Quote:
Originally Posted by nobody
there have been over 7,000 kassam fired on israeli territory since all jews were removed from gaza. israel responds by targeted killing of the rocket operatives. the rocket operatives use "human camouflage" as a deterrent against israeli reprisals. the effectiveness of that tactic is evidenced by the condemnation of israel over the infant's death. but under geneva convention rules of warfare:
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Where do you get this 7,000 number? According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs; 2,696 Qassams were fired from Gaza from 2004 to late 2007...
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/CAS_Aug07.pdf
In contrast Israel fired 14,000 shells into Gaza in 2006 alone...
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/CAS_Aug07.pdf
Quote:
"The Fourth Geneva Convention goes into great and elaborate detail about how to assign fault when military activities take place in civilian areas... Hamas is at war with Israel. But instead of separating themselves from the general population in military camps and wearing uniforms, as required by international law, Hamas members and other Palestinian terrorists try to use civilians -- the "protected persons" mentioned in [The Fourth Geneva Convention] 3:1:28 -- as living camouflage. To prevent such a thing from happening, international law explicitly gives Israel the right to conduct military operations against military targets under these circumstances."
Article 28
The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
thus when the rocket operative fires a kassam at israeli civilians he/she cannot seeks th protection of civilian sandbags.
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While the mere presence of protected persons does not make a point immune from military operations the 4th Geneva Conventions also makes it clear that measures are to be taken to insure the safety of protected persons:
Article 3 of the
"Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War:"
In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture
What these means is that Israel does not have the right to indiscrimately bomb civilian areas or civilian targets under the guise that the presence of civilians does not render these areas immune from operations.