As our eyes were glued to Rafah “Block 2371” – the small area of southern Gaza that the Israeli military designated as a “safe humanitarian zone” on May 22 but then bombed four days later, massacring at least 45 civilians sheltered in tents. – it reminded us of a 15-year-old confidential cable intercepted by WikiLeaks describing the plight of civilians in the final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war.
Sent in May 2009 from the US Embassy in Colombo to the US State Department in Washington, DC, the cable recounts how the Bishop of Mannar had called to ask the embassy to intervene on behalf of seven priests Catholics caught in a so-called “No Fire Zone” which had been set up as a safe space by the Sri Lankan army.
The bishop estimated that there were still between 60,000 and 75,000 civilians confined to this particular area, located on a small strip of coastal land about twice the size of Central Park in Manhattan. Following the bishop’s phone call, the U.S. ambassador spoke with Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, asking him to alert the military that most of the people remaining in the “area without fire” were civilians. He apparently feared that due to the intense artillery bombardment, the coastal strip had become a death trap.
Much like the Israeli military’s efforts to push Palestinian civilians from across the Gaza Strip into the so-called “safe humanitarian zone” in Rafah, at one point the Sri Lankan military had urged the civilian population to gather in the areas she had designated as “no”. Fire Zones” by dropping leaflets from planes and making announcements over loudspeakers.
As an estimated 330,000 displaced people gathered in these areas, the United Nations erected makeshift camps and, working with several humanitarian organizations, began providing food and medical assistance to the desperate population.
However, the Tamil Tigers, the armed group fighting the Sri Lankan army, also appear to have retreated into these “no-fire zones”. The fighters had prepared in advance a complex network of bunkers and fortifications in these areas and made their final position against the military there.
While the Sri Lankan army claimed to be engaged in “humanitarian operations” aimed at “liberating civilians”, an analysis of satellite images and numerous testimonies reveal that the army continually shelled the closed “no-fire zones”. with mortar and artillery. fire, turning these designated safe spaces into killing fields.
Between 10,000 and 40,000 confined civilians perished in the so-called security zones, while thousands upon thousands more were seriously injured, often lying for hours and days on the ground without receiving medical attention, because virtually all hospitals – whether permanent or makeshift – had been closed. hit by artillery.
The parallels between Sri Lanka 2009 and Gaza 2024 are uncanny.
In both cases, the military displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, ordering them to gather in “safe areas” where they could not be harmed.
In both cases, the military bombed designated “safe zones,” indiscriminately killing and injuring large numbers of civilians.
In both cases, the military also bombed the medical units responsible for saving the lives of civilians.
In both cases, military spokesmen justified the strikes by admitting that they had bombed safe areas, but claiming that the Tamil Tigers and Hamas were responsible for civilian deaths because they had been in hiding. among the civilian population, using them as shields.
In both cases, Western countries criticized the killing of innocent people, but continued to supply weapons to the military. In the case of Sri Lanka, Israel was among the main arms suppliers.
In both cases, the UN said the warring parties were committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In both cases, the governments mobilized a group of experts who used legal acrobatics to justify the massacres. Their interpretation of the rules of engagement and the application of fundamental concepts of international humanitarian law including distinction, proportionality, necessity and the very notions of safety and warning zones were put at the service of eliminatory violence.
But there is also an important difference between the two cases.
The genocide in Gaza is not taking place in the dark.
While Sri Lanka took time to gather evidence of violations and conduct independent investigations, global attention on Gaza – and live images of decapitated babies and charred bodies in “Block 2371” – can prevent the repetition of the Sri Lankan phenomenon. horror.
Media reports have already shown how the “safe zone” south of Wadi Gaza was bombarded by 2,000-pound bombs, killing thousands of Palestinians.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has gathered evidence and is now seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant for their alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) observed the deployment of incessant violence by Israel against civilians and ordered the government to “immediately cease” its offensive in Rafah, specifying that its actions were not sufficient “to mitigate the immense risk (including the risk of not being protected by the Genocide Convention) to which the Palestinian population is exposed as a result of the military offensive in Rafah.
Israel responded to the ruling by the country’s highest court by continuing its bombing of safe zones. The Block 2371 massacre took place just 48 hours after the ICJ order. Less than a fortnight later, another Israeli airstrike on a UN-run school in the Nuseirat camp, also designated as a “safe zone”, killed at least 40 people, mainly women and children. On June 9, an Israeli operation to free four Israeli captives in the same camp cost the lives of 274 Palestinians and injured hundreds more.
All eyes are on Rafah and the rest of the devastated Gaza Strip, but Israel remains undeterred and commits its crimes in the spotlight, while the US, UK, France and Germany continue to supply him with weapons.
The ICJ and ICC had their say, as did South Africa, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Norway. Academic encampments and the global solidarity movement are calling on their governments to implement an arms embargo and demand a ceasefire as they witness how Israel has turned the safe zones it created into battlefields .
As in other situations of extreme colonial violence, Israel’s acceleration of its extermination practices in Gaza and its clumsy attempt to present it as law-abiding are symptoms of the twilight of its dispossession project. Former colonial powers like the UK, France and Germany should know this. The United States should know this. All eyes are on Gaza. All eyes are also on them.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
