Is Israel committing international law violations in Gaza? – the expert explains

More and more critical voices are being raised against Israel’s bombing of Gaza. The rate of killing in Gaza is historically high according to a review by The New York Times newspaper. It shows that in almost two months, 10,000 children and women have been killed.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has clearly expressed his doubts that Israel follows international law and refers to the high civilian death toll. The Geneva Conventions aim to limit the suffering of both civilians and combatants in war.

– States have an obligation to follow them. For serious violations of these rules, individuals may be prosecuted. Then you talk about crimes against international law or international crimes and they can be war crimes, says Pål Wrange, professor of international law at Stockholm University, in Efter fem.

Is Israel committing international law violations?

There are things that indicate that Israel is committing violations of international law in Gaza, even though all the facts are not at hand, says Pål Wrange.

– There are many indications that Israel has violated these rules to a fairly large extent. There are a large number of dead civilians. We do not know exactly how many of these 18,000 are civilians, but 70% are women and children. Probably many men are also civilians.

There is also great destruction if you compare figures with other conflicts, according to Pål Wrange.

What is a violation of international law?

The principles that are used when investigating violations of international law are the distinction principle, the proportionality principle and the precautionary principle. Pål Wrange gives an example:

– If a planned operation turns out to be impossible to carry out without major civilian casualties, then it must be stopped, he says and continues:

– When you make that balance, you have to remember that civilians are not enemies. They have equal value, whether they are on one side or the other.

It indicates that Israel broke the rules

He says that reports have come in about the reasoning within the Israeli Defense Forces, where there are statements that destruction is prioritized over precision.

– Israel will probably conduct its own investigations, one can only hope that they will be more ambitious than they usually are. There are investigations in the International Criminal Court. They will be taken very seriously and the prosecutor has been down to the area twice.

There can be a prosecution in any country, he explains.

– All countries have the opportunity to judge war crimes regardless of where they are committed.

There have also been reports of Hamas using civilians as so-called human shields.

– Those are war crimes in themselves. Civilians must be spared. Hamas has committed many types of war crimes. But Israel still has to consider the civilians here, whether they are exploited by Hamas or not, they are still civilians.