The heinous terrorist attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October by Hamas must be countered by an all-out war against this Isis-like organisation. Terrorists cannot be allowed to go on ruling the Gaza Strip and holding hostage the lives of millions of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
But while we are waging a just war, we must abide by universal human and Jewish values. Our struggle against a monster must not result in inflicting unnecessary harm on defenceless people. Israel should demonstrate, to itself and to the world, that we behave very differently from Hamas, which has placed itself beyond the pale of universal human norms, as well as beyond the pale of Islamic ethics.
Since other countries are reluctant to accept and protect Palestinian civilians, we propose that Israel should invite the international community to establish temporary safe havens for them at appropriate locations on the Israeli side of the border. These safe havens inside Israel would accommodate Gazans – women, children, elderly people and hospital evacuees – displaced by or at threat from the fighting.
The safe havens would be run by the United Nations and the Red Cross, and financed by the international community. Safe from the war, the people sheltering there would be housed in temporary shelters and provided with food, water and basic medical care. Israel would safeguard the havens from without. After the end of the fighting, the displaced Gazans would return to their home in the Gaza Strip.
Safe havens have been established in the past by international forces. All that Israel is called upon to do is to allot uninhabited areas for these havens and make sure that they are (a) erected and financed by the international community; (b) vacated within an agreed span of time; and (c) safeguarded only by Israeli forces.
Such safe havens would fulfil Israel’s moral duty to protect the lives of Palestinian civilians, and simultaneously aid the Israel Defence Forces to prosecute the war by reducing the number of civilians caught up in the combat zone, thereby helping to save the lives of Israeli soldiers.
The establishment of the safe havens would begin once the Red Cross has been given access to the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and has ascertained their condition.
Prof Yossi Ben-Artzi University of Haifa, Prof Yuval Noah Harari Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof David Harel Weizmann Institute of Science, Prof Benjamin Z Kedar The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof Benny Morris Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, Prof Anita Shapira Tel Aviv University
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