2023-10-13 22:54:00
The wave of violence that began on Saturday, with the unprecedented offensive of the Palestinian movement Hamas on Israeli soil, raises the question of whether war crimes have been committed in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The war began six days ago when Hamas militants entered Israel and killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 150 hostages.
Israel responded with incessant bombings against the Gaza Strip, from where the Hamas fighters, which governs this Palestinian enclave, left. At least 1,800 Palestinians have died in Gaza.
Several experts in international law pointed out AFP that both sides can be accused of having committed war crimes.
How is a war crime defined?
“War crimes” and “crimes against humanity” are defined by the Rome Statute, which is the founding text of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A war crime is defined as a serious violation of international law against civilians and combatants during a conflict.
This includes acts that are a “serious breach” of the 1949 Geneva Convention that establishes a legal framework for wars after the Nuremberg trials against the senior Nazi leaders.
This framework describes more than 50 acts considered atrocities, including murder, torture, rape and hostage-taking, among others.
It also includes intentional attacks against defenseless population settlements that are not “military objectives.”
Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave dominated by Hamas, extreme poverty and wars
A “crime against humanity” is defined as “a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population,” including “murder,” “extermination,” “slavery,” and “deportation or forcible transfer.”
Was the Hamas attack a war crime?
Melanie O’Brien, visiting professor of International Law at the University of Minnesota, in the United States, noted that “There are violations of the laws of war on both sides” The academic indicated that in the case of Hamas an example is the widespread taking of hostages.
Israel reported that this Palestinian group has detained about 150 hostages, including American, German, Mexican and Thai citizens.
O’Brien also cited that international law prohibits “violence aimed at sowing terror among the civilian population,” which according to the academic is the case of Hamas’ launching of projectiles against Israel.
Ben Saulprofessor of international law at the University of Sydney, said he believes that in the case of Hamas “it is quite clear.” “The deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime,” he said.
One of the deadliest attacks on civilians recorded in Israel is the massacre by Hamas militants of nearly 270 people participating in a rave party in the desert.
What was Israel’s response like?
Saul told AFP that on the part of Israel, one can cite “the declaration of a total siege, which prevents the entry of food, fuel, water, energy” into the Gaza Strip. “In terms of criminal responsibility, famine is a war crime.”he claimed.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, recalled on Tuesday that “the imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited by international humanitarian law.”
O’Brien added that Hamas and Israel have been bombing each other indiscriminately, which also constitutes a war crime, since not only military personnel are being hit.
What is the role of the ICC?
In 2021, the ICC opened an investigation into crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, which investigates alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces and by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
Israel, which has never signed the Rome Statute, refuses to recognize its jurisdiction or cooperate with the probe covering possible crimes dating back to the 2014 war in Gaza.
The issue is complicated by how the conflict is defined, whether it is “national” or “international” and by the status of the Palestinian territories, Saul added.
“The difficulty with the issue of Gaza is that half of international jurists say it is occupied, and the other half say it is not,” he explained. “If it is occupied, it is an international conflict. The full list of war crimes applies, under the Rome Statute,” he said. “This is an important legal question for the court, which has yet to be settled,” he said.
Note written by Ricard Carter in AFP
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