Written by Simon Mabon
The UN Human Rights Office reports that over 1,000 individuals had been slain while attempting to obtain food in the last two months. Although Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was established to provide relief, have contested the number, 28 countries this week denounced the horrific deaths of Gazans attempting to obtain food.
UN agencies are warning that the final lifelines in the beleaguered strip are failing as the Israel Defense Forces continue their bombardment in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, which included an attack on the World Health Organization’s staff housing on July 21.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, some 60,000 Gazans have already died and more are already passing away from starvation and malnutrition. Over 90% of Gaza’s private residences are either destroyed or severely damaged.
There is little hope despite all the rhetoric of a long-overdue truce. Gazans must put their lives in danger to find food and assistance while Israeli military assaults continue.
Malnutrition is very common. Nearly 500,000 people are thought to be facing disaster, and another 1.1 million are in an emergency risk category, according to a May report from the International Food Security Council (IPC), a global organization that keeps an eye on food security. Goods that are essential for people’s survival are either depleted or are predicted to run out in the upcoming weeks.
According to the IPC, severe food shortages, severe malnutrition that results in famine, and high death rates fall under the disaster category. Severe food shortages, extremely high rates of malnutrition, and even death fall under the emergency category.
Israeli officials are still talking about relocating Gazans to what former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called a concentration camp, but which has been referred to as a humanitarian city. Olmert referred to the decision to relocate Gazans into the camp as ethnic cleansing in the same interview.
The leaders of the globe watch all the time. It seems that most are happy to condemn, but not much has been done about it.
More and more people are calling on Israel’s friends to stand up to its actions in Gaza. An open letter to EU heads of state and senior officials was released on July 23 by a group of 38 former EU ambassadors, who accused Israel of committing deliberate acts of racial cleansing and criticized the EU for failing to adequately address these terrible incidents.
However, how do acts appear? The Netanyahu administration needs to be put under pressure. The UK has encouraged Israel to adhere to international law, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Minister David Lammy have quickly emphasized.
They mention the penalties that the UK has placed on two right-wing ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, for repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians. Even when Lammy warns that more sanctions might be imposed if Israel doesn’t alter its actions in Gaza and put a stop to the misery, the crimes nevertheless go on.
Practical steps to pressure Israel
The UK government is under increasing pressure to recognize Palestine as a state, something that a contact in the Labour government told me was on the party’s agenda prior to October 7 more than a year ago. Since the UK only recognizes one state participating in these events, Lammy’s insistence that the government is dedicated to a two-state solution is not diplomatically feasible.
147 other UN members recognize the state of Palestine as a sovereign nation. Seventy-five percent of all members.
A full arms embargo, which has been advocated for a long time but rejected by the UK government, which has prohibited some but not all military sales to Israel, could be one of the next steps. Since October 2023, several nations—including Italy, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan—have lawfully prohibited the sale of weapons to Israel.
There are more flammable alternatives. The first would be for the UK and other countries to appropriately fulfill their responsibilities under international law.
In November 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were the subjects of an arrest order issued by the International Criminal Court. The United States is not one of the 125 nations that have ratified the ICC. If Netanyahu enters their nations, they might detain him.
A variety of alternative options are available for consideration. It would be instructive to examine the actions taken by the international community to demonize South Africa in the last years of apartheid.
EU should use its diplomatic muscle
Given that the EU is Israel’s largest commercial partner and might have significant influence, it is necessary to ask why so little more has been done than talk.
In accordance with the conditions of the EU-Israel association agreement, the EU determined in June that Israel had violated its human rights obligations. No action has been taken to halt trade as of yet.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, stated that if Israel fails to fulfill its commitments, all options are still open. These include trade restrictions, arms embargoes, penalties on government officials, military personnel, and settlers, the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in whole or in part, and the suspension of academic collaboration, including the esteemed Horizon Europe Research and Innovation program.
Naturally, it is more difficult to convince all 27 member nations to support such a strategy. And it goes without saying that national leaders will need to take into account the possibility that exerting pressure on Israel could harm ties with the Trump administration in the United States.
However, the world is watching as Gaza burns, and the situation on the ground is getting worse. It is a disgrace to mankind that Israel’s allies have not done more to exert pressure on Israel to stop the senseless slaughter and displacement.
The world vowed never to repeat the atrocities of the Second World War, Rwanda, Myanmar, and Srebrenica. It runs the risk of shrugging its shoulders and saying, “Never mind,” if nothing is done.
At Lancaster University, Simon Mabon teaches international relations.
