Silence is being weaponised: World leaders must stop the violence in Gaza
This article is authored by Parthesarathy Rajendran, executive director, MSF South Asia.
“As doctors, we have been calling for a ceasefire, and for the siege to be lifted… Instead, all red lines have been crossed… So now, as citizens we’re calling upon our countries to stop this…’
This desperate plea is from one of Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)’s, frontline health workers, Pradeep Samanjeeva, who served two missions in Gaza in the past two years. The basic structures that support human health have been systematically dismantled in Gaza. What remains is incapable of sustaining life. Even as I write this, I am aware there are people dying in Gaza, of bullets, injuries and starvation. The violence has escalated to such an extent that it has created an unacceptable level of risk for our staff, forcing us to suspend lifesaving medical activities in Gaza city. I can provide shocking figures of civilian, aid workers and journalist casualties, but I am aware those numbers are no longer having the impact that they should. The levels of largescale, sustained violence have surpassed what we as humans are able to witness and accept. This might sound alarmist, but that is because there truly is no other way of describing what our teams are witnessing on the ground.
Last week, UN experts have officially called it a genocide, aligned with what that MSF and other aid groups had done months ago after bearing witness to worsening ground realities. Armed by some of the most powerful countries in the western world, Israel has reduced Gaza to rubble, with families trapped underneath – trying to fight for each other and survive with less than what is considered bare minimum. The precedent of violence set by Israel risks normalising brutality on a global scale, a danger that impacts everyone.
According to International Humanitarian Law, in an armed conflict, all state and non-state armed groups are responsible for ensuring civilians are protected and ensuring the rapid and unimpeded flow of aid – food, water, medicines. In Gaza however, not only are we seeing consistent and undeniable targeting of civilians and aid workers, but also a dangerous precedent being set by attempting to dismantle United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) For Gaza--a multilateral body that works with local Palestinians to provide aid and comfort to Palestinians. Israel, which has blatantly targeted organisations like UN and MSF, has replaced a network of 400 relief distribution sites with a meagre four. Earlier this month, Israeli forces fired on a clearly identified MSF water truck while it was distributing 10,000 litres of drinking water in the eastern part of Gaza City.
MSF has warned against entities like Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and denounced it as a tool to weaponise aid in a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Palestinians. GHF claims to have distributed more than 100 million meals over two months since it rolled out; even if accurate, this would amount to significantly less than one meal per person per day. Our facilities that are near the GHF distribution sites, have witnessed how people are forced to walk through military lines, endangering their lives. Of those who succeed in reaching the distribution sites, many do not receive any rations at all. The food insecurity in Gaza right now is at its worst since October 2023, leading to a steady increase in people with malnutrition coming to MSF clinics. In just one week, between July 27 to August 2, 186 people with wounds from gunshots, shrapnel or assault and stabbing were assisted in MSF’s Al Mawasi or Al Attar clinics after being wounded at GHF sites. Two of them died.
How is the world allowing this blatant disregard for International Humanitarian Law (IHL)? And to answer this question we need to start by interrogating these laws and some of its ambiguous terms. In armed conflicts of the past and present, including in Gaza, parties to the conflict have repeatedly claimed that health facilities are misused by other parties to the conflict to justify attacks;13 MSF health workers have been killed by Israel in Gaza, among hundreds of other health and aid workers. While IHL provides for the protection of medical units, Article 13 of the Additional Protocol provides for the discontinuance of protection of medical units when they are used to commit “acts harmful to the enemy”, which is a grossly ambiguous phrase. This provision in IHL is constantly invoked to legitimise attacks on medical units, which makes IHL part of the problem. What we have before us is a case of blatant misuse of the ambiguity that exists within IHL to further the genocide. And what we need is an absolute prohibition on attacking medical units and aid workers, with no exceptions. For this, we need world leaders to step up and lobby for change. In a situation where hospitals are bombed, and essential lifesaving supplies are drying up our staff is working round the clock to provide relief to a population in physical and mental pain and under constant threat.
Today, more than ever before, we need world leaders to step up and speak out against this systematic dehumanisation and dismantling of institutions that provide crucial oversight. By deliberately targeting independent eyes on the ground the fear is also of unimaginable brutality in the days and weeks to come. India, which has a rich history of supporting multilateralism and anti-colonial solidarity, must use this moment and its position as a key player in a multipolar world, to pursue absolute prohibition on attacks against medical units and the protection of civilians. While terms like genocide, war crimes or ethnic cleansing carry political and moral weight, the fact is they have little to no implications without political will for accountability.
Doctors cannot stop genocide, but world leaders can.
This article is authored by Parthesarathy Rajendran, executive director, MSF South Asia.
