The rules of war

On October 24, 2023, the United Nations Security Council met to discuss the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas attacks on Israel last October 7. During the Council meeting, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, called on the parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law. «Even war has rules» – recalled Guterres.

The parties to the conflict in the Middle East must respect the law of armed conflict. We are all aware that "upstream" of the ongoing conflict there are terribly complex historical-political aspects. We could talk about these aspects for a long time. As has always occurred and continues to occur in history, very divergent reasons and explanations can be found. We are on the 150th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni, who in the first chapter of The Betrothed warned: «Right and wrong are never divided with such a clear cut that each part has only one or something else." But this - I repeat - is what we could observe if we addressed the historical-political dimension.

Another premise seems necessary to me. We reflect and discuss based on the information available. We must not, therefore, lose sight of the fact that in this type of conflict, disinformation, propaganda, fake news, the instrumental use of news are daily bread.

Remaining within the framework of international law, there are then the aspects of jus ad bellum (or jus contra bellum), relating to the legitimacy of the use of force. We don't address them here. Furthermore, they are closely connected to the historical-political dimension.

We are still talking, therefore, about international humanitarian law, the law of armed conflicts, the jus in bello. This area of international law refers to the conduct of hostilities, the methods of use of force in military operations (and not, therefore, the legitimacy of this use). The sources are customary laws, the Hague Conventions of 1907 and the corpus of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the two additional protocols of 1977. The State of Israel has ratified the Geneva Conventions but not the protocols, while Palestine (whose qualification as a state is controversial for some) has ratified conventions and protocols. If we consider the Gaza Strip to be Palestinian territory, these conventional norms would certainly also be applicable to Hamas, which controls the Strip. In this conflict, serious violations of international humanitarian law have been committed and continue to be committed. I'll try to recall some of them, aware of the terrible fact that I probably won't list them all.

The Hamas attack resulted in deliberate killings, kidnapping of civilians, and rocket fire against civilians. I was very careful, and I used the words of Secretary General Guterres in his speech to the Security Council, in which - and I quote - he "unequivocally condemned" the "horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel" .

The Israeli response, in turn, has produced indiscriminate attacks, thousands of deaths and injuries among the civilian population, widespread destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, deprivation of the population of essential goods for its survival, such as water, food, medicines, electricity. In some ways, then, it takes the form of "collective punishment" of the Palestinian people, taking for granted the correspondence between Hamas and the Palestinians as a people. This also constitutes a serious violation, as it is collective punishment. Again, the UN Secretary General forcefully stated that «the demands of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrible attacks by Hamas and these horrible attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people».

All these behaviors and acts violate principles and norms of international humanitarian law. In particular, the principles of distinction, precaution in attacks and proportionality, which are the cornerstones of this international humanitarian law, are violated. The art. 48 of the Geneva Protocol I is entitled Basic rule and establishes that: «In order to ensure respect and protection of the civilian population and civil property, the Parties to the conflict must make, at all times, a distinction between the civilian population and combatants, as well as between civilian assets and military objectives, and, consequently, direct operations only against military objectives".

The law relating to the conduct of hostilities prohibits the use of means and methods of warfare that are not compatible with respect for these principles.
Extensive attacks conducted on densely populated areas are unlikely to ensure compliance. The Gaza Strip is a territory of 360 square kilometers with over two million inhabitants, and what we call Urban Warfare – the house-to-house and street fighting – is a chilling reality.
"Even war has rules", warned UN Secretary General Guterres, adding that "we must demand that all parties meet and respect their obligations under international humanitarian law".


Edoardo Greppi
NP December 2023