Rutt Syed

The asymmetric war in Gaza is not the first one between Palestine and Israel. If anything, it is part of the recurrent cycles of violence that have characterized the world’s most intractable conflict. The carnage that we are witnessing today is not actually a result of the attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023. In fact, it is a product of this decades-long conflict between a weak, hapless majority and a powerful, virulent occupier. Israel, the occupier, uses brute force against the weak Palestinians, with a view to perpetuating its illegal control over the latter’s land. In the process, Israel has imposed collective punishments on the innocent Palestinians, which is no less than a violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), also called the ‘Laws of War’. In doing so, it has been completely inconsiderate about human rights, killing more than 35,000 people, including women and children, since October 7.

This indiscriminate use of force by Israel, which includes bombings, has been internationally declared as war crimes. According to the legal definition, war crimes refer to the violations of IHL as well as the breaches of the Geneva Conventions, involving individuals with criminal intent or those who directly target civilian populations. All this is exactly what Israel has been doing. Further, by committing these war crimes, Israel is acting as a veritable apartheid state. As Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, argues, “prominent voices have warned for years that apartheid lurks just around the corner if the trajectory of Israel’s rule over Palestinians does not change.” The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid 1973 and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) define apartheid as an intent to create dominance over a specified area, which involves systematic oppression over a marginalized group of people and inhumane acts of crime. Certainly, the conversion of Gaza into an open-air prison shows that Israel is increasingly acting as an apartheid state.

Notably, Israel’s actions in Gaza are dictated by the utter contempt it has for the Palestinians. Israeli authorities have declared Palestinians as a demographic threat many a time. This view has led to concerted efforts to eliminate the Palestinians and maintain the hegemony and control of the Zionist state. The resultant Israeli aggression against the Palestinians is a violation of the laws of war, which seek to minimize the effects of armed conflicts. This means that the protection of the victims of war is a priority under IHL. However, Israel has utterly ignored this basic tenet. This is evidenced by attacks on some of the major hospitals in Gaza such as al-Ahli Arab Hospital and Al-Shifa. Such war crimes can only be dubbed acts of racial- and identity-eradication. Israeli army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari,, too, admitted that Israel’s military campaign is focused on causing maximum damage.

Moreover, Israel’s war crimes can be explained by engaging with the principle of proportionality It states that an attack is considered to be a violation of IHL if the damage to the civilians is much greater than the advantage gained by the aggressor. Israel has completely ignored this principle. This is evidenced by the fact that, on average, 500 non-combatants are being killed every day by the Israeli forces. These killings are not only endangering Palestinians’ existence in Gaza and the surrounding areas but also destroying the infrastructure completely. These Israeli violations should be considered all the more brazen because these are happening despite its partial ratification of the Geneva Conventions. The Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, protects those who are not involved in any hostilities such as children, patients or healthy adult men. The Convention states that medical units are to be protected at all costs. Further, it calls for the establishment of hospitals and safe zones for the injured, sick, and pregnant during wars. None of these protocols, however, has been followed by Israel since the commencement of this phase of the conflict.

Various United Nations’ bodies have documented and reported this issue, including the Human Rights Council and the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). A number of groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem, have published reports that explain the violations by the Israeli forces. The Human Rights Council mandated a Commission (A/HRC/56/CRP.4), which carried out an in-depth investigation of this issue. It included interviews of victims, hundreds of satellites images, and forensic reports. Its report clearly demonstrates that Israeli forces are responsible for the direct genocide of the Palestinian civilians, which is a severe crime under international law. The report also shows evidence of sexual and gender-based violence. One of the many examples of this immorality is the Israeli attack on the al-Masawi Camp, which was used by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). That Israel attacked it after designating it as a safe zone speaks to its disregard for all laws and ethics. A Similar attack was launched on the al-Bureij Camp. These attacks resulted in the killings of women and young children, for whose protection these zones were established. All this means that the war in Gaza is nothing less than a humanitarian catastrophe. The atrocities committed by Israeli forces are not only a violation of IHL but they are also completely immoral.

Israel has certainly made Gaza a living hell for the Palestinians. While this is not the first time that Israel has oppressed the Palestinians, the manner in which it is doing now is more dastardly, grotesque, and inhumane. This only shows that, under Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s strategy centers on attempts to eliminate the Palestinians. This approach, other than killing innocent civilians, is doing nothing to bring about even a semblance of peace to the Middle East. In fact, Netanyahu’s war mongering will eventually fully tilt public opinion against him, lending greater strength to Palestinians’ morally and legally just cause. That being said, unless hostilities end, IHL and other cogs of international law will be violated with impunity, much to the detriment of regional and global peace.

Rutt Syed is Lecturer, School of Integrated Social Sciences, University of Lahore.

The views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Pakistan Politico.