The aid convoy tragedy in Gaza

 

I daresay by now most people have heard of the Israeli destruction of a clearly marked, position-broadcasting aid convoy in Gaza, in which seven aid workers were killed.  On the face of it, it looks to be a clear violation of every "law of war" (a misnomer if ever I heard one).  A tragedy indeed.  I don't think anyone in his right mind would dispute that.

Israel is being condemned from all sides for the attack.  To cite just one commenter:

The IDF murdered seven aid workers yesterday, three of whom were British special forces veterans, in three targeted drone strikes ... This isn’t self-defense. These attacks are not even taking place in Israel. No wonder Netanyahu is whining about how the whole world now hates Israel. Because it’s rapidly becoming impossible for any sane or impartial individual to not despise what the Israeli government and the Israeli military are doing.

More of the same can be found all over the Internet.

The attack should never have taken place, and was undoubtedly wrong.  I hope those responsible for it will face justice over their actions.  However, few people are looking below the surface.  There's more to this than you'd think.

First, Hamas has for years - no, for decades - used aid organizations and convoys as cover for its own movements.  This is beyond dispute.  Even worse, many of those aid organizations and their staff are openly partisan in their position, siding with Hamas and against Israel.  Indeed, after the October terrorism atrocities against Israel, it's known that UNRWA staff and aid workers actually assisted in holding some hostages prisoner and guarding them!  Those allegations cover almost all aid organizations in Gaza, and there's more than abundant evidence to prove them.  That being the case, you might say that any aid organization there - no matter how trustworthy and neutral it may actually be - starts out, as far as Israel is concerned, under a cloud of suspicion.  It's not a case of being regarded as innocent until proven guilty.  Rather, the assumption is that it's guilty unless and until it's proven innocent - and there won't be a lot of effort from Israel to prove that organization's innocence.  They've seen it too often.

Second, after the Israeli invasion of Gaza last year, Hamas continued to deliberately use aid vehicles and convoys to move its armed forces from place to place;  to resupply them;  and to move hostages to more secure areas to prevent Israel from freeing them.  This is beyond dispute.  There's video evidence of Hamas doing all those things;  indeed, there's video evidence of Hamas launching weapons (anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, bombardment rockets, etc.) from the premises of aid organizations, hospitals, etc.  Again, Israel has become accustomed to this, and now regards such premises as automatically suspect.

I don't blame them.  In their shoes, I'd have done the same thing - and, in another part of the world where I fought in a different war, that's exactly what I did, and experience seldom proved me wrong.  The amount of foreign "humanitarian" aid we found in the possession of terrorists - sometimes feeding and supporting entire terrorist base camps - was staggering.  (Do some reading about the role of, say, Norwegian People's Aid, and see for yourself.  That's just one of many organizations that were involved, including Oxfam, the Red Cross, and other very big names in the aid field.)  The concept of "neutrality" was conspicuous by its absence among most of the aid organizations we encountered.  Israel is experiencing precisely the same thing.

That reality does not excuse the strike that killed those seven aid workers, and I'm not trying to do so here.  As I've already said, I hope those responsible face justice for their actions.  However, those actions have to be viewed against a backdrop where Israel's armed forces have learned, the hard way, that any and all aid organizations are to be considered partisan rather than neutral;  where those working for them, no matter what their nationality or motivation, are to be regarded in the same way;  and where their activities are seen as potentially hostile to Israel and/or pro-Hamas, regardless of whether or not they really are either of those things.  No amount of official guidance, or standing orders, or military restrictions, can completely overcome that pre-judgment of anything that operators on the ground, conditioned by months of intensive combat, observe during the course of their duties.  Perhaps only those who've been "seasoned" by combat conditions can understand that.  Those who've never experienced that stress probably can't.

I'm pretty sure that the operator(s) who fired and guided the missiles that killed those aid workers were convinced, in their own mind, that they'd detected Hamas members and/or sympathizers dropping off supplies (which might be food or medicines, but might also include weapons) to terrorists.  Hamas has used ambulances to do precisely that on previous occasions, and aid convoys and shipments too, so this would be nothing new.  The fact that the charity in question had informed Israel of this movement, and its vehicles were broadcasting their identity and location, makes precisely no difference where such suspicions are concerned.  The ambulances and aid vehicles Hamas had previously used to distribute supplies had been doing exactly the same thing.  In a very real sense, part of the responsibility for the deaths of those seven aid workers lies with Hamas for making such activities automatically suspicious in the eyes of the Israeli military.  If I'd been on duty that night, watching for enemy movement in my sector, I'd have presumed that too.  I'd have been pre-conditioned to do so by my enemy's own previous actions.

I think that's why those seven aid workers died.  They were in a place where it was difficult to move around safely at the best of times, and in the wartime conditions that now prevail there, it's actively dangerous.  I'm not going to say they should not have been there - that was their own choice, and I honor their courage in being willing to put their lives on the line for what they believed in - but by being there, they made the choice to put themselves in danger.  Tragically, that danger caught up with them.  It should not have done so . . . but it did.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is belligerent, defensive, not inclined to cut aid organizations and international opinion any slack.  I think there's much about him to dislike;  but, in this instance, he's correct to say bluntly that "It happens in war".  It does.  It's happened in almost any war you care to name, including wars fought by US forces, who have been in the past as guilty of targeting innocent aid workers in other countries as Israel is today in Gaza.

May those who died rest in peace.  May their sins be forgiven them, and their compassion for their fellow human beings be rewarded;  and may their families and co-workers receive what comfort they may.  May justice be done for their deaths, and may the example of their deaths help to prevent - or, at least, minimize - such tragedies in future.  Nevertheless, don't see this as a deliberate, planned massacre by Israel of aid workers.  I think it's simply the overwhelming realities "on the ground" in Gaza overriding discretion and other potential explanations.

If I'd been in those drone operators' shoes, I might have pulled the trigger myself.  In another war, on another continent, based on what I knew in that place at that time, I had to make similar snap operational decisions.  I'll never know for sure (in this life, at any rate) whether they were the right ones.

Peter