Pre to mid term babies dying one by one because electricity infrastructure has been bombed.
Has Israel shown any evidence that there is a Hamas base etc to justify their madness ?. Not that it matters whether the base is present or not.
As a function of where the hospital is in the center of Gaza City, it is also very close to main administration buildings. It seems unlikely that the tunnel complexes Hamas has apparently built have left the hospital completely separate. I would say your second point is the one that is truly germane - is the importance/threat of the military target that may be there sufficient to justify the use of force on a hospital site?
Nothing justifies this though. Hamas might well have chosen to build a HQ there and that is reprehensible but nothing justifies what Israel have done.
An HQ probably would not, no. However, one point has become very clear from the areas that Israel has gained control of and allowed media access to - the entire city has been honeycombed with a tunnel complex, extensive military infrastructure built under the feet of the civilian population, and nary a word of complaint or protest from the NGOs living there. With the sheer number of entrances, it has to have been common knowledge.
But broadly speaking, an administrative HQ would not to me justify firing on a hospital site. It would have to be a direct threat to the forces or a civilian population.
I know for one of the hospital the evidence got debunked.
Photographic evidence of a hatch by the IDF was given as proof. Al Jazeera however got the plans of the hospital, photos of various stages of being built, and interviewed the engineer who built the hospital.
Turns out the hatch, was simply a water reservoir.
The NGOâs working in Gaza wouldnât upset their relationship with Hamas by revealing these. Not only would that put lives in danger, it would also defeat their purpose of being in Gaza
Revealing precise details, of course not. They would indeed possibly even endanger themselves. However, it beggars belief that Hamas has not diverted UN funds toward building this military infrastructure, and given that is throughout a densely populated urban area, it is fairly clear that Hamas has been preparing for a while to shelter beneath/behind their own civilians. At one point are they complicit?
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Hamas has almost certainly diverted UN funds to building/ enhancing their military infrastructure.
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Whether you are intending that the UN/ NGOâs are complicit in allowing Hamas to operate , Its a difficult question to answer. Most of the NGO/UN employees are Gaza citizens who without ties to Hamas would find it very difficult to work. There will be some people who are planted there by Hamas which is the norm for any dictatorship.
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The UN / NGO would have to work with the administration even if the administration is Hamas at this point. Not working with the administration only condemns Gaza citizens to more suffering.
For me it is a little more straightforward. What is the target there (if any)? What immediate threat is it generating? Any area of sanctuary under international law cannot be a target unless there is a direct and immediate threat. The basic idea is that if forces are being fired at (or similar) from the hospital, they are allowed to shoot back. If the hospital is housing weapons for immediate deployment (i.e. missiles) and use, maybe. Hamas guys Israel really wants to killâŚnot enough. Even if it is not just a water hatch.
Itâs a massacre and itâs been for five weeks. None gets spared in a massacre, neither would babies. We knew it since October 8.
Total deaths is 11000. Israel says it will go on for weeks. We should brace ourselves.
The UN should have pressed for an increased peace keeping presence in Israel a while back.
As regrettable as those deaths are , the number shows that Israel is still trying to limit Civilian deaths. You would see far higher death counts if Israel went full on scorched earth.
Pressed whom? UNIFIL already has its hands full, and is short bodies. A whole new mission would be a huge endeavour that would not be welcome by either party, and with very unclear contributions. It would be a worse nightmare for UN peacekeeping forces than the clusterfuck that was keeping the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians apart.
I do wonder how much the subdued hostility of Ireland toward Israel is a function of UNIFIL. No country has suffered more casualties keeping that Lebanon-Israel border.
Not now. Probably in 2006/7 when Israel withdrew from Gaza.
Yeah, might have been a window of opportunity there, although the clusterfuck problem would still have been there. Hamas has been hostile to UN peacekeepers - they apparently like their UN organizations flush with cash and compliant - and it would have been impossible I suspect to put a peacekeeping mission in while Fatah and Hamas were battling in the streets.
Maybe , but the presence of peace keepers alone would be a major deterrent. Hamas or Fatah for that matter wouldnât dare attack a UNPKF as it would remove a lot of sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Being reactive to this I&P conflict has been one of UNs biggest failings (there are a whole bunch of them , but this ranks amongst the top 3)
Maybe. I am somewhat cynical about what the UN is willing to brush under the carpet in order to keep up the facade. Take a look at the narratives around the Medak Pocket. Apparently, it didnât happen.
Never did hear an explanation of how those ~100 Serbian civilians had those wounds, but I guess the one woman must have just tripped and fallen on an unfortunately sharpened stake.
I donât underestimate the ability of combatant forces or the UN to gaslight us all. Hence my sympathy for the Irish in UNIFIL. Somehow no one ever is able to figure out where those shells come from. But to your point, I would be extraordinarily reluctant to deploy peacekeepers into a milieu where they are not actually wanted (i.e. no peace to keep). It never seems to work out well.
Not just the UN, the whole world had brushed the Palestine issue under the carpet and pretended that it doesnât exist and tried to move on. Until it blew up in their faces.
The Palestine issue has been going in the wrong trajectory and for three fucking decades.
Letâs not fool ourselves. Israel has and continuing a scorched earth policy. We donât want to believe that because
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We are not suffering and donât realise the magnitude of the atrocity.
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That would mean that we witnessing a darkness we never admit it exists.