Red Cross: Israel disregards humanitarian law

The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a confidential report about East Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, accuses Israel of a "general disregard" for "its obligations under international humanitarian law–and the law of occupation in particular." The committee, which does not accept Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, says Israel is using its rights as an occupying power under international law "in order to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory." With the construction of the separation barrier, the establishment of an outer ring of Jewish settlements beyond the expanded municipal boundaries and the creation of a dense road network linking the different Israeli neighborhoods and settlements in and outside Jerusalem, the report says, Israel is "reshaping the development of the Jerusalem metropolitan area" with "far-reaching humanitarian consequences." Those include the increasing isolation of Palestinians living in Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and the increasing difficulty for some Palestinians to easily reach Jerusalem's schools and hospitals. The Red Cross committee is recognized as a guardian of humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions of 1949.