The European Union should fully refrain from any acts that may lead to aiding, abetting, supporting, encouraging or providing material or financial assistance in the commission of possible war crimes and serious violations of international law in Gaza, Euro-Med Monitor said on Monday. Any such actions would go against article 25 of the Rome Statute and subject the individuals responsible to criminal liability.
In November 2022, the EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, referred to Russia's attacks on "civilian infrastructure with the clear aim to cut off men, women, children [from] water, electricity, and heating with the winter coming," as "pure terror". On December 12, 2022, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mr. Joseph Borrell noted that "[Putin] depriving millions of people of water, electricity, and heating. This can be called a crime against humanity. It is a war crime to condemn millions of people to cold and darkness in order to freeze them in the middle of winter."
As EU leaders are now well aware, the Israeli government is now committing exactly what they referred to as "pure terror" and a "a crime against humanity". Gazans continue to live in the dark and face increasing risk of starvation ever since Israel decided to cut all supplies of water, food, electricity, and fuel that entered the enclave through its borders and the Egyptian borders as well.
Our colleagues on the ground have collected testimonies about Gazans increasingly having to ration their food and water and prioritize children first as these supplies become acutely rare in the enclave.
Furthermore, Israel has bombed the vicinity of the Rafah border crossing, Gaza's only gateway to the world, preventing its opening and endangering the lives of civilians sheltering near it awaiting the resumption of passenger movement.
Additionally, the Israeli government claimed it had turned the water supply back on to Gaza, but only to the southern half. Although, it has not been verified whether the water supply was turned on and local authorities dispute the Israeli claim, the lack of electricity makes it impossible for most households in Gaza to pump water up to the storage tanks in their homes.
What is most distrusting about this Israeli announcement is the fact that water would be turned on only to half of Gaza to engineer the forced expulsion of 1.2 million from the northern half; a decision that many have concluded to be virtually impossible, including Mr. Borrell. This may amount to a crime of ethnic cleansing and forcible transfer, which falls into the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Over the last 10 days, we have documented over sevencategories of actions committed by Israel that may amount to war crimes and serious violations of international law. This includes:
1- Collective punishment by suspension of food, water, fuel, and electricity supplies and punitively closing the borders in the face of civilians seeking to evacuate the enclave.
2- The targeting of ambulances, medical crews, journalists, and media offices.
3- The use of white phosphorus in civilian residential areas, which was also documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
4- Violating the principles of proportionality and distinctionby leveling entire neighborhoods to the ground and bombing residential buildings without any sufficient warning to their civilian inhabitants. This led to the killing of 100s, including 55 families being wiped out completely and 123 families losing most of their members.
5- Targeting firefighters and rescue missions, while more than 1,000 people are reportedly stuck under the rubble of their homes.
6- Deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, which includes the main Palestinian telecommunication company Pal-Tel.
7- Executing surrendering civilians; an incident that Israel's Defense Forces published themselves alleging it showed four "Hamas terrorists," while multiple investigations, including by our team reveled the four individuals were unarmed and surrendering with the hands up when killed.
8- Forcible transfer and ethnic cleansing by ordering half of Gaza's population to leave their homes, shelters and hospitals and move to the south, knowing this would lead to a humanitarian disaster and endanger the lives of thousands of wounded, ill and vulnerable Palestinians.
These actions have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis to catastrophic proportions and led to an unprecedented number of causalities that exceeded 2,800 killed and 10950 wounded.This figure is higher that the number of Palestinians that Israel has killed in any of its previous military operations as well as in all 7 years of the first intifada combined (1987-1993).
In light of being informed on these flagrant violations against international law, we strongly caution EU officials against aiding, abetting, supporting, encouraging or provided material or financial assistance in the commission of possible war crimes and violations of international law, which goes against article 25 of the Rome Statute.
This includes statements that provide cover for such atrocities or encourage their perpetration, as well as any supply of equipment, weaponry, technology, or financial support that may be used in Gaza in violation of international law.
We therefore call on the leaders of the EU Council, Commission and External Action Service to:
1- Unequivocally condemn Israeli violations of international law.
2- Ensure that no EU official makes statements that encourage the commission of war crimes in Gaza.
3- Maintain pressure on Israel to fully comply with international law and international humanitarian law.
4- Call on Israel to reverse decisions and actions that stand in flagrant violations of international law, including the siege, mass forcible expulsion orders, disproportionate and excessive violence without sufficient distinction between civilian and military targets.
