Is Israel acting within the laws of war in Gaza?
killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza since October 7th, when Hamas terrorists murdered 1,300 people in southern Israel. Israeli jets and artillery have been pounding the coastal enclave. “The scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach," warned a spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on October 12th.
Hamas, which has deliberately massacred civilians, and whose founding charter commits it to the destruction of Israel, is undoubtedly guilty of war crimes. How far can Israel go in response? Israel’s initial actions have prompted a wave of criticism. B’tselem, an Israeli human-rights group, has accused Israel of “a criminal policy of revenge", arguing that the scale of its air strikes and blockade constitute “war crimes openly ordered by top Israeli officials".
Médecins Sans Frontières, a humanitarian organisation, has accused Israel of unlawful “collective punishment" of Gaza “in the form of total siege, indiscriminate bombing, and the pending threat of a ground battle." In practice, though, international law and the specific rules that govern warfare—the law of armed conflict (LOAC), also known as international humanitarian law (IHL)—give Israel considerable latitude to attack Hamas, according to legal experts. Article 51 of the United Nations charter gives states the right of self-defence against armed attack, provided that, according to customary international law, the force they use is necessary and proportionate. Proportionality does not mean symmetry in the type of weapons used or the number of casualties caused.
It means that the defending state can use as much force as is needed to address the threat—and no more. Drawing that line is a subjective and contentious process. But Israel’s campaign so far would
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