Just sick

Here is a rundown in the Guardian of the likelihood that Hamas breached international law with their appalling atrocity on over a thousand civilians and the breaches that Israel's siege and indiscriminate bombing of (likely but not confirmed) many thousands of Palestinian civilians are likely to have caused.

And those are just in this conflict.

Let alone in prior conflicts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_war_crimes

Numerous charges of war crimes have been levied against Israel for its actions against civilians. These charges have come from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'tselem, and human rights groups and experts, including UN rapporteurs.[71] Critics argue the Biden administration has given tacit approval to Israeli war crimes.[72] Antony Blinken indicated the Biden administration has a "high tolerance" for whatever happens in Gaza.[73] On 27 October, the White House stated it had no red lines for Israeli actions.[74]

I suspect there are many war crimes being committed at the moment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_the_2023_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war#By_the_Israeli_government

Unsurprisingly, these things take time to be prosecuted, evidence gathered and so on. So at this stage it's odd to ask why they've not yet been prosecuted.

Whether Israel has breached international law is very much open to debate and will be decided by lawyers not ill-informed people in the court of mumsnet. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself and Hamas have breached all kinds of human rights laws consistently - towards its own people, not to mention Israelis. The death toll is horrific but noone has yet explained to me what Israel could reasonably be expected to do in the light of 7 October & Hamas's stated intention to reoeat, and repeat. I hope very much key nations in the region will play a part in a diplomatic solution but if Hamas will not surrender and will not commit to accepting Israel's right to exist and Jewish people's right to live how can progress be made?

There is a big search engine that people use called Google. Look it up yourself. Why trust the other poster ?

How so? with the amount of hits on Gaza there have been remarkably few civilians killed. Israel also warn civilians to leave areas, therefore making an effort to preserve civilian life and putting their own soldiers in danger by doing so. If they wanted to annihilate the entire population, as you say, then they can do this in a day, which they don't. So many posters on here claim that Israel is genocidal and ethnically cleansing palestinians. Seems to be they are going after terrorists and trying to avoid civilian deaths, Can anyone offer evidence of genocide and ethnic cleansing by Israel?

They are not annhilating an entire population. The situation is desperate enough for Palestinians without such hyperbole.

Many posters say that Israel breaks the law. Can anyone give any detail on this? What law has Israel broken and if so why has no one brought them to book? Why no successful prosecutions?

I agree OP. The US should have cut aid to Israel immediately when it became clear that they have no regard for international law. Israel should have been treated the same way as Russia and sanctioned harshly for their lack of self-control. There are many questions to be answered about why Israel has received special treatment and has been allowed to breach international law with no repercussions.

@eardefender and not forgetting Arafat's widow...

Yasser Arafat's widow is worth in the hundreds of millions and lives in the EU (Malta) with vast real estate holdings in London and other places. She and her daughter (who never set foot in Israel or Palestine) are permanent UNWRA refugees and receive over 100k a year from the Palestinian money bucket. How did they get that money?

Stealing from Palestinians.

Mazook, Sinyar and hinyar are all millionaires. How did they make that money?

Stealing from Palestinians.

If there is peace and children go to school, people go to work, university, have a normal family life,,the end of the sad story then that money stops flowing.

The Palestinian 'leadership' are creating victims so the pity money keeps flowing in from the west making the hierarchy rich.

Stealing from refugees. They don't care about the Palestinians in Gaza they care about the money.

I'm in total agreement. This horror didn't start on October 7th. What Hamas did was truly barbaric and the Israeli government were always going to respond. But there seems to be little desire for a peaceful settlement and a disregard of the thousands of children who have lost their lives. Two wrongs don't make a right. The current situation in Palestine where millions of people have no health care is nothing less than a scandal.

@ideaspls How did the world just sit and watch as this was allowed to happen?

Have you, in the circumstances in which you live, done everything you possibly could to prevent 'this' from happening? You cannot take the whole world's responsibilities. You can only take your own.

This. The UN have a useful role but I don't think it's as an ultimate moral arbiter or even a source to be uncritically accepted. High ideals no doubt but lots of compromise and competing interests as it's essentially a microcosm of all the nations of the world jostling for position.

I agree OP, it's awful.
Also, with regard blaming Hamas, Hamas are fucking terrorists, the idea of expecting decent standards of behaviour and concern for civilians from a terrorist organisation is laughable. We should however absolutely expect the above from an elected government .

I get why people would want to discredit and smear organisations like the UN and WHO that speak out against injustices carried out by Israeli govt in Palestine, especially if those individuals have a pro-Israeli government agenda.

It just makes me respect the UN even more that they call out what they perceive to be likely Israeli govt war crimes towards Palestinians, especially in the face of smear campaigns.

The need to protect civilian life in war still holds under international law.

The scale and speed of destruction has few precedents reports the NY Times.

If you don't want to rely on casualty counts, satellite analysis shows half of Northern Gaza's buildings wrecked by war (reporting by the FT).

On the UN - people forget that the 'UN' is just the world's nations. Many of those nations are extremely hostile to Israel, including those who not only believe Israel should be destroyed, but actively work towards this goal, such as Iran. Iran is now chairing the UN Himan Rights Council - Iran with its appalling human rights record, committing atrocities against women, kurds, religious minorities & any opposition on a daily basis. There are lots of issues with UNWRA & other UN bodies & individuals its not automatically an indication of impartiality

Agreed OP, Hamas is a despicable organisation and should never have created this situation. They don't care at all about their own population and my heart breaks for ordinary Palestinians.

@ideaspls why the hell are you so angry with mumsnetters?

You asked a question and got an answer!!

@backtowinter agreed.

Well OP I'm still in disbelief that an atrocious terrorist attack on woman and children has been denied, ignored and excused.

But there you go

BRUSSELS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The European Union said on Tuesday a review of its development aid to Palestinians, ordered after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, found no evidence of funds going to the militant group and that its assistance would continue.

The EU is the biggest provider of such aid to Palestinians. It has earmarked some 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for its programmes for the period between 2021 and 2024.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body, announced the review two days after Hamas militants attacked Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Officials said the review was ordered as a precaution, not because they had any indications EU cash was going to Hamas.

"The review found no indications of EU money having directly or indirectly benefited the terrorist organisation Hamas," said Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.

"The review found that the control system in place has worked. As a result payment to Palestinian beneficiaries and UNRWA will continue without any delays," Dombrovskis told reporters.

@eardefender I think I will trust the comprehensive EU review, produced by EU Commission officials, over you, on UNRWA funding. As an official EU body, they do rigorous research.

So you are now smearing WHO, UN, EU, EU Commission and UNRWA? Okey dokey.

I know who I trust. Not some random MN poster, not conspiracy theorists, but official EU Commission reviews.