Violations “blatant” of the ” rules “ of war in the conflict in the Middle East are creating a dangerous precedent, warn humanitarian workers in the region, through the voice of the vice-president of the Palestinian Red Crescent, Marwan Jilani, to Agence France-Presse. “The rules of war are being violated so blatantly” that this “sets a precedent that we have not seen in any other conflict”he judged.
During his participation last week in Geneva in a meeting of the 191 national societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Mr. Jilani denounced this “complete contempt” for international humanitarian law since the deadly Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023 and the Israeli response.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has more than 900 employees and several thousand volunteers in Gaza. “They are part of the community. They have been moved many times”said Mr. Jilani, adding: “I think every one of our staff members has lost family members. » He denounces in particular the “deliberate targeting of the health sector”. Accusations that Israel rejects, claiming to carry out its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon in compliance with international law.
But according to Mr. Jilani, “many staff members” of the Palestinian Red Crescent, “including doctors and nurses, were detained, taken for weeks and tortured”. Since the start of the war in Gaza, 34 employees and volunteers of the Palestinian Red Crescent have been killed in the enclave and two others in the West Bank, “most of them during their service”he declared. Four other staff members remain detained, their fate unknown.
