Introduction by Croakey: United Nations Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini this week declared that Gaza has been left “a wasteland, unfit for human life” and warned that ongoing devastation will “sow the seeds “for more hatred and extremism”.
His words came ahead of the latest deadly attacks by Israel that killed civilians and humanitarian workers, and as agencies condemned Israeli assaults on a polio vaccination convoy.
Meanwhile, the horrific toll of conflicts across the world, including in Ukraine and Gaza, prompted protests this week against the Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition in Naarm/Melbourne, where doctors joined a vigil for Palestine this evening (12 September).
Marie McInerney writes:
United Nations and human rights leaders have condemned Israeli air strikes on a school turned shelter for around 12,000 people in Gaza, killing civilians, including women and children, and six staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
“The use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas is unconscionable,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement, noting that displaced Palestinians had moved to the area in search for shelter and safety “after being repeatedly instructed to do so by the Israeli authorities”.
UNRWA, which has recorded the deaths of at least 220 staff members since this Gaza Israel conflict began in October 2023, tweeted that the air strikes inflicted “the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident”.
The Israeli Defence Force claimed its air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command-and-control centre” on the school grounds.
However, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, condemned the strikes.
He said civilians should never be used as human shields but that international humanitarian law, “including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack”, must be upheld at all times.
“Yet again, such actions only underscore that nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
The attack came just a day after humanitarian workers on their way to support the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza “faced one of the most horrific assaults on their ability to deliver life-saving vaccines”, Guterres said in a statement.
Strongly condemning the incident, he said 12 UN staff members, whose movement was fully coordinated with Israeli forces and whose details were shared in advance, were stopped at a checkpoint.
“Israeli forces fired live shots and the UN convoy was compacted by a military tank and a bulldozer with our staff inside,” he said.
“The convoy was held at this checkpoint for seven and a half hours and ultimately unable to fulfil its humanitarian mission.”
Earlier this week, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told a session of the League of Arab States Council that Gaza was now “a wasteland, unfit for human life”.
And yet, two million people remain trapped there, with almost the entire Gazan population now concentrated in approximately 10 per cent of the narrow strip of land, he said.
“Masses of desperate people live amid rivers of sewage and mountains of garbage, alongside rats, cockroaches, snakes and scorpions,” he said.
“Every single person is exhausted, sick, and long past the limits of their endurance.”
Lazzarini said that more than 600,000 girls and boys are out of school and living in the rubble.
“The region cannot afford to lose an entire generation, which would sow the seeds for more hatred and extremism,” he said.
Yet against all odds and despite the serious checkpoint incident, Lazzarini said the vaccination rollout was “inching closer towards the target of vaccinating every child under the age of 10″.
He offered thanks to “extraordinary commitment and dedication of teams” from UNRWA, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF in response to the diagnosis of a baby with polio last month, the first such case in Gaza in 25 years.
Vigil in Melbourne
The latest attacks on civilians and threats for humanitarian personnel in Gaza came amid tense protests in Melbourne this week outside the Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition, where defence companies from around the world are showcasing their latest designs in weapons and technology.
Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS), volunteers who attend rallies as legal observers, warned that “grossly excessive policing of protesters likely infringed on human rights”.
The activists are protesting the use of such weapons – in particular, allegations of use against Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Dr Jenny Grounds, a country GP and executive member of the Medical Association for Prevention of War Australia, has helped organise a vigil for Palestine as part of the Disrupt Land Forces activities, to acknowledge “the suffering of millions, the deaths of tens of thousands and the mutilation, starvation and orphaning of thousands more children”.
As a health practitioner and peace activist, she is supporting the Melbourne protests aimed at an arms industry that is “all about profit at the expense of human lives and environmental destruction”.
Grounds told Croakey that members of the peace movement do not have the same access to media and ministerial ears as groups like the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the “go-to thinktank for media and government on defence matters”.
“For years we have asked Australian governments to recognise Palestinians right to autonomy and for over 11 months we have called for ceasefires as we watch and hear testimonies about the horror of Gaza and West Bank,” she said.
Grounds has found it encouraging that so many young people are becoming involved in direct protest and understanding how the market in weapons drives war and breaches human rights.
She said the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems, which was banned in Australia a few years ago because of security concerns about spyware, is now contracted to provide “advanced protection, fighting capabilities and sensors” for new Korean-designed Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) being constructed in the Victorian electorate of Defence Minister Richard Marles.
In an article at The Conversation, University of Queensland Adjunct Associate Professor Lauren Sanders said the protests have renewed attention on Australia’s weapons exports and imports.
Sanders cites data showing that Australia ranked 13th in overall military expenditures globally in 2022–23, spending US$32.3 billion (A$49 billion), or about 1.9 percent of GDP. Over 2019-23, it was one of the top 20 arms exporters in the world, though its share of total global arms exports was just 0.6 percent, and eighth-largest importer of arms, accounting for 3.7 percent of global arms imports.
The Federal Government maintains Australia hasn’t supplied weapons or ammunition to Israel in the past five years and this week backed the United Kingdom’s decision to curb arms exports to Israel, she said.
In an exclusive article this week, Guardian Australia reported that Australia was coordinating with the UK and other allies to “pressure” Israel to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and to stop the erosion of longstanding norms protecting aid workers.
It quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong as saying: “Australia is working with partners – including the UK – to put pressure to see a real change in the situation in Gaza.”
Guardian Australia said her comments “are another sign of the Australian government’s hardening rhetoric about the Israeli assault on Gaza”.
Naming the dead
Monica Clements, who attended the Palestinian vigil on Thursday night, told Croakey the event was relatively small, having been scheduled to be held close to the defence expo, but having to shift because of a major barricade and still strong police presence.
“Laid out at the vigil were paper kites with the names of killed Gazan children on them, and lists of their names by age,” she said.
“Speakers peacefully talked and sang and read poetry and messages from Gaza volunteer doctors. Yuendumu elder and uncle of Kumanjay Walker, Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, called for a ceasefire in Walpiri language.”
See her photos below.
Via X/Twitter
