More than 800 serving officials in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have openly criticized their governments’ unwavering support for Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The officials said in a statement released on Friday that their governments’ policies on the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza could amount to “grave violations of international humanitarian law.”
The “transatlantic” statement said the administrations in the US, UK and EU, some of which are Israel’s key Western allies, risk being complicit in “one of the worst human catastrophes of this century.”
“Israel has shown no boundaries in its military operations in Gaza which has resulted in tens of thousands of preventable civilian deaths; and that the deliberate blocking of aid by Israel has led to a humanitarian catastrophe, putting thousands of civilians at risk of starvation and slow death,” the officials said.
“Our governments have provided the Israeli military operation with public, diplomatic and military support,” they added. “This support has been given without real conditions or accountability; and that when faced with humanitarian catastrophe; our governments have failed to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to blockages of necessary food, water and medicine in Gaza.”
The statement expressed concerns about the ongoing situation in Gaza and said, “There is a plausible risk that our governments’ policies are contributing to grave violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and even ethnic cleansing or genocide.”
Signed by civil servants from the US, the EU and 11 European countries including the UK, France and Germany, the statement called for holding “Israel, like all actors, accountable to international humanitarian and human rights standards applied elsewhere and to forcefully respond to attacks against civilians.”
The signatories also demanded a lasting ceasefire and full humanitarian access in Gaza as well as a safe release of prisoners on both sides.
The statement is the first instance of officials in allied nations across the Atlantic coming together to censure their governments over the Israeli war on the besieged Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile, the US federal court in California asked US President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday to reconsider its “unflagging support” for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The court also ruled that the Israeli aggression on Gaza, which began in early October, “plausibly” amounts to genocide.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm in response to Tel Aviv’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 27,019 Palestinians and injured 66,139 others since the start of the invasion, the health ministry in Gaza said.
Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.
UN experts have described Israel’s war on Gaza as the deadliest, most dangerous conflict for journalists in recent history.
