On Friday, President Trump claimed that people in Gaza are “starving” and “we’re going to get that taken care of”. Those eager to find a rift in the close relationship between Trump and the Israeli prime minister have leapt all over that comment, desperately trying to portray it as a rebuke to Benjamin Netanyahu. They will be disappointed to learn that Trump’s words in fact refer to a joint plan drawn up by the US and Israel to hasten the destruction of Hamas while feeding the Gazan population.
Two of Israel’s war aims are to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities and prevent it from continuing to govern Gaza. Last week, the IDF began an intensive campaign to finish off the terrorist group. This has been prepared over the past 11 weeks by blocking supplies into Gaza. That has been necessary because until now Hamas has been hijacking food and other aid entering the Strip, stockpiling some for its own use and selling the rest to the population at inflated prices. The proceeds of aid sales have been essential for Hamas to fund its terrorist activities, given that most other sources of income have been cut off.
Israel has come under fire, including from our own Government, for preventing aid from entering. Many have claimed this is a breach of international law, citing Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires essential aid to be allowed into enemy territory. They conveniently ignore the proviso that this need not be done if there are “serious reasons for fearing that the consignments may be diverted from their destination”. The IDF is clear that aid has been hijacked and looted by Hamas. Numerous videos and eyewitness reports have shown that same picture.
Hamas’s control of aid distribution is also the most powerful tool it has to retain a stranglehold over the Gaza population. The new US-Israel initiative, co-ordinated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, aims to put a stop to that. The idea is to establish secure aid posts inside the Strip from where those in need would collect food under strict control.
Enter the UN crying foul, predictably joined by a chorus of so-called humanitarian NGOs. You might think those who claim to have the Gazans’ welfare at heart would welcome a plan that gets aid to where it’s needed without impediment from Hamas terrorists. If so, you haven’t been paying attention to what seems to be the real agenda of many of these groups, including UNRWA, the UN Human Rights Council, international courts, and various human rights charities. Their missions apparently focus on twisting the facts on the ground (not to mention international law) into weapons to stick into Israel.
UN officials have said they are worried about the dangers of thousands of people crowding round a limited number of distribution points. Even if valid, does that outweigh their frequently expressed and often overblown concerns about “starvation” and “famine” in Gaza? Some have also voiced doubts over Israel’s allegations that Hamas has been stealing aid, despite the overwhelming weight of evidence proving otherwise.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that António Guterres and others inside the UN simply do not want Israel to continue with its defeat of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. They have previous form on this. Right at the beginning of the conflict, I’m told, the Israeli government appealed to the UN to set up a humanitarian zone in the south of Gaza to house refugees driven away from danger in active combat zones further north. The UN refused to do so, arguing they would be abetting the displacement of civilians.
I know of no other conflict in which the UN has not actively encouraged the removal of populations from a dangerous combat zone. The same applies to the failure of the UN or any major power to pressure Egypt into opening its borders to allow temporary refuge. Again, there have been few other conflicts worldwide where neighbouring countries have not opened their borders to let civilians escape to safety.
Hamas is well known for using human shields as a crucial element of its military strategy against Israel. Can it really be that the UN and others in the international community are also using Gazan civilians as a different kind of shield?
Refusing to co-operate in proposals to get civilians to safety so that Hamas terrorists can be killed while minimising the prospects of collateral damage, and rejecting an initiative to supply them with humanitarian aid while denying it to the terrorists, certainly help frustrate Israel’s war efforts.
These international do-gooders may be doing good to Hamas, but they aren’t doing any good to the civilian population of Gaza. After more than 18 months of vicious fighting, the best way to end this war and get the hostages out is the rapid and efficient defeat of Hamas, and that depends to a very large extent on the success of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food-distribution project. All responsible governments and humanitarian bodies have a duty to support it. Those who do not are exposing their concerns for Gaza as empty words. Or worse.
On Friday, President Trump claimed that people in Gaza are “starving” and “we’re going to get that taken care of”. Those eager to find a rift in the close relationship between Trump and the Israeli prime minister have leapt all over that comment, desperately trying to portray it as a rebuke to Benjamin Netanyahu. They will be disappointed to learn that Trump’s words in fact refer to a joint plan drawn up by the US and Israel to hasten the destruction of Hamas while feeding the Gazan population.
Two of Israel’s war aims are to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities and prevent it from continuing to govern Gaza. Last week, the IDF began an intensive campaign to finish off the terrorist group. This has been prepared over the past 11 weeks by blocking supplies into Gaza. That has been necessary because until now Hamas has been hijacking food and other aid entering the Strip, stockpiling some for its own use and selling the rest to the population at inflated prices. The proceeds of aid sales have been essential for Hamas to fund its terrorist activities, given that most other sources of income have been cut off.
Israel has come under fire, including from our own Government, for preventing aid from entering. Many have claimed this is a breach of international law, citing Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires essential aid to be allowed into enemy territory. They conveniently ignore the proviso that this need not be done if there are “serious reasons for fearing that the consignments may be diverted from their destination”. The IDF is clear that aid has been hijacked and looted by Hamas. Numerous videos and eyewitness reports have shown that same picture.
Hamas’s control of aid distribution is also the most powerful tool it has to retain a stranglehold over the Gaza population. The new US-Israel initiative, co-ordinated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, aims to put a stop to that. The idea is to establish secure aid posts inside the Strip from where those in need would collect food under strict control.
Enter the UN crying foul, predictably joined by a chorus of so-called humanitarian NGOs. You might think those who claim to have the Gazans’ welfare at heart would welcome a plan that gets aid to where it’s needed without impediment from Hamas terrorists. If so, you haven’t been paying attention to what seems to be the real agenda of many of these groups, including UNRWA, the UN Human Rights Council, international courts, and various human rights charities. Their missions apparently focus on twisting the facts on the ground (not to mention international law) into weapons to stick into Israel.
UN officials have said they are worried about the dangers of thousands of people crowding round a limited number of distribution points. Even if valid, does that outweigh their frequently expressed and often overblown concerns about “starvation” and “famine” in Gaza? Some have also voiced doubts over Israel’s allegations that Hamas has been stealing aid, despite the overwhelming weight of evidence proving otherwise.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that António Guterres and others inside the UN simply do not want Israel to continue with its defeat of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. They have previous form on this. Right at the beginning of the conflict, I’m told, the Israeli government appealed to the UN to set up a humanitarian zone in the south of Gaza to house refugees driven away from danger in active combat zones further north. The UN refused to do so, arguing they would be abetting the displacement of civilians.
I know of no other conflict in which the UN has not actively encouraged the removal of populations from a dangerous combat zone. The same applies to the failure of the UN or any major power to pressure Egypt into opening its borders to allow temporary refuge. Again, there have been few other conflicts worldwide where neighbouring countries have not opened their borders to let civilians escape to safety.
Hamas is well known for using human shields as a crucial element of its military strategy against Israel. Can it really be that the UN and others in the international community are also using Gazan civilians as a different kind of shield?
Refusing to co-operate in proposals to get civilians to safety so that Hamas terrorists can be killed while minimising the prospects of collateral damage, and rejecting an initiative to supply them with humanitarian aid while denying it to the terrorists, certainly help frustrate Israel’s war efforts.
These international do-gooders may be doing good to Hamas, but they aren’t doing any good to the civilian population of Gaza. After more than 18 months of vicious fighting, the best way to end this war and get the hostages out is the rapid and efficient defeat of Hamas, and that depends to a very large extent on the success of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food-distribution project. All responsible governments and humanitarian bodies have a duty to support it. Those who do not are exposing their concerns for Gaza as empty words. Or worse.