A turning point in Gaza

Six months have passed since Hamas launched its horrific surprise attack on Israel, killing around 1200 people and taking another 253 people hostage. As with the United States after the September 11, 2001 attack, there was goodwill and sympathy towards Israel after Hamas’ atrocity, but there was also international nervousness about the size and scale of Israel’s military response.

It is by pure coincidence that the highly symbolic sixmonth mark comes when there has been a significant turning point in the world’s reaction to Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry’s figures, which are not universally agreed upon, nearly 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in six months. Close to 14,000 of the dead have been children.

Yet it took the deaths of seven aid workers, six of whom came from Western countries, for many to say that enough is enough.

That sounds like a cynical response, but while it could be argued that the western media and its consumers can more easily identify with the western dead than faceless, nameless Palestinians, it is obvious that aid workers should never become casualties, especially if it turns out they were deliberately targeted.

The aid workers, who were with the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), were in a convoy of three clearlymarked vehicles, all of which were hit by Israeli missiles fired from drones.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the deaths were a result of “misidentification in complex conditions”. In other words, there is no doubt the IDF did it. The question is who it believed the target was. There are reports that the IDF suspected a Hamas gunman might be travelling in the convoy, which raises questions about how many innocent lives should be lost in order to kill one militant.

There are mistakes and there is confusion in the fog of war, and while an inquiry will follow, it also seems fair to say that the incident speaks to a certain recklessness in Israel’s increasingly disproportionate war. Investigative reports published this week alleged that the IDF has become very reliant on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify potential targets, although this has been rejected by the IDF.

Part of the outrage about WCK is that aid workers should never be targeted in military operations. According to the United Nations (UN),196 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, including more than 175 of the UN’s own staff.

As well as the brutal and needless deaths of the seven workers themselves, there is a flow-on effect.

Other aid agencies signalled that they would suspend operations in Gaza due to the risks involved. That comes as famine is predicted by international aid groups, who warned of “man-made starvation” in northern Gaza.

The WCK attack came as the workers offloaded the first 100 tonnes of a 400 tonne shipment from Cyprus, which is said to be equivalent to 1 million meals. Following the drone attack, the remaining 300 tonnes were turned back to Cyprus.

According to the Israeli news outlet Haaretz, WCK had already lodged a complaint with the IDF after an aid worker was fired at. In February, more than 100 Palestinians were killed when they were either shot at by IDF troops as they waited for aid deliveries, or were crushed in a stampede, depending on whose story you believe.

This week’s attack on aid workers overshadowed the destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, following a two-week siege. Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military operations and said 200 terrorists were killed there, and another 500 were captured. Yet patients and medical staff were also killed.

The WCK attack has demonstrated the power and influence that the US can apply when it wishes to. While US President Joe Biden promised unwavering support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon after the October 7 attack, there was a noticeable cooling off even before this week’s events.

It took just one stern phone call from Biden, with an implication that military aid to Israel might be threatened if Netanyahu did not play ball, for Israel to reopen the Erez crossing that has been closed since October. Reopening the crossing allows more aid to flow into Gaza.

Six months into the war, Israel claims to have dismantled 18 of Hamas’ 24 battalions. Yet when victory comes it will feel sour, not just because of the enormous human cost but because Israel’s standing in the international community may be irrevocably affected. And then a lasting, peaceful solution to the problem of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence must finally be found.

Yet It took the deaths of seven aid workers, six of whom came from Western countries, for many to say that enough is enough.