Our colleague Abdullah Hammad used to be killed remaining week by way of Israeli forces as he waited to assemble flour from an support truck in Khan Younis. He’s the twelfth Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) colleague to were killed in Gaza since October 2023. The Israeli-US meals distribution scheme forces folks in Gaza to choose from hunger and risking their existence for minimum provides. With greater than 500 folks killed and just about 4,000 wounded whilst in search of meals, this scheme has had the impact of luring determined folks in with support, just for them to be slaughtered by way of the Israeli defense force.
This is a part of the genocide this is being dedicated in Gaza. And the United Kingdom executive is complicit.
Initially of April, we at MSF UK wrote to the international secretary, David Lammy, detailing our first-hand observations in Gaza. We described the large influxes of wounded sufferers and lifeless our bodies being gained by way of MSF groups in clinical amenities throughout Gaza on 18 March, as Israeli forces unleashed assaults of unheard of depth, shattering the short-lived ceasefire. We defined that MSF clinical team of workers and their sufferers had already needed to evacuate 17 well being amenities and had persisted an enormous selection of violent incidents, together with airstrikes destructive and destroying hospitals and well being amenities, tanks opening fireplace on humanitarian shelters, flooring offensives being performed in clinical amenities, and humanitarian convoys and ambulances being fired upon by way of the Israeli army. We famous that now not a unmarried medical institution in Gaza used to be these days totally purposeful, and that about part of them had been now not functioning in any respect. And we described the entire siege imposed by way of the Israeli government on Gaza.
We famous that this proof used to be in keeping with the outline of ethnic cleaning and genocide supplied by way of felony mavens and human rights organisations. We asked a gathering to transient the international secretary additional and to listen to what concrete movements the United Kingdom deliberate, to carry Israel to account for its atrocities towards the Palestinian folks.
We didn’t obtain a reaction.
So on 7 Might, MSF wrote an open letter to the high minister describing the usage of hunger and collective punishment as guns of battle by way of the Israeli executive towards a whole inhabitants. We implored the United Kingdom executive to uphold its tasks as an enduring member of the UN safety council to behave below world humanitarian legislation to give protection to all civilians in Gaza. We also referred to as on the United Kingdom executive to publicly condemn the Israeli executive for the atrocities it’s causing at the folks of Gaza. We warned that failure to take speedy motion and to undertake a transparent place on those widely documented and flagrant battle crimes and breaches of world legislation would go away the United Kingdom executive at excessive chance of fees of complicity.
We didn’t obtain a reaction.
In truth, since 1 November 2023 we’ve many times contacted the federal government to offer proof of atrocities at once witnessed and skilled by way of our masses of comrades in Gaza, to remind the United Kingdom of its energy and its legal responsibility to behave, and to request an pressing high-level assembly.
We by no means gained transparent acknowledgment of the proof that we’ve got supplied, nor have we ever been presented that assembly.
We will handiest conclude that the United Kingdom executive simply does now not wish to admit what everyone else can see: that genocide is being dedicated in Gaza, and it’s being dedicated with the army, diplomatic and subject material reinforce of the United Kingdom.
Sooner or later, on 23 June, we did obtain a letter from the parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Heart East, Hamish Falconer. It used to be woefully insufficient and didn’t cope with any of our issues. It stated handiest: “We want additional motion from the Israeli executive now to boost all restrictions on support, to permit the UN and support companions to do their paintings, and to make sure that meals and different crucial provides can succeed in folks safely.”
However support is not going to prevent a genocide. We additionally want the Israeli executive to prevent the ethnic cleaning, the battle crimes and the crimes towards humanity, and to abide by way of world legislation and the recommendation of the world court docket of justice (ICJ).
Since October 2023, all of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip has been subjected to relentless bombardment by way of the Israeli defense force. Gaza’s healthcare gadget has been destroyed, and clinical staff, together with our MSF colleagues, are systematically focused by way of the Israeli army.
Because of the siege imposed by way of Israel and the obstruction of humanitarian support, greater than 2 million persons are these days on the point of hunger as a part of a calculated technique aimed toward removing Palestinian society.
The United Kingdom executive will have to recognize and recognize the rulings of the ICJ, and abide by way of world legislation and the advisory of the ICJ in regards to the plausibility of genocide. MSF has a duty to behave with ethical readability and humanitarian consistency within the face of mass atrocities.
The similar must observe to the United Kingdom executive.
