Casualties in Gaza

May 21, 2004

IT IS NOT only Washington that rebuked Israel after tank shells killed or wounded dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza Wednesday. The UN Security Council, the European Union, Israeli and international human rights groups, and Knesset members called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to permit humanitarian assistance to reach the population in the Rafah camp, near the Egyptian border, and to end Israel's military incursion there.

Sharon ought to heed these pleas immediately. Whatever he might hope to achieve by apprehending militants or destroying tunnels used for arms smuggling, it cannot outweigh the pain inflicted on the people of Rafah or the harm done to Israel's reputation.

Sharon may have thought he needed to get tough in Gaza to show hard-liners in his coalition -- and Palestinian militants -- that the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza he has proposed cannot be taken as a sign of Israeli weakness. If this is Sharon's calculation, it is deficient in realism. Zealous settler organizations and the far-right parties in his coalition will oppose Sharon's withdrawal plan whether or not it is preceded by harsh military operations. And Palestinian militants are sure to claim that they drove Sharon out of Gaza with suicide bombings and armed struggle no matter what the toll in civilians killed or buildings demolished prior to Israel's departure.

A portent of the setback Sharon's tactics may cause came Wednesday, when President Bush refused to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's killing of civilians. The resolution asked Israel to observe its obligation under international humanitarian law "not to undertake demolition of homes." This echoed a report issued this week by Amnesty International calling home demolitions a collective punishment that contravenes international law and might be a war crime.

Above all, both Israeli and Palestinian leaders need to realize that each atrocity against innocent civilians can only harden hearts that must one day accept peaceful coexistence between Israel and a Palestinian state.