APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South Africa has condemned “in the strongest possible terms” Israel’s alleged violation of the Geneva Conventions and the abandoning of international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip since fighting broke out over a week ago between its troops and the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
The condemnation came after the Israeli authorities stopped electricity and water supplies to the Gaza Strip and said that no movements of food, fuel, health, other humanitarian supplies or patients would be allowed into the enclave – worsening an already dire situation, according to the South African government.
In a statement on Sunday, the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said Article 14 of the Geneva Convention stated that “starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited.”
“It is, therefore, prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless for that purpose, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works.”
According to the fourth Geneva Convention, “civilians in areas of armed conflict and occupied territories are protected by the 159 articles of the fourth Geneva Convention,” the ministry said.
In addition, “civilians are to be protected from murder, torture, or brutality, and from discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, religion or political opinion,” according to the office.
Over 4,000 people have died on both sides since the conflict started, with the majority of them being children and women of Gaza, according to reports.
Despite appeals from UN Secretary General António Guterres who stressed that crucial life-saving supplies — including fuel, food and water — must be allowed into Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has not heeded the call to remove the sanctions and stop the carpet bombing of the crowded strip of land.
The UN Commission on Human Rights has also declared Israel’s “continuous grave breaches” of the fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I to be “war crimes.”
Israel said it would not stop fighting Hamas until it has destroyed the organisation.
NM/jn/APA