Gaza’s human rights situation under Hamas has always been precarious. But the coronavirus crisis has exposed the terror group’s violations, especially regarding the two Israeli civilians held hostage and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers it seized.
Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul were killed during Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 Gaza conflict sparked by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas members.
The two Israeli civilians, both with known mental health issues, are Avera Mengistu of Ashkelon who crossed into Gaza on foot on September 7, 2014 and Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin from the Negev town of Hura who entered the Strip on April 20, 2015.
Hamas has refused to release any details of the civilians nor allow any international humanitarian group to visit them to ascertain their condition, as required by international humanitarian law.
The 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange saw Hamas trade a live IDF soldier they had held captive incommunicado for five years in exchange for 1,027 terrorists imprisoned in Israel. Now, Hamas expects Israel to release Hamas prisoners and other convicted terrorists from Israeli jails as the price for the return of the hostages and the dead soldiers.
Coronavirus and Gaza Human Rights
With the outbreak of the coronavirus in Gaza, the hostage situation took a strange turn. Hamas leaders, fearful of the pandemic, realized that years of investment in weapons had left their health system perilously unfit for an epidemic. The group sent out feelers to arrange a hostage exchange, but it is unknown what the price will be.
Hamas leader Yahye Sinwar wants Israel to provide ventilators to help fight the coronavirus in Gaza, and in typical Hamas fashion that if Israel didn’t supply them he would “take them by force from Israel and stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis.”
There is little argument that the Hamas terror group rules Gaza with an iron-fist. When they take time out from criticizing Israel, human rights organizations sometimes produce token reports and recognize that “Hamas authorities in Gaza routinely arrest and torture peaceful critics and opponents” while noting the “systematic practice of torture by Palestinian authorities.”
The outbreak of coronavirus in Gaza has not stopped Hamas’ illegal behavior towards Gazans. On April 6, 2020 Hamas arrested peace activist Rami Aman for the crime of discussing life in the Strip amid the coronavirus threat in a Zoom conference call with Israelis. Aman has not been heard from since.
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The International Law Hamas Disregards
But the issue of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza is not one of coronavirus in Gaza, but rather adherence by Hamas to international human rights laws.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is recognized as the main global organization monitoring prisoners in conflicts and its database contains the international human rights laws governing the Gaza situation. Hamas denied the ICRC access to Gilad Shalit and continues to ignore international law by refusing to allow the ICRC to see Mengistu and al-Sayed.
The right of the ICRC to visit detainees in international armed conflicts is provided for in the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions. According to these provisions, the ICRC has full liberty to select the places it wishes to visit and must be able to interview the detainees without witnesses. The duration and frequency of such visits may not be restricted.
International Humanitarian Law, Rule 124: ICRC Access to Persons Deprived of Their Liberty
While some anti-Israeli advocates argue that Hamas is not a state player and is thus not subject to Rule 124, Human Rights Watch clearly stated its opinion that the “armed conflict between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups is governed by international treaty as well as the rules of customary international humanitarian law.”
HRW specifically referred to the Geneva Conventions that sets forth minimum standards for all parties to a non-international armed conflict – that is, between a state and a non-state armed group.
“The customary rules of humanitarian law, based on established state practice, bind all parties to an armed conflict, whether states or non-state armed groups.”
In 2017 the ICRC itself issued a demand that “the Hamas authorities to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law to the five Israeli nationals who went missing in Gaza between July 2014 and 2016, and remain unaccounted for.”
“The ICRC has consistently reminded the Hamas authorities, at the highest level, of their legal and humanitarian obligations, and told them that intentionally withholding information about missing persons is acting in violation of humanitarian law.”
Other Violations
Hamas flaunting of international law does not limit itself to violations against Israelis. The Iran-backed terror group is known for violating other international human rights laws by
- Using Palestinians as human shields by positioning rocket launchers, tunnels, weapons depots and command and control centers in the vicinity of homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and UN facilities.
- Abusing children through brainwashing indoctrination, military training and digging tunnels.
- Using rockets, mortars and suicide bombers to indiscriminately attack and kill Israeli civilians.
- Carrying out mass street executions of Palestinians without trials.
- Further violations associated with the Gaza border clashes and incendiary terror balloons.
A 2018 UN report on human rights noted that “In 2013, Hamas proposed a new Penal Code for Gaza based on Sharia principles … The draft law includes a list of punishments, such as flogging or lashing, hand amputation, and the death penalty, that breach fundamental human rights.”
Whither Human Rights in Gaza?
From the human rights point of view nothing has changed with or without the issue of the coronavirus in Gaza. Countries around the globe are facing health and economic crises from the pandemic, but the coronavirus in Gaza is nothing more than another bargaining tool for Hamas to use in its obsessive quest for a victorious war to defeat Israel.
You know the situation is bad when the UN Human Rights Council, well-known as a bastion of anti-Israel vitriol, now dedicates space in its regular report to detail Hamas human rights abuses. The UN itself admits Hamas carries out illegal arrests, tortures detainees, intimidates anybody who criticizes them and holds over 1,800 political prisoners “in reform and rehabilitation centers.”
Related reading: Israel and the Dysfunctional UN Human Rights Council
The January 2020 report singled out the “brutal crackdown by Gaza security forces” in March, 2019 against impoverished Gazans who were protesting rising living costs under Hamas’ oppressive rule. Hamas forces brutally beat men, women and children, arresting up to 1,000 and leaving many hospitalized in serious condition.
The international community has a sad record of being unwilling to even attempt to get Hamas to comply with international human rights laws and respect Palestinian human rights, let alone to pressure Hamas to allow the ICRC to ascertain if the Israeli hostages are even alive. Even if international interlocutors help broker a hostage exchange, such a deal will indeed obtain their freedom, but will leave Hamas in the same state ready and willing to abuse human rights to its own ends.
There is no expectation at all from any quarters that the radical Islamic terror group will ever comply with international laws. Despite documented recognition by the international community that Hamas is a serial human rights violator, those same countries show their impotence and have abandoned the Palestinians to be perennially abused by their Hamas masters – leaving Israel alone to face the problem.
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