Your editorial on Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon (25 March) rightly warns against a repeat of the devastating tactics unleashed on Palestinians in Gaza.
My colleagues in Lebanon are reporting the fear instilled by mass forced-displacement orders and military attacks, including on healthcare workers. Our team and partner organisations have been supporting Palestinian refugees who have had to flee their homes, while others have not been able to evacuate even if they wish to. This has instilled deepening panic within communities, including Palestinian refugees who already live in overcrowded camps, and experience poverty and limited access to essential services.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military is absolutely mirroring the playbook it has deployed in Gaza: the terrorising of civilians, forced displacement and widespread attacks on humanitarian and healthcare facilities. Despite the “ceasefire agreement” in Gaza, Israeli military attacks have killed more than 690 Palestinians since October in the strip, and aid restrictions are causing deadly shortages of medical supplies and equipment.
In the West Bank, Palestinians face spiralling settler violence and the Israeli government’s escalating annexation policy – which is now expanding to Lebanon.
Impunity for Israel’s military aggression against civilians and healthcare services means that we at Medical Aid for Palestinians are gravely concerned for the safety of the people we serve and of our staff in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
The UK government cannot pick and choose when to uphold international law or whose lives are worth protecting. It must do everything in its power to hold all perpetrators of breaches accountable. Failure to act now will have devastating human consequences. The world cannot allow Gaza’s horrors to be replayed in Lebanon; nor should our government be an ally to Israel’s atrocities.
Steve Cutts
CEO, Medical Aid for Palestinians
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