Embed Notice

@nicholas_saunders
Sorry, I'm having a hard time taking your argument seriously. Who would you put in charge of ensuring this aid gets into the hands of civilians? Even the biased article I shared goes to the trouble of clarifying that the officers in charge of protecting the convoy included "Hamas elements" as well as Palestinian Authority. Presumably this joint operation would have lent it some nonpartisan legitimacy. They tried to do the thing you are demanding and were killed by the IDF for it. Shall we put UNRWA in charge of it? Oh, but they've been defunded and bombed out of all functional capacity. If the Israeli government cares so deeply about distributing aid to only the appropriately helpless victims, they have more than enough capacity to send some of their own in there to do the job. It's not inconceivable, but they won't do it.

There is certainly a moral and legal obligation to ensure aid reaches civilians. I would call that a general obligation, as in applying to all parties. The parties doing the most to prevent aid from reaching civilians inside Gaza are almost entirely outside Gaza, i.e. Israel and its sponsors. The best way to make black markets and "criminal elements" disappear is to alleviate scarcity. Israel is also in the best position to ensure enough aid gets into Gaza, but of course they won't do that, either.

@f800gecko @palestine