The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) transferred a group of around 70 Palestinian orphans, aged between 3 and 15, from the Gaza Strip to Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank upon the request of Germany. This move, reportedly approved by Israel’s National Security Council within the Prime Minister’s Office, was carried out without informing the Security Cabinet.
Accompanied by IDF soldiers, a convoy of buses carrying the Gaza orphans and their companions traveled through the outskirts of Jerusalem en route to the West Bank, according to Channel 12 News.
Germany’s request stemmed from its funding of the SOS Children’s Village orphanage in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, which had closed due to ongoing IDF aggression against Gaza which have destoryed much of the civilian infrastructure.
Critics within the Israeli government, including a senior Cabinet official and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, condemned the operation, labeling it a “scandal” and questioning the decision’s ethical grounds. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also expressed disapproval, stating that such actions do not align with a strategy seeking decisive victory.
During the convoy’s passage through the Gush Etzion tunnel checkpoint, Zionist settlers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem’s southern Gilo neighborhood attempted to block the entrance to Bethlehem in protest. One protester highlighted the lack of reciprocity, citing the absence of humanitarian gestures towards Israeli hostages held by Hamas since October while emphasizing the urgency of addressing their situation. These views are held widely within Israeli society, many of which see the children of Gaza just as “future terrorists” as one Israeli put it.
As of the recent events, 134 hostages remain in Gaza out of the 253 taken during Hamas’s October invasion, with Israel confirming 32 fatalities.
Genocide is universally acknowledged as a grave crime involving actions carried out to annihilate, wholly or partially, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. These actions can be categorized into five main types:
- Killing members of the group.
- Causing severe bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
- Intentionally subjecting the group to conditions aimed at its physical destruction, wholly or partly.
- Implementing measures designed to prevent births within the group.
- Forcefully transferring children of the group to another group.
Meeting just one of these categories is sufficient for actions to be classified as genocide. The forced movement of these children to settler colonies has raised concern that this may be used as evidence against Israel as they perpetrate what the International Court of Justice has called a “plausible genocide.”
