On March 24, Israel struck a automotive in northern Gaza and killed Al Jazeera correspondent Hossam Shabat.
The 23-year-old is one among numerous civilians – males, girls and kids – Israel has killed since launching what authorized students describe as a “genocidal” warfare on Gaza.
Israel usually justifies its killings by claiming that the targets are folks sympathetic or affiliated with Hamas or different armed factions. This was the justification given for killing Shabat.
Israel additionally repeatedly destroys whole neighbourhoods and buildings, killing dozens – usually tons of – at a time, ostensibly to focus on a single Hamas operative.
For years, Israel has tried to justify these practices by using attorneys to create shadowy quasi-legal ideas within the hope of creating new, harmful precedents, based on authorized students and consultants.
Nevertheless, authorized students instructed Al Jazeera that neither so-called “focused killings” nor disproportionate assaults towards civilians have any grounding in worldwide legislation.
“Is there any semblance of legislation or authorized justification for the warfare techniques Israel is utilizing in Gaza? The easy reply isn’t any. There isn’t,” mentioned Heidi Matthews, assistant professor of legislation at York College in Toronto, Canada.
Setting precedents
On September 28, 2000, Palestinians throughout the occupied West Financial institution and Gaza started demonstrating towards Israel’s ever-entrenching occupation in what turned often known as the second Intifada.
Israel’s repression of the Intifada rapidly prompted Palestinians to mobilise and battle again.
Over the following 5 years, Israel launched what it named “focused killings”, assassinating unarmed Palestinians.
Israel claimed that these targets might pose a risk to Israelis sooner or later due to their alleged membership in an armed faction.
“Israel … strips safety from civilians primarily based on their views or views,” mentioned Noor Kilzi, a researcher with Authorized Agenda, a nonprofit in Lebanon that advocates for authorized reform and human rights within the Center East.
Kin of the Palestinians who died because of an Israeli assault on a home belonging to the Mikdad household in Khan Younis refugee camp mourn because the lifeless our bodies are taken from Nasser Hospital for burial on the second day of Eid al-Fitr in Khan Younis, Gaza, on March 31, 2025. It was reported that many individuals, together with kids, had been killed and injured within the assault (Abed Rahim Khatib/ Anadolu Company)
Israel’s idea of focused killings laid out a blueprint which the US tailored throughout its “warfare on terror”, analysts instructed Al Jazeera.
“(Within the early 2000s) Israel and the US modified their authorized doctrines and applied that as a part of their army dogma,” York College’s Matthews instructed Al Jazeera.
“When it got here to distinguishing between civilians and combatants… the US and Israel started to view (anybody as a goal) primarily based on their membership to a gaggle,” she added.
In accordance with the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross, an individual is barely a legit goal if they’re immediately engaged in armed fight on the time they’re killed.
Which means that suspected membership in an armed group just isn’t a enough foundation to assassinate somebody.
Leiber’s legacy?
All through Israel’s warfare on Gaza, it has routinely dropped 2,000lb (900kg) bombs in densely populated residential areas, in addition to systematically focused colleges, hospitals and displacement shelters.
Israeli officers justify these assaults by claiming that Israel is combating a “simply warfare” towards barbarians. In consequence, the ostensible purpose of destroying Hamas outweighs minimising civilian casualties.
That is rooted partly within the philosophy of Francis Leiber, a Nineteenth-century German American army theorist, who was tasked with setting out the “guidelines of conduct” for Unionist troopers combating the Confederates within the US Civil Warfare.
He argued that some wars are important to the ethical progress of civilised nations and require a fast victory, which may solely be achieved utilizing techniques that can doubtless trigger enormous civilian casualties.
“Leiber principally mentioned that no matter is militarily essential to hold out warfare is authorized,” Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg, a authorized scholar on the London Faculty of Economics, instructed Al Jazeera.
This terrifying reasoning is blatantly at odds with worldwide norms and legal guidelines, Gurmendi Dunkelberg added.
“He believed in killing as many individuals as you possibly can, so that you just end the job rapidly. He believed that was extra humane than making an attempt to guard folks to the purpose that the warfare drags on for say 15 years,” he mentioned.
For the reason that starting of Israel’s warfare on Gaza, its spokespeople have made comparable arguments.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mentioned the purpose was to “get the (warfare) accomplished faster” when requested by PBS about why Israel had dropped 6,000 bombs within the first six days of assaults on the besieged enclave.
Then spokesperson for the Israeli military, Daniel Hagari, additionally admitted through the first days of the warfare that the emphasis in Gaza was on “harm and never accuracy”.
Palestinians examine the location of an Israeli strike on a home, in Deir el-Balah within the central Gaza Strip, on April 8, 2025 (Ramadan Abed/REUTERS) (Reuters)
Destroying the system
In November 2024, the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) authorised two arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant – accused of utilizing hunger as a weapon of warfare and intentionally attacking civilians in Gaza.
An earlier ruling by the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice discovered that Palestinians in Gaza confronted an actual threat of genocide as a consequence of Israel’s warfare practices.
The rulings by the ICC and ICJ add weight to the argument that Israel has failed in making an attempt to legally justify its warfare practices, which doubtless quantity to a number of warfare crimes, crimes towards humanity and even genocide.
In consequence, Israel and its western allies at the moment are making an attempt to sabotage the very establishments that had been created to uphold worldwide legislation and prosecute perpetrators of atrocities, mentioned Nadim Khoury, former director at Human Rights Watch and the founding father of the Arab Reform Initiative assume tank.
“Israel has clearly hit the restrict of what they’ll get away with by utilizing authorized arguments. Now, they’re simply performing with complete impunity to undermine the establishments making an attempt to implement worldwide legal guidelines,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
A number of authorized students and consultants expressed dismay that Netanyahu could possibly go to nations in Europe which are events to the Rome Statute, the authorized framework underpinning the ICC.
Nations akin to Hungary, Belgium and France have mentioned they won’t arrest Netanyahu if he visits their nations or passes by their land or airspace.
York College’s Matthews believes states that declare to uphold worldwide legislation should act rapidly to salvage what’s left of the system, acknowledging that it was by no means an ideal mannequin.
“Different states – past America and Israel – have to take motion to avoid wasting or salvage the system as a complete, or it would fade away rapidly,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
“We’re at an inflection level and it doesn’t look good.”
