[News] US charity demands probe into killing of Gaza aid worker

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/us-charity-demands-probe-killing-gaza-aid-worker>
US charity demands probe into killing of Gaza aid worker

Maureen Clare Murphy
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy> Rights and
Accountability
<https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability> 16 March
2024
------------------------------

Mousa Shawwa was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah on 8
March. (Courtesy of Anera)

Mousa Shawwa, the Gaza logistics and support coordinator for Anera, a US
charity providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians, was killed in an
Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah on 8 March.

Shawwa had just returned from distributing humanitarian aid and was still
wearing his Anera jacket when the shelter in central Gaza where he was
staying with his extended family was hit, according to
<https://www.anera.org/press/us-ngo-worker-killed-in-israeli-airstrike/>
the charity.

Some 30 to 50 people were killed in the attack.

“His wife and two of his children suffered moderate injuries,” Anera
stated. “His youngest son, 6-year-old Karim, is in critical condition.”

Anera said
<https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7174689860677472258/>
that Karim was evacuated to Egypt for treatment after the intervention of
“25 people across six countries, including a minister, an ambassador, a
CEO, a general, several doctors, friends from the UAE, and 10 Anera
employees,” underscoring the difficulty for Palestinians in Gaza to access
urgently needed medical care.

Shawwa was killed and his family injured shortly after Joe Biden announced
during his State of the Union address that the US military would build a
temporary port on Gaza’s coast for the delivery of humanitarian aid by sea.

During that same speech, the US president warned Israel that “humanitarian
assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” even
though his spokespersons have tacitly endorsed
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/bidens-regime-change-agenda-prolongs-gaza-genocide/45046>
the use of urgently needed aid as a form of leverage in negotiations with
Hamas.

Anera said that it had given the Israeli military the coordinates of the
shelter where Shawwa and his family were staying, as well as those of its
office and distribution center locations, on multiple occasions, including
days before the strike that killed the father of three.
Hundreds of humanitarians killed

Karim Shawwa, critically injured in the Israeli attack that killed his
father. (Courtesy of Anera)

Shawwa is not the first humanitarian worker killed during Israel’s military
offensive in Gaza, where the International Court of Justice said in an
interim ruling
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/world-court-orders-israel-halt-gaza-genocide>
that there is a plausible risk of genocide.

Among the more than 31,000 Palestinians killed since 7 October were hundreds
of humanitarian personnel
<https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-day-158>:
165 UN staff, around 350 health workers, 48 civil defense workers and 14
staff belonging to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Anera said that the attack that killed Shawwa is an “undeniable case of
deconfliction not working and it threatens our team’s ability to keep
functioning.”

That may have been the purpose of the Israeli attack. On 13 March, the
military hit one of the few remaining distribution centers operated by
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, after having been provided the
coordinates <https://twitter.com/UNLazzarini/status/1767933620621127752> of
the facility the previous day.

At least one UNRWA employee was among the five people killed in Wednesday’s
strike, which injured another 22 people at the agency’s food distribution
center in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel claimed that Muhammad Abu Hasna, who it said was a Hamas fighter,
was killed in the strike. According to Reuters
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-forces-kill-two-palestinians-west-bank-raid-after-deadly-night-2024-03-13/>,
citing a statement from Hamas, the Palestinian faction said “Abu Hasna was
a member of its police force and condemned his killing as a ‘cowardly
assassination’ meant to disrupt aid distribution.”

Israel’s targeting and killing
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/bidens-regime-change-agenda-prolongs-gaza-genocide/45046>
around a dozen Palestinian police officers guarding humanitarian aid envoys
has forced UN agencies and other organizations to suspend aid missions due
to security concerns.

UNRWA, which has the largest humanitarian footprint in Gaza, said that more
than 150 of its facilities have been hit since 7 October and more than 400
people were “killed while seeking shelter under the UN flag.”
“War against aid workers”

Israeli forces have also repeatedly fired on Palestinians gathered to
receive desperately needed food aid, particularly in northern Gaza, which
has been mostly cut off from assistance that is brought in from the south.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-fire-kills-six-gazans-awaiting-aid-trucks-say-palestinian-health-2024-03-14/>
while attempting to access aid <https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6226>
in two separate incidents in Gaza on Thursday.

Two weeks earlier, at least 118 Palestinians were killed
<https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/03/09/gaza-new-accounts-of-the-flour-massacre_6601904_4.html>
when Israeli forces opened fire
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/palestinians-seeking-food-aid-killed-israel-starves-gaza>
toward hundreds of people attempting to access aid from trucks near Gaza
City.

UNRWA aid convoys have also been hit by Israeli fire as part of what author
Tariq Kenney-Shawa describes
<https://twitter.com/tksshawa/status/1767985476646932776> as an
unprecedented “declared war against aid workers.”

The UN agency’s staff have “reportedly been mistreated and humiliated” in
Israeli detention. UNRWA employees released from detention say they were
“pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has
Hamas links and that staff took part” in the 7 October attacks, according to
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/unrwa-report-says-israel-coerced-some-agency-employees-falsely-admit-hamas-links-2024-03-08/>
Reuters, citing an unpublished report from the agency.

Israel’s allies have dealt what may be a death blow
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/funding-freeze-could-halt-unrwa-operations-end-month>
to UNRWA – which provides government-like services to millions of
Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria
– by freezing
funding
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israels-allies-accelerate-genocide-freezing-unrwa-funds>
following unverified allegations that a handful of its Gaza staff were
involved in the 7 October raid led by Hamas.

*The Times of Israel* reported
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-seeking-to-force-unrwa-dissolution-in-gaza-to-be-replaced-by-alternative/>
on Monday that the attempt to discredit UNRWA is part of an Israeli plan to
“dismantle the UN agency … and replace it with an alternative.”
“Constantly under threat”

Following Israel’s attack on the UNRWA food distribution center on
Wednesday, Martin Griffiths, the UN relief chief, asked
<https://twitter.com/UNReliefChief/status/1767950863627112776>: “How are we
to maintain aid operations when our teams and supplies are constantly under
threat?”
Anera likewise asked after the killing of Mousa Shawwa: “If Israel
continues to target humanitarian workers, who is going to be left in Gaza
to distribute the aid that President Biden is promising?”

A suspension of operations by Anera in the wake of the deadly attack on its
staff would mean the loss of a lifeline for Palestinians enduring
deliberately inflicted “conditions of life calculated to bring about
[their] physical destruction in whole or in part,” as the Genocide
Convention states
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/Genocide%20Convention-FactSheet-ENG.pdf>
.

Anera said it has provided more than 20 million meals, including in
northern Gaza, and more than 3 million medical treatments in the territory
since 7 October, as well as “essential water and shelter supplies.”

“Anera has been the key ‘boots on the ground,’ ‘last-mile’ delivery partner
in Gaza for more than 40 other organizations since the war’s onset,” the
organization added.
Deep worry

Anera said <https://www.anera.org/blog/mousa-shawwa/> that Shawwa, the
slain logistics coordinator, lived in Gaza City before he and his family
were forced to evacuate to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

An employee of 15 years who started out as a driver and custodian, Shawwa
“was instrumental in getting aid delivered to where and whom it was needed
most,” Anera said.

“He was a problem-solver and a humanitarian who believed deeply in Anera’s
mission,” the organization added.

Sean Carroll, Anera’s president and CEO, told The Electronic Intifada that
in recent months, Shawwa had “worked with three other colleagues to ensure
food was delivered in the Deir al-Balah area.”

“This included overseeing our *tekias* (community kitchens) there and
handing out vegetable baskets,” Carroll added. “He was also responsible for
securing needed logistical support for our operations, including
transportation, communications and shelter.”

Carroll said that “the killing of our beloved longtime colleague has cast a
pall over our work.”

“Our team members in Gaza are deeply worried about the safety of their
families and themselves and fear that their humanitarian work could put
them in even greater risk, beyond the already universal danger confronting
civilians in Gaza,” Carroll added.
Calls for investigations and sanctions

Anera is one of 25 humanitarian and human rights groups that wrote a letter
<https://civiliansinconflict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/NGO-Letter-to-Biden-on-620I-in-Gaza.pdf>
to Biden on Tuesday stating that he is violating US law by providing
military aid to Israel while it obstructs the delivery of US aid to Gaza.

American law bans assistance
<https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title22-section2378-1&num=0&edition=prelim>
to countries that prohibit or restrict the delivery of humanitarian
assistance provided by the US. But the Biden administration will not say
<https://twitter.com/joshruebner/status/1765121158049890581> whether it is
formally assessing whether Israel is in compliance with US law.

Patrick Leahy, a former senator, has said
<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/patrick-leahy-israel-gaza-aid-b2509035.html>
that Israel is violating US statutes bearing his name
<https://www.state.gov/key-topics-bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/human-rights/leahy-law-fact-sheet/>
that bar aid to military units that carry out gross violations of human
rights.

A handful of sitting senators, including Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen
and Elizbath Warren, wrote a letter to Biden
<https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Letter-to-President-Biden-on-enforcement-of-Section-620I-of-the-Foreign-Assistance-Act3.pdf>
on Monday stating that “the Netanyahu government’s interference in US
humanitarian operations” violates domestic law.

“The United States should not provide military assistance to any country
that interferes with US humanitarian assistance,” the senators said.
“Safe zone” hit

Medical Aid for Palestinians and the International Rescue Committee – UK
and US charities, respectively – have called on
<https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-irc-and-map-additional-statement-airstrike-residential-compound-housing-emergency-medical-team>
the governments of those countries to undertake “a full, independent and
timebound investigation” into a near-fatal Israeli airstrike on 18 January.

That strike in the supposed al-Mawasi “safe zone” hit “a residential
compound housing our Emergency Medical Team (EMT) and members of MAP’s
local team and their family members,” the two organizations said.

“An independent multi-agency investigation by the UN carried out on 19
January found that it had most likely involved a GBU32 (MK83) missile
package,” MAP and IRC added.

“This 1,000 lb. US-manufactured ‘smart bomb’ was fired from an F16 jet.
F16s are manufactured in the US and include parts supplied by the UK.”

Several people were injured in the strike, which “caused significant damage
to the building,” MAP and IRC said. The coordinates of the compound had
been provided to the Israeli military “through the UN deconfliction
process, which is supposed to provide additional protection for
humanitarian personnel in Gaza.”

The two organizations said that the Israeli authorities “have provided six
different explanations as to why the airstrike took place,” highlighting “a
continued lack of transparency regarding what occurred” and indicating an
inability or unwillingness to investigate.

“As current suppliers of arms and munitions to Israel, governments such as
the UK and the US have a particular responsibility to hold Israel
accountable for this and other attacks on aid workers and civilians,” MAP
and IRC said.

Washington is obligated to undertake an investigation into the strike that
killed Shawwa, according to Anera’s Sean Carroll, who was the chief of
staff of the State Department agency USAID during the Obama administration.

An investigation is imperative, Carroll said, “particularly given the
preponderance of US-supplied weaponry in the Israeli arsenal and the
likelihood that US weapons have been used in other attacks on humanitarian
organizations and their staff.”
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