The situation in Gaza – worse than catastrophic!

More than 600 days of war have passed since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
  In an almost unnoticed press release of 26 May, the ICRC states that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is worse than catastrophic”. It is as if there is no longer a word that can express what is happening there. As if language itself had reached its limits before these abysses of inhumanity – in the face of a reality that can no longer be expressed. Have the words in Gaza now also been destroyed? Like the hostages, the civilians, the houses, the hospitals. Like the principles of humanitarian law, also buried under the rubble.
  The Israeli blockade of Gaza has been complete for more than three months. The Israeli government is using hunger as a weapon in the war, inevitably condemning the population to death. A few weeks ago, a new player emerged in this war inferno: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), officially registered in Geneva, in the city of Henry Dunant! It is an organisation that has been commissioned by Israel and the USA to distribute aid supplies in the Gaza Strip. The GHF is organised along strictly non-transparent lines and is run by private military companies. It is their clear intention to oust the UN and other international organisations from the scene, which have become inconvenient witnesses to the drama.
  Dozens of Palestinians have already died under Israeli army bullets during food distributions organised by the GHF. It should be urgently checked whether the GHF branch in Geneva complies with Swiss laws and international law, as Philip Grant, the director of Trial International, has done with his enquiry to the federal authorities in Bern. Just as the next question demands an urgent answer: Is this trap not part of a strategic plan to force the residents of Gaza to leave their country?
  Our powerlessness as spectators in the face of the maelstrom of horrors that have become everyday occurrences has a numbing effect on our immediate perception, if it does not even turn into cynicism or indifference. Let us remember: a few weeks ago, fourteen Palestinian helpers from the Red Crescent and the Civil Defence as well as a UNRWA employee were shot dead in cold blood by Israeli soldiers. In the mass grave hastily dug by a bulldozer, one of the victims was found with his hands tied behind his back. The video found on the mobile phone of one of the exhumed aid workers helped to establish the facts. History will show whether this crime will also go unpunished.
  The Federal Council’s neutrality with its variable application grid makes Switzerland untrustworthy. While this malleable neutrality is quickly prepared to join the sanctions against Russia, it adopts a wait-and-see and accommodating attitude towards the Israeli government. The given fact that Switzerland is the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions gives the Federal Council a unique legal and moral instrument with which to launch appropriate and helpful initiatives. •

First published as «Letter to the editor of the day» in the Geneva daily newspaper Tribune de Genève on 16 June 2025

(Translation  Current Concerns)

* Jean-François Berger is a historian, screenwriter, and former delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross, based in Geneva.