A confidential memo from the Dutch Defense Attache at the embassy in Tel Aviv warned the government that the Israeli army “intends to deliberately cause enormous destruction to infrastructure and civilian centers” in the Gaza Strip, which explains the “high number of deaths” among Palestinian civilians. The memo describes Israel’s actions as “disproportionate force” and a “violation of international treaties and the laws of war,” NRC reports.

The Dutch minister of Defense is furious about the leaking of a memo that confirms israel does not have a plan in Gaza and is trying to maximize civilian casualties.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    175·
    1 year ago

    I’m sorry if I wasn’t supposed to put anything outside of the main article in the body, I thought this only applied to the title. I have slightly added parts of different stories I didn’t link above

    This Dutch newspaper article is my source about the Defense minister being furious about this internal memo being leaked

    https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1540882107/minister-woest-over-uitlekken-gaza-memo-geen-faire-weergave

    The claim about “no plan” is worded slightly differently in the original leaked Dutch memo as “no strategy”

    https://nos.nl/collectie/13959/artikel/2497847-gelekt-israel-memo-ambassade-nieuw-signaal-verdeeldheid-bij-overheid

    (original NRC article is pay walled so this one will have to do) “In de rapportage staat volgens de krant dat de Israëlische politieke en militaire top >>>geen duidelijke strategie hebben.” (they have no clear strategy)

    The maximizing civilian casualty stuff is basically what the article is about though. The israeli strategy seems to be do as much damage as possible to the Gaza strip in the hope Gazans will flee into Sinai and thus permanently evict them from Gaza.

    What I meant by “plan” is that there is no “plan” to do get rid of Hamas or restore peace in Gaza, the only “plan” israel has according to this leaked memo is to ethnically cleanse Gaza by pushing the populace into Egypt. Which is very contradictory to what israel has been proclaiming the past few weeks.

    Also if they target infrastructure they target civilians. Are the people of Gaza supposed to magically live without food water and medicine? They’re not plants that live on rainfall and sunshine.