It’s past time Israel listened to the world
The Israeli airstrike that burned up a tent camp in Rafah, killing at least 45 people on Sunday, was just what Canada and many other countries warned of when they pleaded with Israel not to invade the southern Gaza city.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians had fled to the area, the last refuge in a small, densely populated territory that has been under Israeli bombardment for the better part of eight months. Canada, and much of the international community, insisted for months that an operation in this part of Gaza would inevitably deepen the humanitarian crisis in the region and lead to the deaths of civilians who have nowhere else to hide. “Israel must listen to its friends,” Canada admonished in an open letter.
But Israel pressed on, despite the warnings of the international community. It pressed on even after the International Court of Justice ruled last week that the country “must immediately halt its military offensive” in Rafah, an action that it said threatened to bring about the “physical destruction” of the Palestinian people.
Israel has said that the bombing — and the subsequent deaths of women, children and elderly Palestinians — was a “tragic mistake.” Officials insist the Israeli military was targeting key Hamas leaders; that it took precautions to protect civilians, including by issuing evacuation orders that prompted more than 100,000 Palestinians to flee; and that the incident will be investigated. In any case, surely a mistake seems less like a mistake when much of the world warned you it would happen, when international courts said that international law forbids Israel from doing just what it was doing when its operation went so wrong.
In the months since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 others hostage, Israel has defended its devastating campaign by saying it is necessary in order to return the hostages and wipe out Hamas. Yet eight months later most of the hostages remain in the hands of Hamas, an organization that many analysts agree Israel has no reasonable prospect of destroying with bombs.
Meanwhile, Israel has killed some 36,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry. Reports indicate it has claimed the lives of nearly 200 humanitarian workers, and about 100 journalists, in attacks that, like the one that hit the tent camp, it has often deemed mistakes. And it has created a humanitarian crisis of hunger and homelessness that will haunt the region for years to come.
What happened on Oct. 7 is a horror that will mark Israel and its people forever. The twin desires to bring the hostages home and to drive out Hamas, a movement dedicated in part to the destruction of Israel, are entirely understandable. Of course Israel would seek justice for the victims, safety for the hostages and a sustainable security for all its people. The impulse to fight is no doubt intensified when Hamas launches rockets at Tel Aviv as it did on Sunday.
But neither justice nor security can be found beyond the bounds of international law. Nothing done in the past, no matter how awful, can exempt Israel, its allies or its enemies from the standards of human rights. It’s for exactly this reason that a consensus is clarifying among western countries that the world must stop any and all support for the war and insist on a ceasefire, the release of hostages and humanitarian aid.
Justice, peace and security cannot be achieved through more violence in Rafah. They can be achieved only through a negotiated solution in which all can be free and secure side by side in the region. Tragically, neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s government nor Hamas seems much interested in this outcome. It’s a distant dream, to be sure; the path is far from clear. But it starts with an end to the horror in Gaza.
Justice, peace and security cannot be achieved through more violence in Rafah. They can be achieved only through a negotiated solution in which all can be free and secure side by side in the region