The war in Gaza has undoubtedly been one of the most horrific and unequal wars that history has ever witnessed. Figure 1 illustrates this fact because from October 2023 to late April 2024, the Zionist regime has dropped more than 70,000 tons of bombs on the people of Gaza. It is important to note that this quantity of bombs has been dropped on a city that covers a small geographical area (360 square kilometers), home to more than 2.3 million residents (a high population density). Moreover, these people have been under siege by the Zionist regime since 2007. This means that for over 17 years, the people of Gaza have been living in the largest open-air prison in human history. During this time, the Zionist regime has carried out military operations in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2022, and May 2023, resulting in the ongoing destruction of infrastructure, including agricultural lands, crops, warehouses, greenhouses, and more.
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Nevertheless, in the war waged by the Zionist regime against the people of Gaza (October 2023), the evil and savagery of the Zionist regime were not only directed against ordinary Gaza civilians. A United Nations report dated April 30 reveals that from October 7, 2023, to April 2024, approximately 254 aid workers in Gaza were killed by the military forces of the Zionist regime. Additionally, Human Rights Watch has reported that since October
2023, the Zionist regime’s military forces have conducted at least eight attacks on aid convoys and the locations of aid workers in Gaza. This occurred even as international aid organizations had shared their geographical coordinates with Israeli authorities to guarantee their safety.
Israeli military has carried out multiple attacks against aid workers
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According to the data shown in Figure 2, the Zionist regime has killed the highest number of aid workers in Palestine over the past 30 years. This is while according to international laws of war, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is prohibited and such actions are deemed a crime. Nevertheless, the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy, which resulted in the killing of seven aid workers, is just one of at least eight “crimes” identified by Human Rights Watch, in which aid organizations and UN agencies had previously notified the leaders of the Zionist regime about the presence and activities of this group. According to a UN report, the GPS coordinates of this convoy and the humanitarian aid sites were shared with Israeli authorities, yet the Zionist forces attacked their shelter without any warning. The seven other crimes committed by the Zionist regime against aid workers include the following:
- Nov. 18, 2023: Attack on the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) convoy.
- Dec. 9, 2023: Attack on a guesthouse of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
- Jan. 8, 2024: Attack on an MSF shelter.
- Jan. 18, 2024: Attack on a guesthouse belonging to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
- Feb. 5, 2024: Attack on a UNRWA convoy.
- Feb. 20, 2024: Attack on an MSF guesthouse.
- March 8, 2024: Attack on the home of an employee of the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera).
As mentioned aforehand, in contemporary international society, fundamental humanitarian laws are regarded as inviolable principles, and some of these principles, such as the principle of distinguishing between military and civilian locations, are deemed important. Aid workers are, in fact, agents and providers of service to humanity, whose innocence on the battlefield has always been protected by international regulations. These individuals are committed to upholding human dignity and advocating for humanitarian rights. Therefore, it is clear that a direct military attack against them is considered a war crime, as mentioned in the provisions of the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the four Geneva Conventions. The extent of the crimes committed by the Zionist regime has been such that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution stated in his remarks on July 28: “The Zionist regime has reached a new level in their shocking crimes in the history of human criminality in the world. Today, the Zionists are dropping heavy bombs on civilians who hadn’t even fired a single bullet… Their crimes are unprecedented.”
Systematic attacks against aid workers
Even though the leaders of the Zionist regime have announced that their attacks on humanitarian groups were unintentional, the Human Rights Council stated in a report in June that Israeli officials have provided no evidence to prove the accidental nature of these attacks. In this regard, the UK-based international humanitarian organization Oxfam has reported that the attack on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza is considered part of the [Zionist] regime's “systematic” attacks in Palestine. As a matter of fact, the Zionist regime is employing systematic attacks in the Gaza war to instill fear and compel the Palestinian people to flee their land. In other words, the Zionist regime aims to either acquire new seized territories through the genocide in Gaza or the forced displacement of Gazans. Therefore, the objective of the Zionist regime's attacks on aid groups is, first and foremost, to generate fear among these workers in order to prevent them from providing services to the people of Gaza and to intimidate other organizations around the world from establishing a presence in Palestine. Secondly, it aims to discourage the people of Gaza from anticipating aid from international organizations, which would consequently lead to their forced displacement. In this regard, one can reference Human Rights Watch’s trip to Cairo and northern Sinai, near the border between Egypt and Gaza. During this visit, employees from 11 humanitarian organizations and UN relief agencies operating in Gaza emphasized that Israeli attacks on aid workers have compelled them to take various actions, such as halting their activities, downsizing their staff in Gaza, or significantly restricting their relief operations.
Now, the question on the minds of every human is this: How would Western governments, which have devoted all their resources to relatively small and insignificant issues in certain countries, respond today if one of these humanitarian crises were to occur in China, Russia, Iran, Algeria, or anywhere else except for Palestine or countries under Western influence? It is clear that if military aid and support from Western governments, especially the US, to the Zionist regime did not exist, humanity would not be witnessing a humanitarian disaster in Gaza today. In this regard, Imam Khamenei stated on Feb. 24, 2024, that “Despite their preaching about humanity and human rights, Western civilization has shown itself to be deceitful, hypocritical, and filled with lies. They oppose the execution of a criminal. For instance, when a murderer who has killed several people is to face retribution and has been given the death penalty, they start raising a commotion against his execution and saying that execution is bad. However, when 30,000 people have been executed by the Zionist regime over the course of three or four months, they close their eyes as if nothing has happened.” Consequently, given the inhumane actions perpetrated by the Zionist regime against relief workers, their conduct can be characterized as “targeted and clearly intentional.” Such actions appear to be aimed at instilling terror and fear in an attempt to force the displacement of civilians.
