Saturday 4 May 2024

Israel Lied About UNRWA

Following the bombing of the Al-Ahli hospital in northern Gaza, killing hundreds of people, Israel said they had bombed it to hit a terrorist base inside the hospital, then changed it to an Islamic Jihad rocket had fallen short and then when it was pointed out that they did not possess rockets of such power to do that much damage and hospital bosses explained that Israel already bombed two days previously and claimed Israel had pre-warned them it would attack it, Israel announced they would investigate but that seems to be what they do when they have caused the deaths of innocent civilians.
The usual manoeuvre is that Israel commits a massacre, Israel denies massacre, Israel announce an investigation of the massacre and then the news cycle moves on and the last massacre is replaced by another massacre and the cycle starts again and it is exactly what we have seen for decades with school bombings, UN building destroyed, aid worker and journalist deaths, death of children in the West Bank, mowing down of starving civilians at food trucks and exactly what we saw with the claim that the UN Agency, UNRWA, had been infiltrated by Hamas.
The Israeli government did not provide any further detail or evidence for their claim that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 employees in Gaza had participated in the October 7 attacks and that hundreds of UNRWA's employees are members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
An independent review, ordered by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, found no evidence to support Israel’s claim that the agency has been infiltrated by Hamas and pointed out that UNRWA had been providing Israel with its staff lists since 2011 with no previous concerns raised.
Countries were warned that by withholding funding to the largest relief organization in Gaza, would risk a famine and cost lives.
After three months of the review which has cleared UNRWA and pointedly mentioned that Israel could not provide any supporting evidence, as Palestinian children literally starve to death, many countries are now resuming including Norway, Sweden, Australia, Japan, Ideland, Canada, Finland and Germany who who are the second largest donor to UNRWA.
In the UK MPs have written to foreign minister David Cameron, demanding that funding is restored without delay.
America, the largest donor, has yet to re-establish their aid despite the US’s own National Intelligence Council saying during the review that it had 'low confidence' in the Israeli claims.
So it was a lie but why would Israel lie when that lie would lead to a man-made famine threatening lives across the Gaza Strip?
Consider that Israel have killed over 34,000 Palestinians, have destroyed 80% of Gaza including the infrastructure and Health facilities and made plans to 'evacuate the whole of the Gaza Strip' and told the people of Gaza that they should 'evacuate and go to the vast expanses on the other side of Rafah at the Sinai border in Egypt', then it seems obvious they are trying to force the Palestinians off their land so they can move their own people in, a practise they have been been doing in the West Bank.
More evidence for the Genocide Claim against Israel currently before the The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court and they won't be able to pretend to make an investigation to get out of that one.