11/19/2023 – 19:19
Attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Palestinian enclave have increased as Israeli forces intensify actions against Hamas. Understand what international law says about this. The Gaza Strip has 36 hospitals, but two out of three of these institutions are currently out of operation due to bombings or a lack of supplies due to the Israel-Hamas war, according to the United Nations (UN). The remaining infrastructure is overcrowded, and the scene is dramatic: pregnant women and cancer patients pile up alongside seriously injured people – many of them children and teenagers – and traumatized people. There is only power for a few hours, if at all. Operations are even conducted using cell phones.
The NGO Doctors Without Borders claims that thousands of people have been injured since the start of the war, many of whom are now in critical condition. Added to this are the tens of thousands of people who rushed to hospitals to protect themselves from the conflict. Given the situation, France and Italy announced the sending of Navy hospital ships to the coast of Gaza to provide some help.
Why are hospitals so important in the conflict?
More than six weeks have passed since Hamas’ attack on Israel. The radical Islamic group murdered at least 1,200 people and took another 240 hostage into Gaza. Israel reacted first with bombings and, three weeks ago, with a ground offensive. As a result, hospital structures in the north of the enclave have increasingly become the center of fighting.
These places are the only hope for countless injured people, and one of the few refuges left for the portion of civilians who did not flee to southern Gaza. Israel, however, argues that these structures are possibly also Hamas command centers, weapons depots and hostage shelters. And that is why hospitals – in a way rarely before so explicit – have become targets of attacks.
Indeed, hospitals have been deliberately attacked in previous conflicts – in Syria, to name a recent example. That hospitals, however, were deliberately used as shields by one party to the conflict, thereby becoming an explicit target of war on the other side, is something new.
Where is the fighting most intense?
Fighting in northern Gaza is mainly taking place at four clinics.
Al-Shifa is the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. Before being invaded by Israeli forces, it housed at least 2,500 people, according to the UN. On Saturday (11/18), hundreds of people fled there, following what the director of Al-Shifa said were orders from the Israeli Army to evacuate the site – Israel denies having ordered such a measure. The almost 300 who remained at the site the following day, including staff and patients, including 31 premature babies, began to be removed by a team from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Israel has been carrying out military operations inside Al-Shifa, searching for the Hamas operations center, which it says lies beneath the vast medical complex. Recently, Israeli forces claimed to have found weapons and a “central operational barracks” at the site – Hamas denies this.
On Sunday (11/19), the Israeli armed forces released what they claim to be images from Al-Shifa’s internal security circuit that would show hostages being taken into the hospital on October 7, shortly after the Hamas attacks.
Not far from there is the Rantisi Children’s Hospital, invaded by the Israeli Army at the beginning of the week. The unit’s basement would house an abandoned Hamas command center; some hostages would also have been held there. The hospital is out of operation. According to the Israeli Army, the last patients were evacuated to “a safe hospital” – the director of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Sakut, speaks of forced evacuation, and says that the patients were left “on the street, without assistance”.
Further south, the Al-Quds hospital, with more than 100 beds, would have housed up to 14,000 people until last week, according to the UN. With stocks of fuel, water and food running out, the institution closed its operations the previous Sunday, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (a branch of the Red Cross in the region). Those sheltering were evacuated to the south of the enclave, and 21 Palestinian fighters were killed around the hospital, according to the Israeli military.
Also in the north of Gaza, in Jabalia, the largest refugee settlement in the enclave, is the Indonesian Hospital, financed in 2015 by Jakarta and with 110 beds. At least 30 people died in bombings at the clinic, according to Hamas. The Israeli Army believes that the hospital’s basement also houses a terrorist command center, and claims to have found a rocket launch base nearby.
What does international law say?
As a rule, civil infrastructure – such as hospitals, schools, churches and drinking water facilities – have special protection under international law and cannot be attacked. But international law also says that “in case of doubt regarding a good that is normally used for civil purposes […] is being used to contribute effectively to military action, it will be presumed that it is not being used for such a purpose.” In this case, these places lose their special protected status.
If Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, is in fact using these civilian structures as a shield for its command centers, it would be a war crime under international law.
If a hospital is in fact clearly used for military purposes, an Israeli attack would be covered by international law – as long as strict criteria are met. “Even if this is the case, Israel is not free from the obligation to protect civilians,” explains Marc Weller, professor of international law at the University of Cambridge.
“These at-risk people are not willing human shields; they are civilians, who do not lose their right to protection.” Israel’s use of violence needs to be “directed at Hamas and its fighters,” according to Weller. “This means that Israel cannot attack targets where the harm to civilians is disproportionately high in relation to the military gain.”
This is a calculation that has to be constantly redone throughout a military operation, explains Weller. If it turns out that the attacked buildings are no longer being used militarily, the attacks must cease as quickly as possible.
An Army of the Rule of Law against a terrorist organization
The Israeli Army finds itself facing a difficult situation. Analyzing it, however, requires the consideration of some important aspects, in the opinion of Christoph Safferling, a specialist in international law at Erlangen University. “Israeli forces are the defense of a democratic rule of law, which strives to adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law and trains its soldiers accordingly. The opponent is Hamas, a terrorist organization, which does not care about international law and here, as far as we can see, clearly commits war crimes by taking hostages and using civilians as human shields,” Safferling told public television broadcaster ARD .
This also means that the moral standards by which Israel measures its actions are equally high. “Israel needs to ensure that harm to civilians is not out of balance with the military gain from a given operation,” explains Weller. “And this seems to be something that becomes problematic the longer the conflict lasts and the more Israeli military actions disproportionately target civilians.”
With information from AFP.
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