It is a war crime to target densely packed Gaza homes
The ‘Gaza doctrine’ of collective punishment and deliberately spreading terror among civilians is illegal
Once again the Gaza Strip is subject to intense attack from Israeli forces. As of yesterday the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights has documented 593 killed, among them 483 civilians – 151 children, 82 women – and 3,197 injured. Among the
injured are 926 children and 641 women, although this does not include the figures for the border areas or the Shejeia
area.
Once again it is the civilian population which is targeted, deliberately brought into the eye of the storm.
Everyone in the Gaza Strip is exhausted, worried and terrified. This is as Israel intended. We believe that Israel is
deploying the “‘Gaza doctrine”, a policy with its roots in the Dahiya doctrine first witnessed in the 2006 Lebanon war,
and subsequently refined in the Gaza Strip.
The purpose of the Gaza doctrine is straightforward: disproportionate force is used to cause terror among the civilian
population to exert political pressure on the authorities in Gaza.
This policy of collective punishment, of deliberately causing terror, is unequivocally illegal but it is all too real.
This policy is evident in the intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip that preceded the start of the current offensive.
For two weeks following the tragic kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, open areas in the Gaza Strip
were subject to intense bombardment. There is no military advantage to be acquired from the targeting of empty fields or
desolate places. The purpose was instead to demonstrate Israel’s force and presence. We could not sleep. We were
constantly shaken by the thundering impact of one-tonne bombs.
However, the most obvious illustration of this policy in practice has been the widespread targeting of the homes of
Hamasand Islamic Jihad fighters. These homes are typically targeted in two phases whereby a “warning” is issued to the
house in question so that it may be evacuated. This warning takes the form of either a dud missile (termed “roof
knocking”) or a phone call. The house is then targeted and destroyed, anywhere from five to 15 minutes later or
sometimes even longer.
How is the destruction of these homes justified?
The law of armed conflict states that only combatants and military objectives may be targeted. Civilians and civilian
objects are protected from direct attack.
Destruction
Military objectives are “those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to
military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralisation, in the circumstances ruling at the
time, offers a definite military advantage”.
The law of armed conflict permits the targeting of combatants. As such, in principle it is possible that a house may be
targeted to target the combatants contained within ( this attack is still subject to the requirement of
proportionality). However, Israel has consistently issued warnings before an attack is launched, ensuring that no
combatants are present.
ENDS