International 'do-gooders' aren't helping Gazans

[aranthus]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/international-do-gooders-aren-t-helping-gazans/ar-AA1F1QLQ?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=2b1d8cb5e24146ccb4f303e073b2860f&ei=37

Two of Israel’s war aims are to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities and prevent it from continuing to govern Gaza. Last week, the IDF began an intensive campaign to finish off the terrorist group. This has been prepared over the past 11 weeks by blocking supplies into Gaza. That has been necessary because until now Hamas has been hijacking food and other aid entering the Strip, stockpiling some for its own use and selling the rest to the population at inflated prices. The proceeds of aid sales have been essential for Hamas to fund its terrorist activities, given that most other sources of income have been cut off.

Israel has come under fire, including from our own Government, for preventing aid from entering. Many have claimed this is a breach of international law, citing Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires essential aid to be allowed into enemy territory. They conveniently ignore the proviso that this need not be done if there are “serious reasons for fearing that the consignments may be diverted from their destination”. The IDF is clear that aid has been hijacked and looted by Hamas. Numerous videos and eyewitness reports have shown that same picture.

[dutch777]

1. Amazing the Arab countries don't form an interim police and governance force. All claim the Palestinian cause and...

...then do very little meaningful to help Palestinians with an on the ground effort. Sending food and medicine that never gets delivered and prayers and well wishes is just BS to a starving child. African nations can even manage this. Trump was just in the Middle East and did zippo...par usual...well, line his own and family's pockets doesn't count.

[AloeVera]

5. Are you thinking it's time for a Middle East War?

It's the only way I can interpret this:

Amazing the Arab countries don't form an interim police and governance force. All claim the Palestinian cause and...
...then do very little meaningful to help Palestinians with an on the ground effort.

The only way Arab countries could get into Gaza would be over the dead bodies of IDF soldiers. After having declared war on Israel. Not a likely scenario.

As for food and other aid not being delivered - why do you think that is? Yes, there are hundreds of trucks at the border, all that food going to waste. Who do you think is preventing the entry of all those aid trucks and enforcing a literal siege? It's not the Arab countries.

[dutch777]

9. I do not recall any Arab countries declaring war on Israel recently. And a police force and civil admin is not an army.

Yes, I would say that Iran and Yemeni rebels firing missiles etc. at Israel are a de facto declaration of war. The prior Syrian regime was hostile, although the current one seems willing to sit this one out despite IDF incursions and bombings. Egypt, Jordan and others have peace treaties with Israel. Certainly a major Arab military operation would be viewed as hostile and certainly any policing and alternative government effort would need to be with prior agreement that remaining Hamas elements are to be disarmed and arms caches and such still sought out. And maybe the Israelis would have none of of it. But, I still think it is interesting Arab neighbors have proposed NOTHING on behalf of the Palestinians while telling their own populace that they care about Palestinian lives and their domestic political support somewhat reliant on that.

[Ocelot II]

2. Might want to read up on the author, Richard Kemp.

He's a British conservative commentator and the head of the UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS), the UK branch of AWIS, an Israeli organization managed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), so he isn't exactly unbiased. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kemp

[aranthus]

4. No one is unbiased.

Last edited Mon May 19, 2025, 01:32 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm aware of Kemp's. In this case, he's not wrong.

[choie]

3. Yeah,

Let's believe the IDF.

[AloeVera]

6. Not one aid agency has said looting by Hamas is a problem.

Rather, they have said that there is very little, IF ANY, theft by Hamas. They state they have rigorous mechanisms for tracking "leakage" and have not found any issues of concern.

Where is that "overwhelming evidence" IDF claims to have? Do you know? (Please no one post those few laughable videos from a year or so ago). Hard evidence from aid agencies, showing the amount of "leakage", where and when it occurred and how. That would be non-existent.

Who are you gonna believe? The IDF and Netanyahu or the aid agencies tasked with saving lives who have no axe to grind and nothing to gain from lying?

Unfortunately some people continue to push the IDF narrative, including this Richard Kemp, an opponent of DEI in the military, and of investigating soldiers accused of crimes, a Brexiter, and overall right-wing supporter of Netanyahu and his wars on Gaza.

[Beastly Boy]

8. None of them said that the Pope is Catholic either.

So the Pope being an observant Jew is not a problem to them, right?

[Mosby]

10. Nearly 100 food aid trucks violently looted in Gaza, UN agencies say

Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on Nov. 16 after entering Gaza in one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the enclave, where hunger is deepening, two U.N. agencies told Reuters on Monday.
The convoy transporting food provided by U.N. agencies UNRWA and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom border crossing, said Louise Wateridge, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/large-gaza-food-convoy-violently-looted-unrwa-says-2024-11-18/

Witnesses and aid groups report a surge in looting in desperate Gaza
Updated 10:30 AM MST, May 3, 2025

Armed groups and others have looted warehouses of supplies in northern Gaza as desperation spikes after more than two months of Israel’s blockade of the territory, locals and aid workers said Saturday as Israel’s latest airstrikes killed more than a dozen people.

Unidentified people, both armed and unarmed, have been looting U.N. and aid groups’ warehouses, as well as bakeries and shops since Wednesday, according to witnesses, organizations in Gaza and messages that were circulated among security officials for aid groups and were seen by The Associated Press.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-03-05-2025-ed66bddfcfbb543677b38dcdde2e18b3

[AloeVera]

11. When people have nothing to eat, they resort to looting!

In both cases the looting occurred after weeks - 2 months! - of Israel's siege on aid. When no food had been allowed in.

So just think about please. If you were in that situation, with YOUR family starving... It's only human...

Further, according to these articles, these looters were not Hamas fighters. They were either unarmed civilians, but mostly armed criminal gang members. In fact, as mentioned, Hamas, through its police forces, fought the criminal gang looters and killed many of them.

But you want to know something very strange? I have read that sometimes the IDF looks the other way when these armed criminal gangs loot the lorries or warehouses. That is not good at all.

The solution to the looting, of course, is for Israel to allow aid through, as it is obligated under international law. There are 14,000 BABIES in Gaza at risk of starvation in the next 48 hours, according to the UN. Please let that sink in.

[Beastly Boy]

7. Those who invoke Article 23 of the fourth Geneva convention never bothered to read it.

But it would be of interest to some DUers who would make you believe that Israel's obligations are unconditional. So here it is, in its entirety (bolding mine):

ART. 23. — Each High Contracting Party shall allow the free
passage of all consignments of medical and hospital stores and
objects necessary for religious worship intended only for civilians of
another High Contracting Party, even if the latter is its adversary. It
shall likewise permit the free passage of all consignments of
essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under
fifteen, expectant mothers and maternity cases.
The obligation of a High Contracting Party to allow the free
passage of the consignments indicated in the preceding paragraph
is subject to the condition that this Party is satisfied that there are no
serious reasons for fearing:
a) that the consignments may be diverted from their destination,
b) that the control may not be effective, or
c) that a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or
economy of the enemy through the substitution of the above-
mentioned consignments for goods which would otherwise
be provided or produced by the enemy or through the release
of such material, services or facilities as would otherwise be
required for the production of such goods.
The Power which allows the passage of the consignments
indicated in the first paragraph of this Article may make such
permission conditional on the distribution to the persons benefited
thereby being made under the local supervision of the Protecting
Powers.
Such consignments shall be forwarded as rapidly as possible, and
the Power which permits their free passage shall have the right to
prescribe the technical arrangements under which such passage is
allowed.

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf