{"id":1256523,"date":"2023-10-09T19:59:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T19:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=447034"},"modified":"2023-10-09T19:59:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T19:59:03","slug":"israel-responds-to-hamas-crimes-by-ordering-mass-war-crimes-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/10\/09\/israel-responds-to-hamas-crimes-by-ordering-mass-war-crimes-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Responds to Hamas Crimes by Ordering Mass War Crimes in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article includes graphic images and depictions of death.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s Defense Minister<\/span> Yoav Gallant used genocidal language and ordered mass war crimes in the occupied Gaza Strip on Monday in response to Hamas\u2019s weekend assault and massacre of Israeli civilians, setting the stage for a large-scale escalation of the violence that has already led to the killing of at least 800 Israelis and more than 500 Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallant said that he had ordered \u201ca complete siege of the Gaza Strip,\u201d which is home to 2.2 million Palestinians, nearly half of them children. \u201cThere will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Gallant ordered \u2014 the collective punishment of a civilian population \u2014 amounts to a war crime under international law, as well as potentially a crime against humanity and the crime of genocide, some international law experts have pointed out<\/a>. Hamas\u2019s massacre of civilians and taking of at least 150 hostages, whom it has reportedly threatened to execute<\/a> in response to the targeting of civilians in Gaza, are also war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamas and Israel\u2019s crimes against civilians, which are likely to escalate in the coming days, come after years of impunity for Israel\u2019s crimes against Palestinians. The historical lack of accountability has bred a culture of disregard for international law that directly resulted in the weekend\u2019s violence, human rights advocates say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeliberate killings of civilians, hostage-taking, and collective punishment are heinous crimes that have no justification,\u201d Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. \u201cThe unlawful attacks and systematic repression that have mired the region for decades will continue, so long as human rights and accountability are disregarded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the wake of Hamas\u2019s attack on Israel on Saturday, the Israeli military launched a bombing campaign on Gaza. Israeli raids flattened residential buildings and targeted a densely populated refugee camp over the weekend. Humanitarian workers in the strip have also reported that hospitals are completely overwhelmed by the number of casualties and ambulances are coming under fire. A ground invasion of the occupied territory is also widely expected in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts have noted that Israel\u2019s practice of \u201cwarning\u201d civilians \u2014 like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s call on Gaza\u2019s residents to \u201cleave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere\u201d \u2014 is not sufficient<\/a>. There is nowhere for people to seek safety in the strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, since Israel imposed an air, land, and sea blockade on the territory in 2007, effectively trapping them in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

War crimes fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which, in 2021, opened an investigation on war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories. The investigation prompted fierce opposition<\/a> by Israel and the United States \u2014 neither of which are members of the court \u2014 and it has largely stalled<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights advocates quickly pointed to Gallant\u2019s words as an \u201cadmission of intent<\/a>\u201d to commit crimes, calling on ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to take notice. But international officials\u2019 responses to his comments were largely muted. The Biden administration has repeatedly stated its support for Israel since Saturday\u2019s attack, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledging the U.S.\u2019s \u201cunwavering focus on halting the attacks by Hamas<\/a>\u201d but offering no immediate comment on Israel\u2019s declared retaliation against Palestinian civilians. The ICC\u2019s prosecutor\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Intercept. <\/p>\n\n\n

\"GAZA\n
A rescuer pulls out the body of a little girl from the rubble after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Gaza, on Oct. 9, 2023.Photo: Belal Khaled\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

The Consequences of Impunity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As human rights advocates and international law experts have long warned, impunity for war crimes only leads to more. Last year, as Russia staged a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many pointed to the impunity for war crimes it committed in Syria<\/a> and elsewhere and argued that the lack of accountability directly enabled similar crimes to be committed in Ukraine. The ICC, for its part, responded to Russian crimes in Ukraine by immediately dispatching investigators there, leading to charges implicating Russian leadership all the way up to President Vladimir Putin earlier this year. But there was no such response following Israeli crimes in Gaza, including after military campaigns in 2018, 2021, and 2022 that left hundreds of Palestinian civilians dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we\u2019ve learned anything through prior escalations, it is that so long as there is impunity for serious abuses, we will continue to see more repression and shedding of civilian blood,\u201d said Shakir. Human Rights Watch called on the ICC \u201cto accelerate its investigation into serious crimes committed by all parties in Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

While both parties committed heinous crimes, Gallant\u2019s call for a complete siege on Gaza revealed the underlying imbalance at play: While Hamas\u2019s attack shocked Israelis and the world and amounted to the most serious attack on Israel in five decades, it paled in comparison to Gallant\u2019s threat to starve 2 million trapped civilians. \u201cThis is why this never was and never will be a \u2018war\u2019 of equals,\u201d media critic Sana Saeed noted<\/a> on Monday. \u201cBecause one side has the power to entirely eliminate an entire population, to control whether they live or die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallant wasn\u2019t the only Israeli leader to tap into genocidal rhetoric in response to Hamas\u2019s attack, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declaring, \u201cIt\u2019s time to be cruel,\u201d and Knesset member Ariel Kallner calling for a \u201cNakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48,\u201d a reference to the massacre and expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians upon Israel\u2019s founding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other observers denounced efforts by either party to use crimes committed by the other as justification for committing more crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFailure of one party to a conflict to abide by the laws of war does not absolve the other party from complying with the laws of war,\u201d noted<\/a> Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Democracy for the Arab World Now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsrael certainly cannot claim the upper moral hand. Israeli government ministers now calling to kill, destroy, crush and even starve the residents of Gaza forget that this is already Israeli policy,\u201d the Israeli human rights group B\u2019Tselem echoed in a statement. \u201cIntentional attacks on civilians are prohibited and unacceptable. There is no justification for such crimes, whether they are committed as part of a struggle for freedom from oppression or cited as part of a war against terror.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palestinian and international human rights groups also called on the United Nations to address the underlying causes behind this weekend\u2019s events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsrael has a horrific track record of committing war crimes with impunity in previous wars on Gaza,\u201d Amnesty International wrote in a statement<\/a> that called on Palestinian armed groups to refrain from targeting civilians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe root causes of these repeated cycles of violence must be addressed as a matter of urgency. This requires upholding international law and ending Israel\u2019s 16-year-long illegal blockade on Gaza, and all other aspects of Israel\u2019s system of apartheid imposed on all Palestinians.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palestinian human rights groups echoed that call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor decades, Palestinians have been calling<\/a> on the international community to take concrete and meaningful actions, beyond statements of condemnation, to put an end to these violations,\u201d Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights wrote in an open letter to the United Nations on Monday. \u201cThe international community\u2019s lack of political will to hold Israel to account only emboldens Israel to continue committing crimes against the Palestinian people as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Israel Responds to Hamas Crimes by Ordering Mass War Crimes in Gaza<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years of impunity for Israeli crimes against civilians have bred a culture of disregard for international law.<\/p>\n

The post Israel Responds to Hamas Crimes by Ordering Mass War Crimes in Gaza<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":300,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1256523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1261719,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256523\/revisions\/1261719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1256523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1256523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1256523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}