Loop. Reflections on humanitarian intervention

Abstract

The end of the ceasefire between Hamas and the Government of Ehud Olmert in late 2008 created a war caused by the continued launching of rockets by Hamas onto neighbouring Israeli territory and the consequential response of that nation by occupying the Gaza Strip. The strong attacks which repetitively affected the civilian population and the international missions generated an environment of extreme and intolerable humanitarian conditions in the most densely populated area worldwide. This situation forces a reflection about the instrument of Humanitarian Intervention.

The world understands this instrument as a means to intervene by force in those states where excesses are committed by the government against certain sectors of the population, or sub national groups, generating supreme humanitarian emergencies. What Gaza demonstrates is the necessity to begin thinking about the possibility of conceiving such intervention not as exclusive of purely internal scenarios, but also when the clash between one or more states generates the same conditions of unacceptable humanitarian degradation. However, the interest of world powers and their alliances, together with the possibility of escalating the conflict instead of controlling the situation, opposes such understanding.