Current Affairs

Our aid workers were brutally killed and thrown into a mass grave in Gaza. This must never happen again | Jagan Chapagain

WHash was more terrifying? Painful waiting for a week-silence after he lost our colleagues, where we were suspected of the worst but we were hoping for something different? Or confirm, after seven days, the bodies were found? Or, since then, the horrific details of how They were found and killed?

Ambulances were crushed and buried in part. Their bodies were also buried, collectively, In the sand. Our dead colleagues were still wearing the red crescent jackets. In life, this uniform referred to its position as human workers; It should protect them. Instead, in death, these red jackets have become their tools.

The ambulance officers were Mustahafa Khafaga, Saleh Mawader, the Aziz Shaath, and the first respondent volunteers, Muhammad Bahloul, Muhammad Al -Ahila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raid Al -Sharif and Radwan Roub. In addition to his fellow ambulance officers at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Asad Al-Shasra-who is still missing-and medical and humanitarian workers from other organizations, they were in emergency vehicles, and they are walking in the act of what they are doing.

Gaza after a dangerous shooting, of course. But these men were not recovering. They believed that their vehicles that put a mark on the Red Crescent would clarify who was inside and intended. They believed that international humanitarian law means something; Health care workers will be protected. Suppose this means that they will not be a target. But they were wrong. Tragicly, a terrible mistake.

So I am writing a call. Make this assumption correct again. These deaths in Gaza – although they were particularly horrific – were part of the increasing direction. More and more humanitarian relief workers are killed all over the world. The direction should be reversed.

As the Secretary -General of a World Humanitarian Union, a network of 191 society of Red Cross and Red Halm with more than 16 million employees and volunteers, I was shocked. Helping people prepare for the crisis and then dealing with it when it strikes is what our people do. Currently, thousands of colleagues from the Myanmar Red Cross help people in their immediate needs after Earthquake. In Russia and Ukraine, our members are affected by people on both sides of the conflict.

Our teams can help people deal with shock. But they should not be exposed to it because of what they are doing. International humanitarian law requires this. Health and humanitarian relief workers must be protected. They wear slogans for some reason. After Safety factor security databaseThey are killed in increasing numbers. In 2023, this was 280. Our network was lost 18 in that year in service – including six of our national community in Israel, Magin David Adom, on that terrible day in October. Last year, it is known that 382 humanitarian areas were killed. Among them, 32 members of the Red Cross or Red Crescent societies, including 18 of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Eight others were killed while working in Sudan. This year it seems worse.

We cannot allow these deaths – that is, from these attacks – to become normalization. We must reject any narration that is inevitable, or part of the danger of the job. I am grateful for politics, media and anger online from the death of our workers last month. Share it. But we must go further.

First, we must see the same time any Human killing, wherever and when. Often when the worker is locally for the community that serves them, there is much less interest than it was when an “international” worker dies.

Second, we must demand governments to change their behavior and the behavior of those who answer them. Whatever the circumstances, countries bear a legal responsibility to protect all civilians, including human workers. There should be concrete consequences for those who commit the atrocity of the killing – through malice or recklessness – who are trying to help.

Third, other governments have the duty to exert diplomatic and political pressure on their peers.

This week, the leaders of the Palestinian Red Crescent Association traveled from the West Bank to New York to inform the United Nations Security Council and demand more protection for humanitarian workers. In Geneva, I made “humanity protection” essential in my participation with governments, publicly and privately.

But in the International Red Crescent and Red Crescent Communities (IFRC), we are crossing a thin line. Neutrality and impartiality in our essence – the basic constitutional principles of our organization. Stay away from them can hinder our work. Our mission is to manage the consequences, not fingers. Even in horrific circumstances such as cases last month, or 18 months ago in Israel, no or my organization blaming people, groups, institutions or governments. You will notice that I do not do in this article, even because others on this site and other places do so exactly.

Why? Because we believe in commitment to our principles just as we demand others to adhere to the laws, especially international humanitarian law. We hope that our obligations to neutrality and neutrality will mean that our voice carries more weight when we ask for justice.

And the demand for justice we do. In Gaza, independent investigators must be allowed to reach and give full details of what happened before Sunday, no matter how comfortable those who have them. There should be respect for those who died through the consequences of those who killed them. Punishment anywhere generates impunity everywhere. He can never stand.

Last week, we and the President of IFRC sent messages of condolences to the families of three members of our network in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria. We mourned for their loss, and through the Red Family Fund supported by the European Union, which we hope we did not need, I made symbolic financial contributions. Similar messages will be sent soon to the sad families in Gaza.

But the condolences, of course, were very small, very late. What will happen is if a wave of respect for international humanitarian law is turned.

I am angry. But I am also tired of anger. Humanitarian relief workers must be protected. For the sake of humanity simply.

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