West officials decry govts’ Israel policies
800 signatories from US, UK, Europe sign letter as situation worsens in Gaza
GAZA/JERUSALEM — More than 800 officials in the United States, Britain, and the European Union issued a public letter expressing dissent against their governments’ backing of Israel in the Gaza conflict, The New York Times reported.
Current and former officials who are organizing or supporting the effort said the letter is “the first instance of officials in allied nations across the Atlantic coming together to openly criticize their governments over the war”, the US-based media outlet said on Friday.
According to a copy obtained by The New York Times, the letter, which expressed the officials’ concern, said: “Our governments’ current policies weaken their moral standing and undermine their ability to stand up for freedom, justice and human rights globally.
“There is a plausible risk that our governments’ policies are contributing to grave violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, and even ethnic cleansing or genocide,” read the letter.
The signatories, according to the report, said they have tried to raise concerns through internal channels but have been ignored.
According to the report, about 80 of the signatories are affiliated with US agencies, with the State Department constituting the largest group. Among these, the most represented governing authority is the collective EU institutions, followed by the Netherlands and the United States.
The statement “shows the depths of concerns and outrage and just horror that all of us are witnessing”, a US official with more than 25 years of experience, who signed the letter, told CNN on Friday.
Meanwhile, Israel pressed its blistering Gaza assault over the weekend as fears grew over a push into a southern area teeming with displaced Palestinians.
Hamas officials and the Israeli army reported battles across the besieged territory, and AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing after strikes on Rafah at Gaza’s border with Egypt where more than a million people have escaped the fighting.
On Saturday, the European Union expressed deep concern over reports that the Israeli military intends to take its battle against Hamas to the town of Rafah.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said: “What we see is that the bombing affecting the civilian population continues and it is creating a very dire situation.”
The prospect of a ground offensive in Rafah has raised fears about where the population would go to find safety.
As fighting raged, mediation efforts to halt the nearly four-month conflict have gathered pace.
A senior Hamas official said on Saturday that a final agreement had not yet been reached over a tentative truce deal to pause the nearly four-month conflict.
Hamas leaders were reviewing a proposed framework thrashed out by top officials from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, said Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas official, in Lebanon. But more time was needed to “announce our position”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the conflict would continue until “complete victory” over Hamas.
Call for cease-fire
Hamas’ Oct 7 attack killed 1,160 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
In response, Israel’s offensives have killed at least 27,365 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The soaring civilian death toll in Gaza, as well as fears among Israelis over the fate of the hostages, have fueled calls for a cease-fire.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of protesters rallied for early elections and demanded action to free the remaining hostages.
Israeli forces in Gaza have systematically destroyed buildings in an attempt to create a buffer zone inside the Palestinian territory, experts and rights groups told AFP.
The plan, not publicly confirmed by Israel, appears to entail taking a significant chunk of territory out of the already tiny Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, something experts as well as Israel’s foreign allies have warned against.
Cecilie Hellestveit, of the Norwegian Academy of International Law, warned of “the prospect of ethnic cleansing, transfer, or lack of rebuilding so that the Palestinians will eventually be forced out of the area entirely”.
Scrutiny of Israel’s actions in Gaza is likely to be heightened by last month’s International Court of Justice ruling asking Israel to prevent any acts of genocide.
“If the Israeli government wants a buffer zone, it has every right to create one in far larger Israel, but it has no right to seize land in Gaza,” human rights expert Kenneth Roth, a professor at Princeton University, said on social media.