Statement by John Holmes, USG for Humanitarian Affairs to the UN SC on protection of civilians in armed conflict

Mr. President,

Thank you for this opportunity to brief the Council.

I will cover a number of urgent issues but the main focus today must be the conduct of hostilities and the need for strict compliance with international humanitarian law.

The current situation in southern Israel and Gaza is pressing and desperate.

Civilians in southern Israel have long had to live under constant threat of rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian militants. Considering the number of rockets and mortars fired, civilian casualties have been limited, but the frequent and indiscriminate nature of these attacks inflicts severe psychological suffering. Four Israeli civilians have been killed and dozens injured since the current hostilities began.

These attacks are contrary to international humanitarian law and must cease. Yet any Israeli response must itself comply with international humanitarian law. Here too there is considerable and grave cause for concern.

The population of Gaza was already suffering severely after more than 18 months of closures. Since the current hostilities started, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reports, as of yesterday, 13 January, that the number of Palestinian casualties stands at 971 killed, of whom 311 are children and 76 women, and 4,418 wounded of whom 1,549 are children and 652 are women. Many of the male casualties are no doubt also civilians. The number of child casualties has reportedly tripled since the beginning of ground operations on 3rd January. The Israeli Defense Forces are no doubt trying, as they say, to take steps to minimize civilian casualties but they are clearly not succeeding.

Israeli operations are also causing extensive damage to homes and public infrastructure, and seriously jeopardizing water, sanitation and medical services. United Nations schools sheltering displaced persons have been hit; humanitarian workers have been killed and ambulances hit; sick and wounded left trapped and unassisted; up to 100,000 people displaced from their homes.

The situation for the civilian population of Gaza is terrifying and its psychological impact felt particularly by children and their parents who feel helpless and unable to protect them. It is a situation from which civilians have only minimal respite, three hours a day, with no escape as borders and crossings remain closed.

Only a full and fully respected ceasefire will spare the civilian population from these horrors. And even then, their need for assistance will remain both urgent and overwhelming.

Mr. President,

In the conduct of military operations, constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population from the effects of hostilities. This requires strict compliance with the principles of distinction and proportionality and the requirement to take all feasible precautions in attack and against the effects of attack.

For those launching attacks, this includes doing everything feasible to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects and refraining from any indiscriminate attack, including those which may be expected to cause incidental civilian casualties which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from that specific attack.

For those in defence, it means removing civilians and civilian objects from the vicinity of military objectives and avoiding locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas. It also means not ordering or using the presence or movement of civilians to render certain points or areas immune from military operations or to shield military objectives from attack.

Can we look at what has been happening in Gaza in the last three weeks and say that either Israel or Hamas has come close to respecting fully these rules? I think not.

I repeat that violations of international humanitarian law by one party to a conflict offer no justification for non-compliance by other parties. Allegations of violations must be fully investigated and those responsible held to account.

Mr. President,

As much as the world's attention is focused on Gaza, it is sadly by no means the only situation to raise profound concerns over the degree of respect for these rules and for international humanitarian law.

From the end of August, the eyes of the international community were focused on the catastrophic situation that began to unfold around Goma, in eastern DRC.

Congolese civilians found themselves in the worst of all worlds: subject to attacks, displacement, sexual violence and forced recruitment perpetrated by advancing rebel forces; and to acts of violence, rape and looting carried out by members of the official Congolese armed forces and Mai Mai and other militias.

In one particularly horrific incident in early November, an estimated 150 people were killed during two days of violence in the town of Kiwanja. Reports indicate that most of those killed were summarily executed by the forces of Laurent Nkunda. Others died when caught in combat between Nkunda's forces and Mai Mai militia.