Learning the Lessons of the Past to protect Gaza civilians

The Gaza Strip

B’Tselem calls for ceasefire in Gaza Strip

In more than 70 days of war in Gaza, Israel has waged an unconstrained attack on the population that includes bombing on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of tons of bombs have been dropped on thousands of targets throughout Gaza, with the IDF Spokesperson clarifying that “the emphasis is on damage, not accuracy.”The results on the ground are clear: large areas in the Strip are no longer habitable. Thousands of homes have collapsed, some with the occupants inside, while roads, public structures and infrastructure lie in ruins. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nearly 19,000 people have been killed, about 70 percent of them women and children; some 50,000 people have been injured, and many are buried under the rubble.The provisions of international humanitarian law require that every one of the bombed targets be defined a military objective that makes an “effective contribution” to Hamas’ actions, and that its destruction offer Israel a “definite military advantage.” Even if the thousands of targets Israel has struck meet these criteria, the law requires that the resulting harm to civilian life and property be proportionate. Yet there is no way to reconcile Israel’s strikes with these rules. Any claim to the contrary is not only legally flawed but morally unacceptable. Throughout the war, Hamas has used residents of Gaza as human shields, hidden weapons in their homes, used tunnels it dug under their homes to protect its operatives, and fired at civilian targets in Israel from within the civilian population. By doing so, Hamas has endangered the lives of civilians in Gaza, in breach of international humanitarian law. Israel argues that therefore, any harm it inflicts upon Hamas necessarily entails harm to civilians, through no fault of its own. Yet this means that any Israeli action, horrific as its outcomes may be, would always be considered legitimate. Such an assertion is legally and morally baseless: the party carrying out the killing is responsible for the outcome, and Hamas’ actions in no way absolve Israel of responsibility for the consequences of its actions.While implementing this bombing policy, Israel also closed all the crossings in and out of Gaza at the beginning of the war. More than two million residents were left without fuel, electricity, drinking and bathing water, food and medication. Even before the war, after 17 years of blockade, among other things, Gaza was in the throes of a humanitarian crisis: the power, water, and sewage infrastructure was verging on collapse, the healthcare system was barely functional, unemployment was at about 40 percent, and 80 percent of Gazans depended on humanitarian aid. Given this reality, crossing the closings plunged the Strip into an inconceivable humanitarian catastrophe – not a side effect of the war, but a direct policy move on Israel’s part. Almost 1.9 million people – about 85% of the population in Gaza – are now concentrated in the southern area of Rafah, huddling together in UNRWA facilities. These facilities are overcrowded and lack basic conditions, with extreme shortages of water, food, blankets, mattresses, restrooms and showers. Living in such conditions significantly increases the risk of epidemics and disease outbreaks, which have already occurred in some places.Water is lacking throughout Gaza, and UN agencies are also reporting an extreme shortage of food to the point of famine, especially in northern Gaza. Most hospitals have collapsed, and the rest are only partially functioning, at twice or even three times their capacity while facing shortages of electricity, water, medications, basic medical equipment and staff. The scant aid that Israel allows into Gaza is a drop in the ocean and cannot be transported to those in need due to the incessant bombing, Israeli restrictions on the movement of trucks, and the crowds filling the streets.Israel launched the current attack on October 7, after hundreds of Hamas operatives and other residents of Gaza entered Israel, firing in every direction. They made their way into civilian communities and homes, shot and killed entire families and partygoers, burned down homes with the inhabitants inside, raped and sexually assaulted women, kidnapped families and committed other horrors. More than 1,200 people were killed that day and thousands injured. About 250 people, including babies, children, women and the elderly, were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Some have since been released, others died in captivity, and others are still being held hostage – according to released captives, in harsh conditions without enough food and medication. These crimes cannot be justified. Any attempts to excuse them as part of a “struggle for national liberation” or for “decolonization”, or to justify them on other grounds, must be rejected and condemned. In light of these events, Israel cites its right to self-defense as justification for the current attack on Gaza. It is Israel’s obligation to protect its citizens from Hamas, which continues to launch rockets into Israel and promises more attacks to follow October 7. However, the right to self-defense does not confer the right to employ unlimited, indiscriminate violence, nor does it allow parties to ignore the provisions of international humanitarian law and commit war crimes. Israel certainly cannot rely on this right to justify a policy that does away with any protection of civilians and assumes there are no bystanders in Gaza.Since the beginning of the war, Hamas and Israel have demonstrated flagrant disregard for the rules of international humanitarian law. Continuing the fighting in these circumstances will inevitably lead to hundreds more civilians killed every day. The extreme crowding means that almost any Israeli airstrike or ground action results in a high death toll. This is certainly compounded by the fact that Hamas is operating from within the civilian population, displaying indifference to their lives. Clearly, the more Israel urges the population to move south, the greater the danger will grow, as will the humanitarian catastrophe. The inescapable conclusion is that continuing the war will entail more human rights violations and more war crimes, and the fighting must therefore be stopped immediately to prevent further harm to civilians.The international community must step in to protect the civilians on both sides. It must demand that until a long-term arrangement is in place, Israel cease military operations, allow unlimited entry of humanitarian aid and goods into Gaza, enable its reconstruction and permit residents to return home. The international community must also demand that Hamas unconditionally release all the people kidnapped on October 7 and cease rocket fire on Israel. Finally, the international community must ensure that all those responsible for the serious violations of international humanitarian law are held accountable.

18 December 2023

The Gaza Strip

Israel is not fighting against Hamas but against civilians, implementing a criminal policy of bombings

On Saturday, 2 December 2023, Israel bombed the neighborhood of Shuja’iyeh in Gaza City. The IDF Spokesperson declared that the goal was to kill Wissam Farhat, defining him as “the commander of Hamas’ Shuja’iyeh Battalion” who “led the battalion in Operation Protective Edge,” participated in planning attacks on Israelis, “took part in planning the ruthless attack in Israeli territory on 7 October, and sent the Nukhbah terrorists to the kibbutz and outpost of Nahal Oz that day.”According to initial reports, the strike killed dozens of people and destroyed scores of residential buildings. Hundreds of people are still buried under the rubble. Given the outcome, there is no doubt the strike was unlawful. Every attack – even against a legitimate military target – must comply with the principle of proportionality, which requires an attack to be aborted if existing information indicates the expected harm to civilians outweighs the anticipated military advantage. Interpreting the outcome of this bombing as proportionate empties this principle of meaning.Israel relies on two main arguments to justify the extensive criminal harm to civilians caused by its policy. Both arguments are unfounded and detached from international humanitarian law and from its objectives.First, Israel claims that it is doing everything in its power to avoid harming civilians, but, since Hamas is hiding behind civilians and using them as human shields, any strike against it entails harm to civilians through no fault of Israel’s. This would mean that Israel is under no limitation and that any action it takes, however horrifying the consequences, is legitimate. Hamas is violating international humanitarian law, and especially the obligation to distinguish between civilian and military targets, by firing at Israeli civilians from within the civilian population in Gaza, hiding weapons in civilian homes and digging tunnels under them. However, this does not release Israel of its own obligations under international law. The interpretation put forward by Israel completely overlooks the rule that one party’s violation of these provisions does not release the other party from its obligation to uphold them.Second, Israel says it has warned all civilians in areas it attacks to evacuate to areas it has designated as “safe.” This implies that Israel assumes no civilians are left in the areas it ordered evacuated, meaning it is free to operate without taking care not to harm civilians. This claim has no foothold in reality. The fact is that many civilians have remained in their homes, either because they cannot reach southern Gaza for various reasons or because they choose not to leave. Also, even if civilians had evacuated, this would not justify unlimited bombing of their homes, which are civilian targets – unless proven otherwise.When the war broke out, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel would retaliate forcefully, and the IDF Spokesperson was quick to make clear that “the emphasis is on damage, not precision.” These statements clearly align with Israel’s policy since the start of the war: hundreds of tons of bombs have been dropped on the Gaza Strip so far, leading to a horrifying death toll of more than 15,000 people, including more than 6,000 babies, children and teenagers and approximately 4,000 women. Entire residential neighborhoods have collapsed, including high-rises, and the streets are scenes of destruction. Many people are still buried under the rubble, their fate unknown. Some 1.8 million people have been displaced from their homes and are crowding together in inhumane conditions, without enough food, water or medication.The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Karim Khan, who recently visited Israel and the West Bank, emphasized that Israel must act according to the rules that always apply to armed conflicts. He noted that warfare in densely populated areas, where armed individuals are allegedly hiding among civilians in breach of the law, is indeed complex and challenging, yet cannot justify disregarding the provisions of international humanitarian law. Khan stressed that Israel must comply with the clear legal principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution, to ensure that “the protection of the law is rendered meaningful for those who need it.” He emphasized that complying with the letter of the law is not enough – its spirit must be upheld: “International humanitarian law and the provisions of the Rome Statute are there to protect the most vulnerable.”Israel, however, adheres to the letter of the law, relying on an interpretation far removed from the purpose of the law. It claims to warn civilians before attacks – yet ignores the fact that they have no real way to protect themselves; it claims to attack only military targets – yet turns a blind eye to the thousands of civilian homes bombed since the war began; it claims to implement the principle of proportionality – yet provides an interpretation that is far from reasonable and according to which thousands of dead children are “collateral damage.”Since the ceasefire ended, Israel has been threatening to escalate the fighting in southern Gaza, purportedly, to protect its citizens. There is no dispute that Israel must provide such protection, certainly as long as Hamas continues to fire rockets at Israel and its leaders repeatedly declare that the 7 October attack was merely “a prelude.” However, Israel relies on this claim to justify its criminal policy of indiscriminate bombings in Gaza, which primarily harms the civilian population.More than two million people are currently crowded into the southern Gaza Strip with nowhere else to go. Continuing to implement this bombing policy will almost certainly result in the killing of thousands more civilians. In these circumstances, Israel must immediately stop implementing this policy, which is sowing more and more death and destruction, and worsening the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.

5 December 2023

The Gaza Strip

International community has to clarify red lines Israel must not cross again

29 November 2023