Monday, January 19, 2009

Hamas Guilty of War Crimes

This was sent to PP in an email from his cousin Arnie, whose family has dodged no fewer than four Grad rockets in the last few weeks.



One does not need to be a prophet to predict that as the images come out of Gaza there will be more and more cries that Israel is guilty of war crimes.

I was curious to see if the Geneva Convention dealt with a situation like the one Israel was facing, and while it is clear that when the rules were written the authors did not conceive that offensive military operations would be conducted from within civilian population centers, the first rule of Article 57 is applicable:

Part IV : Civilian population

Section I -- General protection against effects of hostilities

Chapter IV -- Precautionary measures

Article 57 -- Precautions in attack

1. In the conduct of military operations, constant care shall be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects.


Hamas not only doesn't act in accordance with Rule 1, its entire strategy is based on acting in direct contradiction to it.

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