Former president Halimah Yacob has condemned the war in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

In an impassioned Facebook post on Mar. 20, Halimah urged her readers to "stand on the side of humanity".

"The war in Gaza has crossed every red line imaginable. All the international laws on protection of innocent civilians during wars have been violated," she wrote.

War crimes and starvation

The former president listed several of the war crimes committed in Gaza and breaches of international law, including the "indiscriminate bombings and killings of innocent civilians".

She also acknowledged the use of "mass starvation as a weapon", calling attention to how aid has had to be delivered through "contorted and less effective means" like airdrops, as access by land has been blocked.

"More than 12,000 children have been killed", she wrote, pointing out that it is "more than the total number of children killed globally in all the conflicts and wars over the past five years".

"This is a war on humanity.

Killing the people, their culture, identity and connectedness."

She further denounced the use of bombs on densely populated areas — "a prohibited use under international law".

She ended her post with:

"Ceasefire now!"

Twelfth post

Halimah has been vocal about the crisis in Gaza. The Mar. 20 Facebook post is her twelfth one mentioning the conflict.

Her first Facebook post about Gaza was on Oct. 29, 2023, when she shared a United Nations (UN) article about its General Assembly's adoption of a resolution calling for a "humanitarian truce".

Since then, she has posted about the "catastrophic" situation in Gaza more than ten times.

A former legal officer herself, she has also repeatedly raised questions about the effectiveness of international law in Gaza.

In calling for a ceasefire, she joins Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan who said on Mar. 17:

"What we need now is an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. We need the immediate unconditional release of all hostages."

Since Oct. 7, more than 31,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Read more

Top image from Halimah Yacob's Facebook page.