What does NRC think | Watching Israel in Gaza Death and Hunger Sowing is unacceptable

‘People expect me to write. Report. Document. But sometimes I don’t even know how to find myself.  » With sentences that come in as a smoke, Rita Baroud wrote for NRC last week A horrifying report from Gazathe first in a series. « Sometimes I wake up while I choke. Not by dust, smoke or heat – but because of the fear that I am still alive. »

Baroud is in a difficult situation, as a young woman with dreams who wants to survive and live with her family, but also as a journalist. Among other circumstances, wearing a press card might offer protection, but it is precisely in Gaza that it is an extra risk. Many journalists die during Israeli air strikes, the counter that keeps the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is now at 176. Media is not allowed in Gaza, and in Gaza itself it is getting quieter.

The situation in Gaza is unbearable in one word. In a week that the Netherlands commemorates war deaths with the words ‘never again’, war crimes are committed in an area the size of Rotterdam that exceeds imagination.

Almost daily Israel performs air strikes on packed, defenseless Gazans. In the meantime, more than 50,000 people have already been killed, including more than 15,000 children, including 876 zero -year -olds. Undoubtedly, Israel occasionally also affects a Hamas warrior, but the many civilian casualties cannot be justified in any way, not even with the explanation that Israel was allowed to defend himself after ‘7 October’. Israel’s response is no longer a proportional response. A war is also no longer called this, because that presupposes a certain degree of equivalence (land A bombarded land B, and vice versa) that is not there in Gaza.

There is criticism, but no desire to really put pressure on Israel, as it did with Russia

Since the end of the Stakes-Fires on 2 March, an acute threat has been added: famine. Israel has quickly blocked the emergency aid that came in for that, and thus initiated a process of dehumanization. The stocks that were already laid out in Gaza are after two months of blockade almost completely exhaustedwarn aid organizations.

Distributing that little bit of help is extremely dangerous. Just like journalists, care providers are also the target of ruthless attacks. And so there is a screaming shortage of food, water, medicines. Half a million Gazans has since been drifted because Israel has announced extra no-go zones.

It feels almost absurd to recall, but the starvation, hunger or collective punishment of citizens is entirely in violation of international laws. What makes it even more unbearable is that the standard bearers of international law, the Netherlands and the EU first. There is criticism, but no desire to really put Israel under pressure, as it did with Russia. Also from the Netherlands it remains with pin pricks, where Israel will not throw a bomb less.

UN directors, human rights organizations and international judges have been warning or judging for some time that what Israel does in Gaza comes down or could amount to genocide. If a country so deliberately kills civilians and threatens with bombs and starvation, international rights in all conceivable ways and acts actively and actively opposes assistance, then that conclusion can hardly be avoided.

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