Israel Adheres To Principles Of Proportionality And Distinction

Anti-Israel politicians and pundits are slamming Israel about its attacks in Gaza as it tries to root out the command structure of Hamas, the popular political-terrorist groups that rules Gaza. To listen to them, one would imagine that it is Israel and not Hamas that is flouting the rules of war and the Geneva Convention of 1949.

The Israeli military said that Rafa Salama, Hamas’ Khan Younis brigade commander, was killed in an air strike on July 13 that also targeted the head of the group’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif. Salama was confirmed dead but Deif’s fate is unknown at this time. Perhaps as many as 90 civilians were also killed in the strike. Assassinating senior military leaders who masterminded the October 7 massive and brutal slaughter in Israel which launched the region into a bloody war is the definition of justice. The two Hamas commanders continued to lead the Palestinian army these past months, and their deaths will hasten the end of the war, sparing thousands of lives.

This is readily apparent to all. So why would Norway’s foreign minister attack Israel for the tragic collateral deaths instead of Palestinian leadership for embedding military leadership within a civilian population?

The Geneva Convention’s Article 51(5b) states clearly that it is against the rules of war to launch “an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life… which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.” Article 57 says much the same.

The “concrete and direct military advantage” in killing the heads of Hamas’s military wing is enormous. While the death of 90 civilians is a tragedy, bringing an end to the war would be considered within the guidelines of the rules of war.

Article 51(7) is explicit that armies can operate in civilian areas that are infested with high profile military targets: “The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations.”

In fact, it is Hamas which is violating the Geneva Convention by using civilians to shield terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres similarly inverted reality in attacking Israel and not Hamas. He addressed a group during a fundraising appeal for UNRWA, the agency that pretends that many Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza are somehow refugees. He said “Recent days have brought yet more evacuation orders by Israeli authorities, yet more civilian suffering, and yet more bloodshed. Palestinians in Gaza keep being forced to move like human pinballs across a landscape of destruction and death.”

But surely the head of the United Nations knows that Israel is following the Geneva Convention of 1949 in attempting “to remove the civilian population” to avoid their injury as it brings terrorists to justice. Article 58 specifically states that parties should “avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.”

Israel is prosecuting a defensive war it never wanted according the principles of the Geneva Convention and complying with the principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution against an enemy sworn to its annihilation which tramples on every human right. Yet the heads of the United Nations and Norway are blind to facts, preferring the genocidal regime in the belief that genuflecting to genocidal maniacs will yield a Palestinian state.

Some in the West believe that acknowledging that Hamas is evil and genocidal will forever prevent the establishment of a Palestinian State as it marks all Palestinian Arabs unworthy and incapable of peaceful coexistence. The truth is the opposite. Shielding Hamas ensures that Palestinians will be trapped in forever wars.