Archbishop Makgoba condemns Israel's conditions for aid to Gaza

Israel's conditions for allowing life-giving aid to Gaza suggest “a willingness to use starvation as a tool of ethnic cleansing”, which would amount to a war crime, says Archbishop Thabo Makgoba.

In a statement, Makgoba said the depths of the cruelty which the current Israeli administration is prepared to inflict on innocent civilians in Gaza is making it ever more difficult to find words to condemn it.

“Its refusal to allow life-giving supplies under conditions acceptable to experts in providing humanitarian aid suggests a willingness to use starvation as a tool of ethnic cleansing. This would amount to a war crime, and adds weight to the South African government's genocide case against the State of Israel at The Hague.”

The archbishop said “diplomacy seems to be reeling with ineffectiveness while Israel threatens to wipe out a whole nation.”

He appealed for international pressure on Israel, adding: “We pray especially that the United States will choose the right side of history, and bring a halt to Israel's aggression, which has now taken on levels which are vastly disproportionate to Hamas's heinous attack of October 2023.”

Last week, the World Health Organisation warned that the health system was at breaking point as hostilities further intensified in Gaza.

“Israel’s intensified military operations continue to threaten an already weakened health system, amidst worsening mass population displacement and acute shortages of food, water, medical supplies, fuel and shelter,” the WHO said.

Four major hospitals in Gaza - Kamal Adwan Hospital, Indonesia Hospital, Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, and European Gaza Hospital - have had to suspend medical services due to their proximity to hostilities or evacuation zones, and attacks. 

WHO has recorded 28 attacks on health care in Gaza during this period and 697 attacks since October 2023.

“Only 19 of Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals remain operational, including one hospital providing basic care for the remaining patients still inside the hospital, and are struggling under severe supply shortages, lack of health workers, persistent insecurity, and a surge of casualties, all while staff work in impossible conditions. Of the 19 hospitals, 12 provide a variety of health services, while the rest are only able to provide basic emergency care. At least 94% of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed.”

The increased hostilities and new evacuation orders issued across northern and southern Gaza last week threaten to push even more health facilities out of service, WHO said. 

“Currently, across the Gaza Strip, only 2000 hospital beds remain available, for a population of over 2 million people, grossly insufficient to meet the current needs. Of these, at least 40 beds are at risk of being lost as they are in hospitals within newly declared evacuation zones, while an additional 850 could be lost if conditions deteriorate at facilities near these zones.”

“With each hospital forced out of service, patients lose access to health care, and WHO and partners’ efforts, to sustain Gaza’s health system are undone. The destruction is systematic. Hospitals are rehabilitated and resupplied, only to be exposed to hostilities or attacked again. This destructive cycle must end.”

WHO called for aid at scale to be allowed into Gaza through all possible routes, and for unimpeded humanitarian access to reach people wherever they are.

Cape Times