Israel’s Account of Attack on Aid Convoy Raises Wider Legal Questions, Experts Say - Are They Serious?
Posted 04-09-2024 at 02:02 PM by jbgusa
Israel’s Account of Attack on Aid Convoy Raises Wider Legal Questions, Experts Say - Are They Serious?
Israel’s Account of Attack on Aid Convoy Raises Wider Legal Questions, Experts Say (link, no paywall)
The featured New York Times article basically trashes the IDF for collateral damage that happens in wartime. Excerpts below:
First of all the presumption of civilian status ignores the fact that terrorist organizations routinely feign civilian status and then hide behind the skirts of women and children. If the IDF observed this doctrine they could never kill Hamas operatives. They don’t wear uniforms. What all of this breathless coverage ignores, as well, is the obligation to pressure Hamas to “stop the war.” This war has been, in any objective sense, started and lost be Hamas. Sadat “stopped the war” in 1977 by journeying to and recognizing Israel, as did Jordan in 1994. Even Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany similarly “stopped the war” in 1918. The world has no obligation to stop a war so that the loser can continue, with utter futility, to extract a toll on its own soldiers and enemy civilians.
Second, one has to wonder what Jose Andre, World Food Kitchen was thinking or if he had an agenda. Surely, he could have found some other famished part of the world to aid. As it was, when aid is delivered in an active combat zone, one is "dancing in the middle of a three-lane highway."
Israel’s Account of Attack on Aid Convoy Raises Wider Legal Questions, Experts Say (link, no paywall)
The featured New York Times article basically trashes the IDF for collateral damage that happens in wartime. Excerpts below:
Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Times
“In the case of doubt as to a convoy or person’s status, one is to presume civilian status,” said Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University who is an expert on humanitarian law. “And so, attacking in the context of doubt is itself a violation of international humanitarian law.”
Humanitarian aid workers and aid facilities are entitled to heightened protections, because they deliver relief to endangered civilians, said Janina Dill, a co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict.
“These are civilian vehicles, first and foremost,” she said, referring to the World Central Kitchen convoy.
“They’re also vehicles involved in humanitarian assistance missions, which are specifically protected. The people on these trucks should be presumed to be individuals involved in humanitarian assistance missions, which means they are protected persons.”
Israeli soldiers presumed that some of the World Central Kitchen vehicles were carrying militants, according to the Israeli military’s explanation, even though they had been observed joining an aid convoy, and later departing from a food warehouse.
Humanitarian aid workers and aid facilities are entitled to heightened protections, because they deliver relief to endangered civilians, said Janina Dill, a co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict.
“These are civilian vehicles, first and foremost,” she said, referring to the World Central Kitchen convoy.
“They’re also vehicles involved in humanitarian assistance missions, which are specifically protected. The people on these trucks should be presumed to be individuals involved in humanitarian assistance missions, which means they are protected persons.”
Israeli soldiers presumed that some of the World Central Kitchen vehicles were carrying militants, according to the Israeli military’s explanation, even though they had been observed joining an aid convoy, and later departing from a food warehouse.
Second, one has to wonder what Jose Andre, World Food Kitchen was thinking or if he had an agenda. Surely, he could have found some other famished part of the world to aid. As it was, when aid is delivered in an active combat zone, one is "dancing in the middle of a three-lane highway."
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