More than 800 officials serving in the United States and Europe they signed one statement claiming that Israel has shown “no limits” in its military operations in Gaza“which have caused tens of thousands of preventable civilian deaths”, also denouncing “the deliberate blockade of aid” in the Palestinian enclave which has put “thousands of civilians at risk of starvation and slow death”.
“There is the plausible risk that our governments' policies are contributing to serious violations of international law, war crimes and even ethnic cleansing or genocide“, is added in the 'Transatlantic Declaration', a copy of which was sent to the BBC.
Officials say their administrations risk being complicit in “one of the worst human catastrophes of this century.”, pointing out that their expert advice has been cast aside. For the British broadcaster, this is the latest sign of significant dissent within the governments of some of Israel's main Western allies.
One of the signatories of the declaration, a US government official with more than 25 years of experience in the field of national security, said reported to the BBC the “continuing dismissal” of their concerns. “The voices of those who understand the region and its dynamics have not been heard,” she explained.
“What's really different here is that we are not failing to prevent something, we are actively complicit. This is fundamentally different from any other situation that I can remember,” added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The declaration is signed by public officials from the United States, the EU and 11 European countries including the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
The The identities of those who signed or approved the statement have not been made public and the BBC has not seen a list of names, but it appears almost half are officials who each have at least a decade of experience in government.
The UN alarm: “Rafah pressure cooker of desperation”
The United Nations has meanwhile warned that Rafah is becoming a “pressure cooker of desperation” as thousands of people flee to the southern Gaza city from Khan Yunis and other parts of the Strip. For Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the situation in Rafah “does not look good”, with fears increasing over the possibility that the city could become the scene of a new Israeli offensive.
“Rafah is a pressure cooker of desperation and we fear for what comes next,” Laerke said during a United Nations briefing in Geneva. “It's as if every week we think it can't get any worse and yet it gets worse.”
“It is very important for us and for OCHA to express today our deep concern about what is happening in Khan Yunis and Rafah, in the southern part of the Strip, because things really don't look good,” he added.
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