RESOURCE: TACTICS AND RESPONSES ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR 

Table of Contents

• Why the Gaza Blockade
• Sexual Assaults and murders of children by Hamas Oct 7, just as Israel had been easing economic sanctions.
• Hamas's Tactics - How Hamas' Unique Urban Warfare Uses its Citizens as Shields.
• What is a war crime and what is genocide? Differentiating actions and accountability in time of war. 

Israel has a blockade of Gaza Because Hamas Is at War with Israel and Steals Humanitarian Aid to Build Weapons.

Hamas is a religious fundamentalist organization that depends on guerrilla urban warfare tactics.  Originally accepted by Israel as a religious alternative to the secular PLO, it soon morphed into an even more radical organization that provided its own set of social services paired with militias. Elected to a majority in Gaza in 2006 (which is the last election held in Gaza), they also run the government in one of the densest urban areas in the world with an iron fist.  Homosexuality is punishable by 10 years in prison or death, women can not travel without a male chaperone.  They are also known for environmental warfare, sending flaming balloons to start brushfires in Israel. 

Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006 and then proceeded to kill or torture political opponents.  While the Oslo Accords created a structure for peaceful negotiation for two states, Hamas refused to join in any negotiations with Israel and continued to stay at war with Israel. It continues to call for the elimination of all Jews or Killing from the region and the killing of Jews.  It sent militants into Israel to shoot or kidnap Israeli civilians, and bomb town centers, usually delivered by militants who would blow themselves and the people around them up. 

Israel and Egypt then imposed a blockade of Gaza to prevent the flow of arms and explosives into Gaza. Egypt's blockade is far more fortified than Israel's.  Hamas was caught then stealing aid money,  humanitarian aid and supplies to make rockets, stole cement to make tunnels to get into Israel and stole food as well.  The blockade now focuses on both military and dual-use technologies since Hamas has tried to use whatever it can to make weapons instead of helping Gazans, but at times Israeli-Right politicians have hardened the blockade or used it in a heavy-handed fashion more to look tough, even though it hurts Gazans.  That being said, Israel provides access to emergency health care, water and electricity into Gaza.  Gaza's own infrastructure decayed under Hamas, and worsened due to damage caused by fighting Israel, the blockade and corruption have also hurt both the economy and the rebuilding of Gaza.

The October 7 attacks included sexual assaults and killing children 

While the UN and Israel agree on few issues, they do agree that the October 7 attacks included sexual assaults and children were taken hostage and killed. While some stories such as beheadings have been called into question, a large majority of the claims have been verified, including the kidnapping of the Bibas children, (Later murdered in captivity) shooting infants in their mother's arms and sexual assaults.  

Israel had been easing access of the existing blockade prior to October 7, believing that Hamas was becoming more interested in stabilizing Gaza than militancy.

The odd thing was that immediately prior to the October 7 attacks, Israel had been easing controls and allowing more Qatari cash into Gaza believing Hamas was becoming more reasonable and to continue to keep the Palestinian Authority weak.

Hamas "taxes" aid, forces press to cover stories their way or no access, and places personnel in foreign aid operations.

In order to fund its operations and maintain power, Hamas taxes aid and controls the distribution of items like cigarettes. Hamas has also enabled a system where foreign charities like Waqf al-Ummah/Ummet Vakfı, founded by the Muslim Brotherhood is alleged to have stolen over a half billion dollars.  For more information on the operations of Hamas, we recommend reading the postings of

Hamas also is alleged to have placed its allies and members into organizations such as UNWRA (UNWRA has stated it investigated and found 300 staff had breached neutrality provisions) but also noted a pattern of harassment by Hamas and unauthorized use of their facilities.  Three months after Israeli investigations found it had lapses in operations resulting in the accidental killing of Word Central Kitchen staff, Hamas was found to have stolen World Central Kitchen car magnets in attempts to pose as staff.  Hamas has also been accused of placing hospital and other staff (video showed hostages being brought into hospitals for interrogration)

Hamas Deliberately Stages Its Military Operations In Schools, Hospitals and Civilian Buildings Making Conventional Ground Force Operations Nearly Impossible to Take Out. 

Hamas is a fundamentalist organization that depends on guerrilla urban warfare tactics that used to rely on suicide bombing and armed attacks on civilians until the security wall prevented such attacks (it also has had other effects including cutting of Palestinians from their land and preventing regular contacts between Arabs and Israelis).

Since they are no longer able to send suicide bombers into Israel, their primary form of attacking Israel is to send cheaply made, rockets either supplied by Qatar or Iran or by repurposing oxygen tanks and fertilizer provided as international aid.  Not only is the firing of rockets into civilian areas by Hamas possibly a war crime, but Hamas also locates their military operations headquarters in or beneath hospitals, and have deliberately located munitions and rockets in UNWRA schools, over and over again (and apparently was locating attack tunnels under schools in 2021 as well).  Video of Hamas bringing hostages into Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza on the morning of the October 7 attack shows that they are in fact operating in forbidden areas, as if the issue was hostages being injured, there were other hospitals closer to the border they could have use.

They also deliberately place their operations in dense urban areas, and place tunnels under residential areas for troops and munitions to move, which has resulted in them being accused of using civilians as shields.  This well-documented placement deep within Gaza means that it is impossible to take out rockets or operations without hitting densely populated areas and the easy mobility of the rockets make a ground operation impossible.  Israel does try to warn residents of targeted areas and has called off several high risk operations that could affect children.  Further, Hamas' rockets frequently do not make it out of Gaza.  The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that at least 11 of the 128 civilian casualties from Gaza in 2021 were killed by Hamas' own rockets (the claim of 245 casualties produced by Hamas to the United Nations Office of the Coordinator includes over 128 militia members). 

.

War Crimes or Genocide?

We all want to put a name to the tragedies of war, especially when the imagery is stark and violent as this war has been.  If you believe in accountability in this conflict, it is important to be focused on the people committing the atrocities.  Below is a guide to the crimes of war and how they apply to this conflict.

War Crimes

According to numerous sources, including the Red Cross and Cornell University, to be liable for a war crime, the victim must be protected under the Geneva Conventions. GC I, II, and III apply to soldiers, while GC IV applies to civilians and “unlawful combatants.” 

The following acts are war crimes under Rome Statute Article 8:

• Wilful killing of noncombatants in certain contexts;
• Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
• Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health to noncombatants and prisoners of war;
• Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
• Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
• Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;
• Unlawful deportation and transfer or unlawful confinement;
• Taking of hostages.

It is important to note that while death and suffering for noncombatants occurs in most military context, there is an additional requirement of "willful" damage.   65% of World War II's casualties were civilian, and a large number of those inflicted by the Allies. 74% of the Korean War casualties were civilian and the Gulf War civilian casualty rate was estimated as high 88%. A  willful or deliberate disregard for civilians is required to trigger war crimes.

War Crimes occur in every conflict.  In a functioning system, the local government, often that of the combatant, must investigate and where merited, prosecute its own soldiers and leaders who have either directed or committed these acts.  If and only if a state authority fails to act will the International Court of Criminal Justice or International Court of Justice step in. The Israel Defense Forces has a department that investigates war crimes (Hamas not does not).  While not perfect and subject to political pressures, the system has worked to date, although there has been some criticism that the current Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, has taken steps to weaken oversight. The challenge can be when political leaders direct or commit war crimes and how to hold those leaders accountable.

Crimes Against Humanity

Crimes Against Humanity are a subset of war crimes that are serious and grave violations that can be committed with or without armed conflict. under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, and may overlap with war crimes as they include,  murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts to noncombatants committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime under the ICJ. 

Genocide (traditional and a "new" definition")

Determining whether a genocide has occurred is a legal finding as a result of an investigatory and tribunal process, not a political act.  Even acts of genocide prior the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948, such as the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust were the result of trials by judges bringing findings of fact.  People have opinions about all sort of legal actions, but they are rarely based in the facts that a court must face in making a ruling.

"Genocide” refers to certain acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. I

Genocide is an international crime, according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948). The acts that constitute genocide fall into five categories, all requiring intentional acts with the intent destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group:

• Killing members of the group
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Although the term “genocide” is often used, its commission is rare when compared to other serious crimes that are not defined by an intent to destroy a targeted group, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes. The term is often misused in response to wars with sizeable civilian casualties.  Unlike War Crimes, genocide requires an express intent to destroy a group, not merely sweeping statements calling for defeat of an enemy (which is common in armed conflict).  The South African theory of genocide, being advanced in court and the UN is a novel one, because it does not require express intent, only an effect on a population, in this case claiming that tactics with less civilian impact could be used to fight an enemy that deliberately hides in urban areas as cover (which one would ordinarily argue could be a war crime, but not genocide).  

There are a number of organizations that monitor and discuss potential genocides,  but one should not confuse political pressures on a group that makes political decisions like an association or institute, with a finding of judicial fact.  Such political pressures have been noted in the discussion over Israel's conduct as the UN's chief genocide expert was fired for disagreeing with political pressures and the Association of Genocide Scholars (most of their members are not in fact scholars but people interested in the subject, holding a holiday weekend vote without customary debate where only 24% of their members voted.