The Guardian view on Gaza's engineered famine: stop arming the slaughter – or lose the rule of law
Gaza's cries have been drowned out by Israel's strikes on Iran, and the diplomatic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over the suffering has ebbed. Yet as the industrialised world urges de-escalation in the Middle East, the devastation continues. On Tuesday morning, witnesses described Israeli forces firing towards a crowd waiting for trucks loaded with flour, leaving more than 50 dead. These are not stray bullets in wartime chaos, they are the outcome of a system that makes relief deadly.
As Médecins Sans Frontières declared this week, what is unfolding in Gaza is 'the calculated evisceration of the very systems that sustain life'. That includes homes, markets, water networks and hospitals – with healthcare continually under attack. Last week, a UN commission found that more than 90% of the Gaza Strip's schools and universities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces using airstrikes, burning, shelling and controlled demolitions. What's happening is not the collateral damage of military necessity, it is a programme of civic annihilation.
In such circumstances, words without action are worse than meaningless. Western powers cannot decry war crimes and genocide while supplying the arms that cause them elsewhere. If they believe in international law, countries such as the UK should act to uphold it. The law is not law if no one enforces it. Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and has a clear duty under the fourth Geneva convention to ensure the population's access to food, water and medical care.
Instead, it has imposed a blockade and driven out UN humanitarian operations. In their place, it has backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private aid scheme coordinated with its military and guarded by US mercenaries. Citing unproven claims of Hamas infiltration, Israel scrapped 400 UN-backed aid sites for just four GHF-run, militarised hubs. In a few weeks, around 300 Palestinians have reportedly died trying to access these food sites. UN officials are right to say the GHF scheme is 'engineered scarcity' that has made aid distribution 'a death trap'. The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights has also warned that the GHF may be prosecuted for aiding 'war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide'. Yet Donald Trump's state department is mulling a $500m grant.
In the UK, ministers say allegations of genocide are for courts to decide upon, while government lawyers in court assert that there is no genocide. This is not just moral evasiveness but tactical contradiction, designed to sustain arms sales and diplomatic cover. This hypocrisy has consequences. By shielding Israel from accountability in Gaza, and now endorsing its illegal strike on Iran, western governments are not merely complicit – they are dismantling the legal order they claim to defend. They are falling in line with Mr Trump's attempts to undermine institutions designed to hold powerful actors accountable, replacing legal norms with political cover.
As the former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk has said, if GHF were a genuine humanitarian project it would have halted a model that produces daily massacres. According to the Carnegie Endowment's Katherine Wilkens, GHF imposes severe limits on food, subjects civilians to invasive biometric vetting and hands out aid at gunpoint under Israeli control – in clear breach of international law. What is collapsing in Gaza is not just infrastructure. It is the principle that even war has rules. When those rules are waived for allies, no one is safe.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
36 minutes ago
- Sky News
Trump-Iran live: Israel 'ran to daddy', Iran says - as Trump hits out at supreme leader; funeral held in Tehran for killed military commanders
Donald Trump lashed out at Iran's supreme leader over claims Tehran won the war against Israel. But Iran's foreign minister warned the US president about his "disrespectful and unacceptable tone". Follow live and listen to Trump 100 below.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
I spent 31 years advising US on the Iran threat – it's the last gaps of a dying regime, Trump's next move is crucial
IRAN'S repressed nation should be encouraged to overthrow its barbaric regime by the US, an ex-Congress adviser said. Calls for regime overhaul in the rogue nation have rumbled louder since a 12-day war broke out between Israel and Iran erupted. 7 7 7 Donald Trump unleashed the biggest blow of the conflict last Sunday when he ordered America's military to bomb Iran's nuclear sites. The US leader even hinted at toppling the regime as he wrote on Truth Social: "If the current Iranian regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a regime change? MIGA!". Authorities in the US insisted ousting the Ayatollah was not one of its goals - but question marks hang over whether his cruel regime can survive. Supreme leader Ali Khamenei has led a blood-soaked reign over Iran since 1989 following the death of his ruthless predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini. But the chorus of voices demanding regime change in Iran has amplified after decades of its people suffering a catalogue of human rights violations. Fears have also escalated that the wounded regime could deploy a dirty bomb in desperation after its nuclear ambitions were largely obliterated by the US and Israel. Kenneth Katzman, who spent 31 years briefing Congress on Iran as a top Middle East Analyst, believes the US should now take little action - except incentivise life under a new regime. Merciless Khamenei, 86, has been in hiding since Israel began a campaign to destroy his nuclear sites - and many senior figures believe his rule could be on its last legs. Katzman told The Sun: "These are the last gasps of a dying regime. "It's still in control nominally but I personally believe this regime is basically lost. Only the real diehards right now are behind this regime. "That doesn't mean it's going to collapse any day now, but it will eventually. This regime is in big trouble." Katzman, who retired in 2022 but has continued to watch Iran cut a menacing figure, said if it was still advise Congress to now "do as little as possible". The analyst, who worked at the US Congressional Research Service, added: "There is a war fever going on now, with a lot of piling on and dredging up past incidents with Iran, past grievances. 'If it were up to me I would say to send some kind of signal that if there is a new regime, the US is willing to lift sanctions, provide humanitarian aid, welcome defectors and investment from Iran. 'Signalling that if the people can get rid of this regime they can have the same future that Syria is now experiencing, where they got rid of a dictator and have had sanctions lifted. 'That would be the tone I would take. The regime can be toppled very suddenly, although it's not toppling just yet. 'If you take it from the Iranian people's perspective, there's no prospect of getting sanctions relief, they're in a war with Israel with no air defense. Evil Ayatollah could unleash dirty bomb, exiled prince warns Exclusive by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital), in Paris IRAN'S brutal regime could kill tens of millions of people by smuggling nuclear material and unleashing it on Europe, the rogue nation's exiled prince told The Sun. Reza Pahlavi warned while the US and Israel have eliminated the "immediate threat" of its atomic ambitions, barbaric leaders could still acquire a dirty bomb. Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, warned callous Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could still attempt to utilise his warped allies in a bid to get his hands on nuclear matter. Speaking to The Sun at an undisclosed location in Paris just hours before the ceasefire this week, he said: "Terrorism has many means of hurting big time. Nobody anticipated 9/11. It was a terrorist attack. "What keeps people not to worry about the fact that the call of these terrorist networks of sleeper cells could smuggle in a few grams of enriched plutonium, throw it in a lake in Europe, and instantaneously kill tens of millions of people who will be radioactively attacked. "You don't need a missile or warhead for that. "We have at least eliminated the imminent threat of the regime. Does that mean that the regime still doesn't have the capability to acquire nuclear weapons or a dirty bomb by purchasing it from the North Koreans? "It doesn't eliminate that, that's the entire point." Pahlavi, whose family was forced to leave Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, warned unless the Islamist regime is toppled, the threat of nuclear material being weaponised looms large. The self-styled crown prince - who has been advocating for regime change for decades - announced on Monday he is offering to lead a transitional government to make Iran a democratic, secular country. 'The regime has now brought them into a war with the United States, although that may not continue. I think the people can only take so much.' Last week the US bombed nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan after Iran's devastating missile exchange with Israel. President Donald Trump has since announced a precarious ceasefire, but the world continues to nervously await what happens next. While Iran is currently in a ceasefire with Israel, fears continue to grow as to how long this will last. Trump was this week hailed a 'daddy' by Nato chief Mark Rutte at a landmark meeting in the Netherlands. Iran also finally admitted the US strikes had left their nuclear facilities 'badly damaged'. But it came after Trump made the astonishing claim on Tuesday that Israel and Iran 'don't know what the f*** they're doing' following doubts the agreement had been kept. Katzman believes Iran is very far away from developing a nuclear weapon. And even if it did get one, it would be extremely difficult for it to ever threaten a launch given US and Israeli intelligence. He added: 'I think US intelligence is good enough to detect if they were actually going to try to use a nuclear weapon. 'You need a lot of steps to do that. It's not that easy to conceal, especially with the Mossad agents crawling all over the place as they are right now. 'There are radioactivity detectors. There's a lot of intelligence gathering going on. 'So I don't think it would be that easy for them to just go from where they are now with these destroyed facilities to suddenly producing a nuclear weapon. 'I could be wrong, but I don't think it's that easy.' Asked how the Iranian people could conceivably overthrow the regime, Katzman said he doesn't expect anything to happen soon. 7 7 7 He believes the conflict must settle first. Katzman added: 'It can be toppled. Is it close to being toppled? No, but it can be. 'Anything can really spark it. We had a partial prison break at Evin Prison. 'You can get incidents. I hear the IRGC is already cracking down by stopping every car that goes by to see if there are Mossad agents in there. 'They're sort of doubling down on their strategy in a way. That can work for a while, but the population is pretty fed up. 'Obviously the population has to get through this crisis first and then it can reassess what to do about the regime. 'So it's not going to do anything right now while the conflict is going on, but ultimately though, there's going to be a reckoning.' On Wednesday Nato leaders pledged to increase their annual defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035. Trump also said he no longer believes the organisation is a 'rip-off'.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Iran holds state funeral for military leaders killed in Israel conflict
A state funeral is taking place in Iran for around 60 people, including military commanders and nuclear scientists, killed during the 12-day conflict with draped in the Iranian flag, bearing portraits of deceased commanders were flanked by large crowds near Enghelab Square in central conflict ended with a ceasefire earlier this week, after the US became directly involved by bombing key nuclear sites in those being laid to rest is Mohammad Bagheri, the highest-ranking military officer in Iran who was chief of staff of Iran's armed forces. Huge crowds of mourners dressed in black chanted slogans, waved Iranian flags and held portraits of those killed. Saturday's funeral will also include Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, as well as a number of nuclear scientists such as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was head of Azad University in Tehran. It comes after US President Donald Trump said he would "absolutely" consider bombing Iran to a question from the BBC's Nomia Iqbal at a White House press briefing on Friday, he said he would "without question" attack the country if intelligence concluded Iran could enrich uranium to concerning has also repeated his assertions that Iran was "decimated", writing: "Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the war with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie."Trump also claimed to have known "exactly where he [Khamenei] was sheltered", saying he "would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces... terminate his life"."I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death, and he does not have to say, 'thank-you, president Trump!'" Trump posted on his Truth Social foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned Trump against making "disrespectful" comments about Khamenei, who claimed US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites had achieved "nothing significant"."If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei," Araghchi posted on X."The Great and Powerful Iranian People, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had no choice but to run to 'Daddy' to avoid being flattened by our Missiles, do not take kindly to Threats and Insults."Araghchi has admitted that "excessive and serious" damage was done to Iran's nuclear sites by the recent bombings.
