In times of war, hospitals should remain bastions of humanity. It is the international humanitarian conventions which provide for this sacred principle, to which we also refer when speaking of the laws of war. It was an emotional Joanne Liu who made the essential reminder Tuesday evening, interviewed by host Anne-Marie Dussault on RDI.
The former president of Doctors Without Borders, who practiced her profession under the bombs, commented on the deadly attack on the Ahli Arab hospital, which occurred earlier in the heart of Gaza. The bombing of this place supposed to be a sanctuary, under the rules of international law, provokes incomprehension, anger, a deep feeling of sadness. Now, in the eyes of the world, the fragile and the powerless are being targeted.
War, however vile it may be, requires that even barbarism be regulated. We do not bomb hospitals — moreover, in times of conflict, the belligerents receive geolocation data from hospitals and must exclude them from any firing zone. We do not attack civilians and we must even provide them with minimal conditions of protection, whether it is shelter or time to take refuge before an attack. We are not targeting ambulances or medical personnel. Even less the injured and the children. We must even respect a criterion of proportionality in the planning of attacks: if by wanting to destroy a military target, we eliminate a large number of civilians in the process, we are in contravention of the law. These are, however absurd it may seem to state them, the rules of decorum of war.
Since the barbaric attack perpetrated against Israeli civilians by Hamas on October 7, the list of violations of this precious international humanitarian law has continued to grow. The two camps that are still arguing over responsibility for the attack on Ahli Arab committed the unspeakable. The rules enacted under the Geneva Conventions provide that civilians are protected and that the targets of attacks are military: buildings, hideouts, combatants. Since the start of the conflict, it is mainly civilians who have fallen under attacks. There are 3,300 in the Gaza Strip, almost half of whom are children, and 1,400 in Israel.
In reaction to a terrible deadly start, Israel began the day after the first salvos a blockade on Gaza which deprives the inhabitants of the essentials: water, electricity, food, gasoline. Hospitals are no longer able to treat the injured. The Ahli Arab attack reportedly killed 471 people and injured 314 others, according to the toll provided by Hamas. Wind of hope: Israel approved on Wednesday the passage of humanitarian aid to Gaza via Egypt.
The Russian attack on Ukraine used the same detestable process. Early in the conflict, the World Health Organization loudly denounced Russia’s war strategy of targeting health establishments, and by the hundreds! We will remember the Russian air strike against the Mariupol maternity hospital, at the start of the conflict, which horrified the whole world. Where is humanity going when expectant mothers giving birth cannot even count on the protection of a hospital roof?
The ground ignites and bleeds. Regardless of allegiance, violations of the laws of war result in casualties on only one side, and that is the innocent.
Above the dead, politics is torn apart. Under the horrified eyes of the international community, which unequivocally condemns the effects of the attack on a hospital, we continue to let the political contest take precedence over the humanitarian cause. On Wednesday, American President Joe Biden did not wait for the conclusions of a neutral and independent investigation to affirm that he judged that Israel was not responsible for the attack the day before, while a version is circulating that Islamist Jihad is at the origin of the tragedy. The truth is that beliefs currently prevail over the factual framework and do not make it easy to distinguish true from false. Only an international, neutral and independent review will shed light on what really happened on Tuesday.
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the attack on the hospital “illegal,” clarifying a cycle of hesitation on the topic of war crimes. According to human rights organizations, the blockade imposed by Israel and the evacuation order from Gaza targeting 1.1 million people also violate humanitarian law, because they put civilian populations in a precarious situation. . But nations that have shown their spontaneous support for Israel, including Canada, are slow to call them violations.
Failure to respect the rules of war, however, requires unequivocal condemnation.