Brett McGurk in 2019.Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Zuma
A summit in Bahrain A US official was arrested on Saturday The following is a list of the most recent and relevant articles. Hamas’s hostages would be released if more aid was allowed to Gaza. Brett McGurk the White House Coordinator of the Middle East, North Africa and the Middle East, acknowledged in doing so that Israel is punishing Gazans collectively. Collective punishment can be a war crime.
“A release of large numbers of hostages would result in a significant pause in fighting. A significant pause in fighting,” McGurk argues “and a massive surge of humanitarian relief. Hundreds and hundreds of trucks on a sustained basis entering Gaza from Egypt.”
“This is the pathway to a pause in the fighting. The release of hostages,” McGurk Added. “The onus here is on Hamas. This is the path. Simply calling for ceasefire is not a path to peace.”
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, argued that McGurk’s words violated the laws of armed conflict.
This is an extremely damaging and counterproductive attitude.
Multiple elements of the Laws of Armed Conflict are violated.
Contradicts USG messaging for weeks about the necessity to aid Gaza civilians.
It will be perceived by the rest of the world that USG endorses collective punishment. https://t.co/ElRIIom2dR
— Jeremy Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) November 18, 2023
Before McGurk’s remarks, Human Rights Watch and other groups had made clear that collective punishment is not permissible under international law. “The Israeli government is deliberately deepening the suffering of civilians in Gaza by refusing to restore the flow of water and electricity and blocking fuel shipments,” Human Rights Watch’s Sari Bashi Writer last month. “Willfully impeding relief supplies is a war crime, as is collectively punishing civilians for the actions of armed groups.” Bashi stressed that Israel committing its own war crimes against Gazans is not justified because of the war crime committed by Israelis against Israeli civilians the 7th of October.
McGurk didn’t show any discomfort about the fact that Hamas is holding more than 11,000 Palestinians hostage until it releases the hostages. 4 600 children, who have so far been killed during Israel’s assault on Gaza. McGurk stated that, as per the longstanding policy of Joe Biden and his administration, the United States would not discuss its differences with Israel. “We will not tell another country how to grieve or how to protect itself,” McGurk says. “But as friends and partners, we will do our best. And offer our best advice and counsel.”
McGurk’s history in the Washington national security establishment is long. He attended Columbia Law School. clerked William Rehnquist was a conservative Chief Justice. He worked in Iraq for George W. Bush, then under Barack Obama and Donald Trump. He is now one of the most influential advisers shaping Biden’s response to the war in Gaza.
The following are some of the ways to get in touch with each other HuffPost Take a look at the profile of McGurk’s image was presented as controversial last year. The article stated that McGurk’s reputation was best summarized by a remark a former official had once heard: “the most talented bureaucrat they’ve ever seen, with the worst foreign policy judgment they’ve ever seen.”
McGurk’s tone at Saturday’s summit presented a remarkable contrast with an earlier speech by Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi. “All of us have to speak loud and clear about the catastrophe that the Israeli war is brining not just on Gaza but on the region in general,” Safadi started his address. “This is not a time for mincing of words. This is a time to state facts as they are. This is not self-defense. This is a blatant aggression, the victims of which are innocent Palestinians.”
“The humanitarian catastrophe resulting from this is beyond words,” He continued. “People crowding UNRWA shelters have no access to food or water. We’re looking at the high possibility of a breakout of disease with no sanitation facilities, no medicine.”
Safadi said there was no justification for the killing of Israeli civilians on October 7, but made clear he believed Israel’s response had violated international law. “Civilians have a right to protection. Denial of food, medicine, fuel to Gazans is a war crime,” He explained. “We have to call it out as a war crime because it is. International law has to apply.”
McGurk returned to the podium about twenty minutes later for his speech. “We have been working to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, increasingly,” McGurk stressed. “But the surge in humanitarian relief, the surge in fuel, the pause in fighting will come when hostages are released.”
McGurk repeated the Biden administration’s oft-stated position that Israel should follow international law. McGurk did not attempt to explain why this accusation was incompatible with the support he gave for collective punishment that he detailed himself.