Sir, – In late October, the UN Secretary General António Guterres tentatively suggested that Israel might be attempting ethnic cleansing in Gaza, but claimed that this had failed so far due “to the courage and the resilience of the Palestinian people and to the determination of the Arab world”.
These were diplomatic observations. Palestinian steadfastness is certainly evident, but the primary reason that mass population displacement out of Gaza did not occur in the months after October 2023, as Israeli forces deliberately pushed Palestinian civilians southwards towards Rafah, was Egypt’s dogged refusal to open the border to allow refugees to stream into the Sinai peninsula. Egypt’s rationale for keeping the gate closed was clearly more about its own interests than Palestinian well-being, but the effect was to forestall significant ethnic cleansing by Israel.
However, as Isabelle Defourny and Christopher Lockyear of Médecins Sans Frontières have observed, Israel’s revised plan appears to involve the ethnic cleansing of north Gaza, which “consists of wiping Palestinians from the northern part of Gaza by either killing them, forcing them out, or starving to death those who stay” (“Israel is perpetuating atrocity upon atrocity in northern Gaza”, Opinion & Analysis, November 18th).
What is occurring is indubitably a war crime and in direct defiance of the International Court of Justice order in January this year that Israel should desist from the killing and mass displacement of Palestinian civilians.
Ms Defourny and Mr Lockyear remark that the horror inflicted by the Israeli army in Gaza has reached a new level with atrocity following atrocity, and civilians “being shot at and bombed as they flee”. In their opinion, the “international community” has made no tangible effort “to prevent a genocide.” Ethnic cleansing from the north appears to be well under way.
This urgent plea for intervention from the president and secretary general of MSF must be heard and listened to. Shamefully, the “international community” has refused to take purposeful action to stop Israel’s war on Gaza. Arms continue to flow and no sanctions have been imposed. This simply has to change, or we may witness the entire destruction of a civilian population. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN LANE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.