Eighty countries that have just decried Israel’s supposed indifference to civilian deaths: “Delegation of 80 UN members sign declaration saying Gaza faces the ‘worst humanitarian crisis,'” Jerusalem Post, May 23, 2025:
A delegation of 80 UN member countries on Thursday signed a declaration saying that they are “committed to upholding international humanitarian law and protecting civilians in armed conflict,” citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s statement that the Gaza Strip faces the “worst humanitarian crisis,” France’s UN mission confirmed on Thursday, publishing the statement in full.
And do those 80 countries know who else is “committed to upholding international humanitarian law and protecting civilians”? It’s the government of Israel, which wants to create the conditions for distribution of humanitarian aid directly to its intended recipients so that the aid now going into Gaza — now more than 110 trucks a day, with that number constantly increasing — actually reaches them, instead of so much of it being stolen by Hamas for distribution to its own members and their extended families, as well as some of it being offered by the terror group for sale, at exorbitant prices, to the very people — ordinary Gazans — who were supposed to receive the aid for free.
As for “protecting civilians in armed conflict,” it is Hamas that puts civilians at risk by deliberately hiding its men and weapons in civilian areas and in apartment buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals, and other civilian structures. Hamas doesn’t want to protect civilians; it wants them to be killed, so that their deaths may be used for propaganda purposes against the Jewish state.
It is Israel that makes tremendous efforts to keep civilian deaths to a minimum. It does this by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text messages, and making millions of robocalls, to warn civilians away from sites and buildings about to be targeted. The result is that the civilian-to-combatant ratio of deaths in Gaza is less than 1:1. To understand just how impressive that result is, consider that the UN says that in all the wars fought since World War II, that ratio has been 9:1. In Afghanistan the Americans managed to bring that ratio down to 4:1, and in Iraq, to 3:1. But no military had come close to the IDF’s feat. That is one of the reasons why British Colonel Richard Kemp, who fought in a half-dozen wars and commanded British forces in Afghanistan, has described the IDF as “the most moral army in the world” and what led West Point Professor of Urban War Studies John Spencer, who has been studying the Gaza war, to declare that “Israel has done more to prevent civilian casualties in war than any military in history — above & beyond what international law requires.”
That civilian-to-combatant ratio of deaths in Gaza is calculated as follows: 53,000 total deaths, from which we must subtract both 22,000 members of Hamas, and 16,000 deaths attributed to non-combat-related causes — diseases and accidents — which before the war began were recorded at a steady rate of 800 deaths monthly. Thus the non-combat-related deaths over 20 months (800 x 20) has amounted to 16,000. That means there have been 15,000 civilian deaths in Gaza attributed to the war itself. The civilian-to-combatant ratio, then, is 15:22, or roughly 2:3, which is far lower than any military anywhere has achieved in the modern era.
The eighty countries that have just decried Israel’s supposed indifference to civilian deaths should look at those figures; they speak for themselves. To repeat, no military in history has managed to achieve what the IDF has achieved, in lowering the civilian-to-combatant ratio to roughly 2:3, the clear result of the IDF’s massive effort to warn civilians to leave certain areas about to be hit.
“The protection of civilians is not optional. It is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law, and a moral imperative we cannot afford to neglect,” the statement read.
The declaration also condemned all acts of violence and threats against humanitarian actors, stating that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian personnel, with over 360 individuals killed in 20 countries.
Limiting ourselves only to the Gaza war — those 360 individuals (“humanitarian personnel”) were killed not just in Gaza, but in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Congo, Syria, Yemen, and many other places — the chief charge against Israel is that a group of medics in Gaza were killed by the IDF. The IDF investigated the case, and determined that those killed had been traveling in ambulances, often used by Hamas to transfer its operatives through the Strip, and along with the medics were six known members of Hamas. That puts quite a different slant on what otherwise would seem to be a wanton act of murder.
The delegation, which included France, Australia, Canada, China, the EU, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, and others, urged parties to the conflict to “allow and facilitate, as required by international humanitarian law, safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access to all civilians in need.”
“The instrumentalization of aid for political, military, or security strategic objectives is unacceptable,” the delegation’s statement added.
That statement about international humanitarian law requiring “safe, rapid, and unhindered humanitarian access” to aid is directly contradicted by Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly allows a state to withhold humanitarian aid from an enemy combatant under certain conditions.
The obligation of a High Contracting Party to allow the free passage of the consignments [humanitarian aid] indicated in the preceding paragraph is subject to the condition that this Party is satisfied that there are no serious reasons for fearing:
(a) that the consignments may be diverted from their destination;
(b) that the control may not be effective, or
(c) that a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy through the substitution of the above-mentioned consignments for goods which would otherwise be provided or produced by the enemy or through the release of such material, services or facilities as would otherwise be required for the production of such goods.
Hamas does “divert aid from its [intended] destination.” Much of that aid is “diverted” from the people of Gaza to Hamas. Until now “control” of the distribution has been nearly nonexistent; Hamas steals what it wants. Hamas does have a “definite advantage to accrue to it” when its fighters know they can take vast quantities of the aid for themselves and their families, which helps Hamas sustain its men, and even gain new recruits. And Hamas sells much of the aid it steals to the Gazans who were supposed to have received the aid for free.
In other words, all three of the permissible reasons for withholding humanitarian aid, as set out in the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 23, have been met.
Do these 80 countries threatening to sanction Israel not know about Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention? They had better bone up on that provision, lest they continue to embarrass themselves.
somehistory says
It seems that a large portion of the world has chosen to forget that there was a *ceasefire* on Oct 6, which hamas violated, along with violating all of the rights of innocent people, the very next morning.
There is no accurate way to know how many innocent people have been killed in the wars mankind has fought. But, it seems that only the babies, children and women who live in Gaza and are put in harm’s way by the very group which violated the ceasefire, matter to the world’s *leaders.*
The innocent babies and children are being used by those world “leaders* just as much as they are being used by the hamas terrorists….as weapons against Israel,
and a link to another ghoulsih group
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/soccer/cup-final-abandoned-as-fans-and-players-wave-palestine-flags/ar-AA1Fuqyi?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=409ef30b66d749cebd0dd112833f1dc9&ei=29
somehistory says
“GENEVA (Reuters) -The Palestinian delegation won the right to fly their flag at the World Health Organization after a symbolic victory in a vote on Monday that its envoy hopes will lead to greater recognition within the United Nations and beyond.
The proposal, brought by China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and others, at the global agency’s annual assembly in Geneva passed with 95 in favour and four against – Israel, Hungary, Czech Republic and Germany – and 27 abstentions.”
There is more, but my pc has chosen to defy my efforts at posting any of the bits of importance.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/palestinians-to-raise-flag-at-who-for-the-first-time-after-vote/ar-AA1FvrPo?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=128fb912288e49ee9178407eaefb0812&ei=21.
somehistory says
The lebanese delegate praised it and the ‘brave palestinians.’
“Israel’s ambassador Daniel Meron argued against the WHO resolution which he said eroded the principles of the U.N. and the rules-based order and called for a vote.
“It sends a dangerous message that political symbolism can override legal standards, that emotion can replace process and that partisan interests can bend the rules of international legitimacy,” he said. Its main ally, the United States, which plans to exit the WHO, did not participate.”
gravenimage says
Rewarding Jihad terror–kidnapping, rape, starvation torture, and murder of Jews…
InfidelLover says
If the UN takes a whack at Israel, why is it that no whack is talken against Russia which has done far heinous stuff agaisnt Ukraine? 20,000 Ukrainian childen havebeen abducted to Russia.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Many of those countries are members of either BRICS or SCO, of which Russia & China are the 2 leaders. None of them want both the US and Russia to be opposed to them
gravenimage says
+1
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Is there a list of those 80 countries?
Lady of the lake says
The UN is solely responsible for the welfare of the pallies as realized through the UNRWA et al. The UN took it upon themselves to create these organizations for pallie welfare
so I suggest that they (the UN) begin to actually fulfill their mandate of care by organizing a mass relocation effort to ease the humanitarian crisis .
gravenimage says
True enough. And Hamas has said it will do nothing for the wellbeing of Gaza.
gravenimage says
80 UN Members Take a Whack at Israel
……………………………………..
Just sickening lies against the only democracy in the region–in favor of Hamas’ Jihad terrorism. Disgusting–but consider the source…
skeptiker says
Da hocken die lupenreinen Diktatoren und Despoten in trauter Verbundenheit mal wieder zusammen und benutzen die UNO unter dem Vorsitz der “Persona non grata” Guterres zum xten Mal um ihren Hass und ihre Frustration darüber, dass sich Israel erfolgreich gegen den Terror verteidigt, zum Ausdruck und zu Papier zu bringen.
Was für ein heuchlerischer Abschaum sich da erdreistet, sich moralisch über Israel zu erheben. Schaut euch die Menschenrechtsbilanz in ihren eigenen Ländern an, dann muss man diese Propaganda – Veranstaltung der UNO abhaken unter Ablage P.
jerry glenn says
The UN has no redeeming social importance. We should get out.
James Lincoln says
jerry glenn says,
“We should get out.”
Yes, yesterday.
dumbledoresarmy says
Among those 80 nations was China. Naturally the bully state that is communist totalitarian China has the HIDE to point accusing fingers at Israel… shall we say one word, “Tibet”?? Shall we mention the Chinese imperial invasion, exploitation, pillaging (of forests and wildlife and other resources), and suppression of indigenous Tibetan language and culture?? A LOT of Tibetans were killed by the Chinese, from 1949 onward.
And China – imperialists to the backbone! good god, their historic rulers were called Emperors – point fingers at .. Israel (which is a tiny, tiny, TINY indigenous people-group who regained sovereignty over part of their TINY indigenous homeland… in the teeth of two empires – the British empire and the de facto empire of Islam).
The spectacle of that line-up of unrepentant thugs and bullies and imperialists… with plenty of fully-propagandised Useful Idiots and Jihad Groupies alongside…. posturing and lecturing and lying through their teeth, falsely accusing the Jews of tiny Israel, of all manner of crimes, disgusts.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Even more than Tibet, consider Xinjiang! Everything that Beijing accuses Israel of is something they’ve actually done worse. W/ the Uyghur population, they have subjected them to all sorts of things, from biological experiments to slavery
What’s worse: they’ve made the Uyghurs a captive population & refused to release them anywhere. In Israel’s case, any muslim who doesn’t like Israel is free to leave, whether to “Palestinian” territories or other Arab countries. But Beijing has a special arrangement w/ most muslim countries to extradite any Uyghurs who seek refuge there. End result is that any Uyghurs who want to flee have to flee to the West, despite the fact that culturally, they’d be more at home next door in Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan. Once in the West, we have no idea whether they’ll be productive citizens, or jihadists born out of a resentment of Beijing
On top of that, as Gordon Chang, probably the world’s #1 Sinologist, pointed out, there is a medieval Chinese doctrine called “Tianxia”, translated as “all under heaven”. According to that ideology, the only sovereign authority on earth is China, and every other country on earth is subservient to them. President Xi, according to him, is both a Maoist as well as a believer in Tianxia, and when one combines them w/ the knowledge of Beijing’s Belt/Road policy worldwide, one gets to see their real globalist designs
But yeah, diplomatically, Jerusalem could start w/ Beijing when it comes to noting that what they are doing is projection. Also ding the OIC as well as the Organization of Turkic States for turning a blind eye to Xinjiang, and remind Erdogan that he would do better trying to reclaim Qashqar for the ummah, rather than Jerusalem
JS says
Those Ughyurs are terrorists and always have been. Look it up. That’s the only thing China has done right!