Civil Services in Gaza
by Jonathan Kuttab
Every society requires some form of civilian authority to provide basic services, maintain public order, and ensure civilian life goes on. This is particularly true in times of crisis, catastrophe, and war.
The territory of Gaza, with a population of 2.3 million, is particularly in need of these services. Under international law, the occupying forces are responsible for providing these services to their “enemy” civilian population. This was the case even before October 7, when Hamas provided this function and carried out these services with Israeli approval, consent, and cooperation. While Israel claimed it was no longer an occupier, and that its redeployment released it from such responsibilities, the fact is it still controlled the borders, the electricity grid, water, currency, population registry, postal services and cyberspace, collected customs duties, and found different ways to ensure that Hamas carried out its civilian functions in cooperation with and subject to the approval of Israel.
On October 7, following the Hamas attacks, Israel ended this cooperation, declaring its intentions to utterly destroy Hamas, not only as a fighting force, but also its “governing functions.” That meant that all civilian functions of government could no longer be carried out by Hamas and that its civilian operatives would henceforth be targeted and destroyed. This has indeed been done, in a brutal and systematic way, and continues to be the case today.
The implementation of this policy has left the civilian population completely vulnerable, as Israel was in no hurry to provide its own alternative civilian administration structures to the local population. As the fighting continued, Israel issued draconian orders for the population to move out of its residential areas, several times, on pain of death, while it reoccupied and systematically destroyed buildings and structures, including all sources of income and sustenance. The population became even more dependent on outside assistance for food, water, fuel, electricity, medical care, and shelter.
Even as Israel reluctantly, and under international pressure, began to allow minimal quantities of food and water into the area, the situation continued to be dire as there was no civilian authority to oversee the distribution of the food, the provision of supplies, or even to safeguard the personnel who were attempting the distribution. In fact, Palestinians report that the distribution centers themselves and the locations where people could pick up food were themselves targeted, bombed, and destroyed. Famous among these attacks was the attack on the World Kitchen Personnel, seven of whom were pursued and killed with airstrikes, and the “flour massacre” where over 100 Palestinians were killed, mostly by tank fire, as they gathered to collect food for their starving families. Over 200 aid workers have been killed so far in Gaza.
Not only is Israel refusing to carry out its obligations to provide for the needs of the local civilian population, but it has also announced a policy that undermines and prevents any other form of civilian authority even in the long term. It has refused to give any indication of what it plans for “the Day After,” proclaiming that it wishes to indefinitely keep “security control” over Gaza but that it does not wish to govern it or its population. It has indicated that it will not allow Hamas to have any authority there. It has also indicated that it does not want the Palestinian Authority to play that role either. It has declared its refusal to allow UNRWA to have any role, when UNRWA is the only actor on the ground with personnel, infrastructure, and capability of providing basic services in the area. UNRWA Headquarters have been attacked and many of its centers bombed and destroyed. Before the war, UNRWA was a major source of employment (13,000 employees) and provider of schools, clinics, and social services to the refugee population (2/3 of the population of Gaza are refugees from 1948).
Food is just one issue. Water, housing, schooling, garbage collection, basic medical needs, education, roads, courts, policing and governance, are all essential services that no human society can survive without. The issue is not just survival and relief, but the ability to live as a human society. The fact that Israel systematically destroyed those structures and is not allowing anybody to replace them points to a much more serious problem.
Could it be that Israel is not only shirking its responsibility, but is also actively preventing others from providing these services because it does not believe Palestinians are entitled to such minimal services at all?
The problem, sometimes openly admitted and frequently hinted at by Israeli leaders, and which is openly discussed in Hebrew in public and social media, is that Israelis do not think of Palestinians as human beings. They do not see Palestinian needs as worthy of their attention, much less as their responsibility. If they are viewed as “human animals,” and the solution is to eliminate them as they would “Amalek,” then the logical conclusion is to completely destroy those structures and institutions that support Palestinian life and social organization. Those who still refuse to acknowledge that this constitutes genocide need to address the question of a policy which openly denies the humanity of Palestinians, their need for basic services, and a system to provide such minimal requirements.