Venu Menon
Wellington, October 24,2023
New Zealand has added its voice to calls by the international community for “all parties to respect international humanitarian law, and uphold their obligations to protect civilians, and humanitarian workers, including medical personnel.”
Caretaker Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was speaking on behalf of the New Zealand Government while providing $5 million in funding to address urgent humanitarian needs in Israel, Gaza and the West bank, following the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, the governing power in the Gaza Strip.
“New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,” Hipkins noted in a statement last week.
“The situation continues to evolve rapidly, and New Zealand is joining other like-minded countries to support those civilians and communities affected by the conflict,” he added.
The government has put the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) on standby “to assist with the evacuation of New Zealanders, if required.”
An estimated 244 New Zealanders “still registered as being in Israel have now departed the country,” according to the government.
The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) says “50 people we understand are still in Israel.”
But there “is no reason to be concerned about their welfare at this stage,” Hipkins noted.
He added that MFAT was “actively providing consular assistance to New Zealanders who remain in the affected region,” and that anyone “who wishes to depart should take the earliest commercial opportunity to do so.”
The Israel-Hamas war, approaching its third week, presents an ongoing conundrum.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to wipe out Hamas in a “ do-or-die” battle, is facing some key constraints in achieving his objective.
The timing of the anticipated ground invasion of Gaza is still a matter of tight speculation. For a start, it could endanger the lives of the hostages, numbering over 200, taken by Hamas following its October 7 incursion into Southern Israel and who are presumably kept in secret locations in Gaza.
The release of two hostages over the weekend signals that Hamas is ready to negotiate the freeing of more. But reports coming out of Doha in Qatar, where its leadership is based, suggest the group wants a pause in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza as a precondition for talks on the release of hostages.
While Prime Minister Netanyahu is inclined to go along with that demand, his cabinet colleagues are hawkish on the issue. There are also calls for restraint from world leaders, including US President Joe Biden who has ensured the presence of two American aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent against adventurism by anti-Israel elements in the region.
Not surprisingly, the US naval presence on behalf of Israel has drawn fire from Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Additionally, there is overriding concern that giving the go-ahead to invade Gaza will lead to a widening of the conflict in the region. Already, civil unrest has erupted on the streets of Iraq and Syria in support of the beleaguered Palestinians.
But all eyes are on Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militia operating out of Lebanon, whose forces are already skirmishing with Israeli troops on the border.
A ground invasion of Gaza would put Hezbollah under pressure to go beyond threats and posturing and open up a second front aimed at stretching the military capability of Israel.
Meanwhile, a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions is unfolding in Gaza, a narrow enclave measuring 365 sq km which is home to roughly 2.2 million people.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has called for sustained access to Gaza to ensure the supply of food, water and, notably, fuel to run the generators used by hospitals treating the wounded population.
While around 30 trucks carrying aid have been allowed into Gaza through the Rafah crossing bordering Egypt, that number is nowhere close to the daily requirement of 500 trucks, aid agencies working on the ground say.
Gazans fleeing the war in the northern part of the strip in compliance with Israel’s evacuation order are now returning because the relief camps in the south are overwhelmed, aid workers say.
The death toll in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes is currently over 5000.
Meanwhile, Israelis are scarred by the brutality of the Hamas raid into its border villages earlier this month, which claimed 1,400 lives.
A grim byproduct of the Israel-Hamas flare-up in the Middle East is the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in other parts of the world.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
