OPINION:
Civilians in a war zone always do the same thing — try to escape the battlefield and find humanitarian assistance. Sometimes, the humanitarians make it harder for them.
International aid agencies, aided by the United States, are killing Palestinian refugees. They are knowingly herding them into a battle zone and refusing to let them move to safety, even temporarily. And they deliberately drive up the death toll and misery index to force Israel to abandon its legitimate decision to disarm Hamas in Gaza.
As of last May, the U.N. refugee agency reported more than 110 million people had been forcibly displaced worldwide, including more than 13 million Syrians and more than 5 million Afghans.
As fighting continues in both of those countries, no one expects civilians to sit in the middle of the battle. More than 3.6 million Syrians are sheltering in Turkey. Europe was told to open its doors to refugees, and it did; more than 1 million are there.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, people fled. As of this past September, there were 6.2 million Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Israel has about 45,000. By comparison, Japan has about 2,468 Ukrainian refugees.
That last figure is not noted to complain about Japan, but simply to point out that refugees go to the closest places first (Russia — for ethnic Russian Ukrainians, plus Germany and Poland leading the list), or to places that help them relocate (Israel sent airplanes), and only at the end, to places farther afield.
After the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, Israel determined that it would have to uproot the Hamas military infrastructure dug in under the civilians of Gaza. It was understood that this would create dislocations, but after 1,200 people in Israel were slaughtered in the most vicious and blood-curdling manner possible and 240 more were kidnapped, it was inconceivable that Hamas should be allowed to retreat to Gaza and resume operations.
Israel, as it always does, warned the civilians that it was coming from the north — contrary to all military understanding that telling the enemy your route allows them to plan their counterattack, which Hamas did by not letting the civilians leave northern Gaza. This use of human shields is a war crime, but it was Israel that was warned not to kill civilians.
After days of battle, the Israel Defense Forces opened a corridor for Palestinian civilians, who moved south in large numbers — and inevitably, Hamas operatives moved with them. Tens of thousands of people ran for the safety of international organizations in the south, near Egypt. This prompted warnings to Israel to allow food and humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza from Egypt — without Israeli inspection.
Despite the State Department’s stern warning that aid should not end up in the hands of Hamas, there is video evidence of Hamas operatives commandeering aid trucks, shooting at civilians, and smuggling arms into Gaza on those trucks. Aid organizations and The New York Times claim the people storming the trucks are desperate civilians despite their guns. But Hamas operatives wear no uniforms — which is another war crime — so it is not clear how aid organizations or journalists know who is who.
Now you have hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians parked next to the city of Rafah near Philadelphi Corridor — the area between northern Sinai and the southern Gaza Strip. “The need is close to catastrophic at this stage,” said Hardin Lang of Refugees International.
On the principle that the closest safe place is the best place, could the refugees go to Egypt temporarily? No, says President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. No, says the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. No, says the U.S. government. Why not? Because they’re Palestinians and have to stay where they are — which sounds more like a jail sentence than an effort to help.
The real reason is that Hamas is the Palestinian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Egypt rightly hates the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. But Egypt, with help, is being allowed to stymie the provision of food and medical assistance to those Palestinians who have managed to escape the clutches of Hamas and run for safety.
Northern Sinai is fairly empty — there are jihadis roaming in some places, but Egypt, with Israel’s help, has largely defeated them. Putting refugees in temporary refugee camps — guarded by the Egyptian military or a coalition of other troops if necessary — would provide safety for a time.
For how long? For as long as it takes to liberate both the Palestinian and Israeli people from the scourge of Hamas.
And then should come the reckoning for those who wouldn’t help.
• Shoshana Bryen is senior director of the Jewish Policy Center and editor of InFocus Quarterly magazine.
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