The ‘Rules of War’: Have Hamas and Israel already broken them?

(NewsNation) — International law specifies what countries can and can’t do during wartime. Both Israel and Hamas have been accused of breaking them. 

The rules of armed conflict are governed by a set of international laws, including the Geneva Conventions, which almost every country has agreed to. They forbid the intentional targeting of civilians, ban torture, hostage-taking and other inhumane treatments. 

“The deliberate cruelty of Hamas vividly reminds me of ISIS- blood thirsty, fanatic and hateful,” said U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

“When Hamas launched several hundred missiles on that fateful Saturday and then attacked various civilian objects and towns along the border, destroying human beings, that in and of itself was a war crime, “said David Crane the founding chief prosecutor of the United Nations for Sierra Leone. “There is one real cornerstone, hard rock principle in the laws of armed conflict, and that is civilians and civilian objects can never be intentionally targeted.” 

But the brutality of the attacks by Hamas doesn’t give Israel the ability to attack freely – it is supposed to adhere to international humanitarian laws as well.

“You are a Jewish state, but you’re also a democracy like the United States. You don’t live by the rules of terrorists. You live by the rule of law. And when conflicts flare, you live by the law of war. What sets us apart from the terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life,” President Joe Biden said. 

To date, Palestinian health authorities estimate over 2,800 civilians – including children – have been killed by Israeli airstrikes. Nearly a week after the attacks by Hamas on Israel and its people, Israel ordered the evacuation of a million Palestinians in northern Gaza, cutting off water and power to the residents there. 

Human Rights Watch claims Israel used munitions with white phosphorus, which, while not prohibited, is criticized when used in crowded areas. The Israeli Defense Forces denies deploying white phosphorus as a weapon in Gaza. 

“It is arguably against international humanitarian law to coerce an entire population to move. And it’s clearly not a well-considered policy if there are no facilities available for those people when they do move,” Richard Makepeace, a former British diplomat in Jerusalem, said. 

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry is actively gathering and safeguarding evidence of war crimes committed by all parties in the ongoing conflict. This evidence may be used in the existing investigation conducted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding the situation in the Palestinian territories. 

The ICC, based in the Netherlands, possesses the authority to prosecute government officials for breaches of international law and can also order compensation for victims. However, some nations, such as the United States, Russia, and Israel, do not acknowledge the jurisdiction of the ICC. The ICC lacks its own law enforcement agency to enforce arrest warrants. 

Crane said that Israel knows and abides by the laws of armed conflict and therefore faces difficult choices ahead. 

“They are in an impossible situation. They want to follow the law. You have an opponent who does not follow the laws of armed conflict. Israelis have a very hard choice. They have a military object, but if they target it, they drop the building and kill civilians,” Crane said.