A group of 300 international law professors have challenged what is happening in Gaza as a violation of international law. They focus on International Humanitarian Law – the law of armed conflicts – which says that “the unarmed civilian population, [are] the ‘protected persons’“.
The professors say that Israel is using “disproportionate force to inflict suffering on the civilian population in order to achieve political (to
exert pressure on the Hamas Government) rather than military goals“.
They go on to say:
“Israel is repeatedly and flagrantly violating the law of armed conflict, which establishes that combatants and military objectives may be targeted, i.e. ‘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 neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.’
Most of the recent heavy bombings in Gaza lack an acceptable military justification and, instead, appear to be designed to terrorize the civilian population. As the ICRC clarifies, deliberately causing terror is unequivocally illegal under customary international law“.
Finally, they call on the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation to the ICC.
This is the full declaration.
Photo of the compound of a UN school in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza (AP/Adel Hana)
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