Dutch embassy warned that Israel uses "disproportionate force" in Gaza
A confidential memo from the Dutch Defense Attache at the embassy in Tel Aviv warned the government that the Israeli army “intends to deliberately cause enormous destruction to infrastructure and civilian centers” in the Gaza Strip, which explains the “high number of deaths” among Palestinian civilians. The memo describes Israel’s actions as “disproportionate force” and a “violation of international treaties and the laws of war,” NRC reports.
The memo, seen by NRC, was written by the Defense Attache at the Dutch embassy, who is intensively monitoring the situation around the Gaza Strip with a military team. The findings in the confidential report are in stark contrast to the public statements by the Israeli army, which claims to do as much as possible to prevent Palestinian civilian deaths. This weekend, Israel performed air and ground strikes around the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. According to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry, 11,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7.
According to NRC, the memo shows that the Dutch government knows that Israel consciously opts for a ruthless military approach, leading to large numbers of casualties. Yet outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) and Foreign Affairs Minister Hanke Bruins Slog (CDA) have not condemned the Israeli actions. On Wednesday, Rutte said after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel “must show that what they do is proportionate” and act within the limits of the law. So far, Rutte has refused to call for a ceasefire.
According to the memo, the Israeli government’s military approach is motivated by revenge. “The emotion and anger are echoed in IDF [Isreali army] briefings,” NRC quoted from the document. To limit losses on its own side, the IDF is quick to use lethal force, the memo states. The Dutch embassy also noted that the IDF applies “elements” of the Dahiya doctrine - a strategy first used in the war in Lebanon in 2006 which "intends to deliberately cause massive destruction to infrastructure and civilian centers" while taking large numbers of civilian casualties for granted. That violates the laws of war, the memo states.
According to the Dutch embassy, Israel’s stated goal of “a clear military victory over Hamas” is impossible to achieve. Even if Hamas is almost completely destroyed, the fundamentalist movement’s ideology will live on. “There is no military answer to this, this is a political issue.”
The embassy also raised concerns about leaked Israeli plans to forcibly displace the over 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip to the Sinai desert in Egypt. Israeli media recently wrote about a policy document mentioning this option, sparking fears of ethnic cleansing. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called the plan “hypothetical,” but the Dutch embassy considers it serious. “Several people - including parliamentarians, advisors, and soldiers - don’t dismiss this option as extreme, but as real.”
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not give NRC a substantive response to the memo. It only stressed that the Military Attache is one of a “multiple of sources” used in drawing up policy advice to the Minister. “The Netherlands is very concerned about the severity and scale of the conflict,” the Ministry said. “Further civilian casualties on both sides must be prevented as much as possible.”
