A medic carries an injured Palestinian child in Gaza. Source: Wafa, Wikimedia Commons
While the words “Israel has a right to defend itself” have been circling throughout the West, experts say that in this context, this isn’t the case.
In less than two months, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza strip, including bombing hospitals, schools, residential buildings, and refugee camps.
Over 13,000 civilians in Gaza have now been killed, half of them children, and over 20,000 more are injured. Health officials say this number is likely much higher, as many people are missing under the rubble.
Gaza has also been under a total siege since 2005, in what has been called “the world’s largest open-air prison,” in which food, water, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies going into Gaza are controlled by Israel.
After the Hamas attacks on October 7th, which killed 1,200 Israeli civilians – a number which has been corrected after the initial figure of 1,400 – Israel has claimed the right to defend itself, with the support of Western countries including Britain, Australia, and its biggest ally, the US.
However, several humanitarian experts argue that the right to self-defence does not apply to Israel in this context.
In an address to the Australian Press Club last week, Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said: “The right to self-defence can be invoked when the state is threatened by another state, which is not the case.”
“Israel does not claim it has been threatened by another state. It has been threatened by an armed group within an occupied territory. It cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies, from a territory kept under belligerent occupation.”
Other experts add that the scale of Israel’s attacks on Gaza since October 7th, including targeting civilians, children, healthcare workers, and journalists, and withholding essential supplies, cannot be justified through self-defence.
Executive director of Action on Armed Violence, Iain Overton, said: “The death of a reported 4,710 children, attacks on healthcare, the withholding of water and electricity – these cannot be merely justified as a ‘right to self-defence’.”
Overton added that for Israel to claim this right without being challenged “would be a mockery of the international humanitarian law”.
Armed conflicts are governed by international humanitarian law (IHL) which exists to ensure that member nations abide by a list of fundamental laws during conflicts.
Israel has been accused of breaching these laws and committing numerous war crimes during assaults on both Gaza and the West Bank long before the 7th of October, but has not been held accountable.
Experts say that in the most recent assaults on Gaza, Israel’s actions violate all of the key principles of IHL, including the distinction between civilians and combatants, the prohibition of attacking those not engaged in hostilities, the prohibition of inflicting unnecessary suffering, the principle of necessity, and the principle of proportionality.
