminal responsibility for the aggression against Rafah, the professor of international law explained that this responsibility includes two levels: the Israeli political level, which issues orders to the military level, if it comes to the goal of siege, starvation, and killing, and the Criminal Court punishes those proven to be involved directly or by issuing orders.

But he came back and said that many people expect more from international law than what it provides on the ground, as it is in fact an auxiliary tool and not the primary actor in the system of international relations, and all international institutions and treaties and even the international judiciary lack a binding mechanism for implementing decisions. The International Court of Justice issued a decision weeks ago in the case brought by South Africa against Israel in order for the latter to take measures to protect the Palestinians from genocide, but Israel did not take those measures.

He added that the only outlet is the Security Council because it is the executive authority in the United Nations, which is authorized by international law to use military measures in the event of a threat to international peace and security, but the United States - unfortunately - always stands in the way of the Council passing any resolution against Israel by using its veto power ( veto).

The legal position of the resistance

Raed Abu Badawiya said that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) under international law is a national liberation movement and resistance to occupation, and international law allows it to use all means, whether military or non-military.

A week ago, we followed a United Nations employee saying, “Hamas is not a terrorist movement according to United Nations documents,” and this is true because it is “a national liberation movement and international law allows the population and peoples under occupation to fight and resist this occupation by all means.”

Accordingly, “the armed and unarmed resistance that Hamas is currently carrying out against the Israeli occupation is a legitimate case in international law,” and therefore Hamas cannot be held responsible for this aggression carried out by the Israeli occupation force. Quite the opposite, “because the Israeli army is Basically, it is an occupying force, and therefore it has no right to claim that it has the right to defend itself, because here it falls into false propaganda; the aggressor has no right to claim to defend itself.”

Starvation policy

Writer and political analyst Majid Ibrahim said, “The weapon of starvation is used in wars to pressure armies with the aim of forcing them to surrender. As for what is happening in Gaza, it is pressure on the people and starvation within Israel’s tripartite policy of killing, displacement, and starvation that is unprecedented in the world, including world wars.” ".

Ibrahim added - in exclusive statements to Al Jazeera Net - that Israel is using the excuse that part of this aid goes to Hamas, and “they are despicable attempts to put pressure on the resistance and try to make it lose its popular support.” This confirms that Israel is waging its war against the Palestinian people and not just against Hamas. It considers the Palestinian people to be Hamas. “Haaretz newspaper confirmed last Tuesday that this war is a war against the Palestinian people and all Muslims.”

The writer and political analyst pointed out, “If it were not for Arab failure, Israel would not have succeeded in this plan. The Rafah crossing is a purely Arab crossing, and not, as is often justified, that Israel controls the other side of the crossing. Israel is still not in control yet.” There is also Islamic failure, which is represented by Mainly in the weakness of the Turkish position and its failure to take the initiative to conduct convoys to break the siege in cooperation with Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, at least.

As for the position of the United Nations institutions, Majed Ibrahim said that the position of these institutions is important and necessary in the event of war, “but they are either in a state of complicity, weakness, or inability, so what happened with the World Food Program suspending food distribution in the northern Gaza Strip is unjustified, and presents a tendency towards... 700,000 Palestinians face real famine.”

He also pointed out the failure of the UN Security Council to adopt a draft resolution for Algeria to stop the war, and its failure to allow the entry of aid stipulated in this draft resolution;

Which indicates the inability of the United Nations institutions, and also indicates the extent of the United States’ involvement in the war against the Palestinians, and in punishing and starving them, and what is meant in the end is to put pressure on the resistance.

Disastrous situation

Lahib Hagel, an expert at the International Crisis Group, said that about 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip are displaced to the densely populated Rafah governorate, as it is a main gateway to receiving humanitarian aid. The residents there feel that they have better access to food and water compared to other parts of the Strip, but food supplies have not been enough. Its situation has improved since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip.

Hagel added - in exclusive statements to Al Jazeera Net - that the average number of trucks entering Gaza daily still ranges between 100 and 200 trucks, which is less than the pre-war levels of 500 trucks, and this was at a time when the Strip was not in dire need of these materials as well. is now;

“Very few families can now obtain more than one meal a day in light of poor sanitary conditions that threaten the spread of diseases.”

She pointed out that the main parties responsible for distributing food - including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and in cooperation with international institutions and other United Nations agencies such as the World Food Program - face increasing challenges in distributing aid due to the lack of supplies that the population needs of food, drink and medicines. .

With the presence of an Israeli threat of an expected military operation in Rafah, the expert at the International Crisis Group said that the conditions could deteriorate even more, with the lack of places available for the population to move to, and the only way to alleviate this number of civilians is except an extended humanitarian truce with a halt. Long lasting firing.

Source: Al Jazeera