Alan Dershowitz: Israel Has Committed No War Crimes—Hamas Has
This brings us to the law of war. The only requirement of proportionality under international law is that when combatants are targeted in areas where civilians are present, the value of the military target must be proportional to the number of anticipated civilian deaths. This highly subjective judgment can’t be the basis of a war-crime prosecution, unless the judgment is utterly unreasonable. The 2-to-1 ratio is not only reasonable, but far better than that achieved by other armed forces facing comparable situations. Thus, were Israel to be prosecuted for violating the principle of proportionality, that would necessarily involve the application of a double standard against the Jewish state.US intelligence confirms Shifa hospital was Hamas command centre
The charge of genocide made by South Africa is even less persuasive. Real genocides have taken place in the world today, especially in Africa. South Africa has been silent about these neighboring genocides. And it is weakening the term itself by selectively politicizing it against Israel. Gaza has grown in population during the period in which genocide is charged. Israel has provided health care to Gazans in need of Israeli hospitals. It provided high-paying jobs in Israel to thousands of Gazans. These aren’t the actions of a nation engaged in genocide.
Genocide is directed against an entire people, not just criminals and terrorists among them. To accuse Israel of genocide is to fail to distinguish between the legitimate military goal of ending a terrorist organization, such as Hamas, and the illegitimate goal of ending the existence of an entire ethnic or religious group.
The term genocide was coined to describe the Nazi effort to rid the world of all Jews. Accusing Israel of genocide is a form of Holocaust denial, since no one even suggests that Israel has extermination camps, gas chambers, or other mechanisms that exemplified the Holocaust. If Israel were to be found guilty of genocide, the very meaning of that horrible crime would be diluted beyond recognition. It would then apply to the US bombing of Hiroshima, the British bombing of Dresden, and the killing of civilians during the Afghan, Iraqi, and Syrian military actions.
Every civilian death in wartime is a tragedy, and Hamas knew it was signing the death warrants of many civilians when it attacked Israel and then hid its war machinery among Gaza’s civilian population. The death of a human shield is the legal and moral responsibility of those who deliberately placed civilians in harm’s way. Consider the following example: A bank robber starts shooting at customers. When the police arrive, the robber grabs one of the customers and uses her as a human shield. A policeman, in an effort to save the lives of customers, tries to shoot the robber. But the hostage suddenly makes a move, and then the policeman’s bullet hits and kills her. Under the law of every nation, it is the hostage taker, not the policeman who is guilty of killing the hostage, even though the bullet that killed her came from the policeman’s gun.
It is Hamas and its Iranian patrons that should be on trial, not the victims of Hamas barbarism.
US spy agencies verified Israeli claims that Hamas and another Palestinian terrorist group used Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center and to hold hostages, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.How Hamas covered its tracks in Gaza's Shifa Hospital before IDF's raid - NYT
In late November, the Israel Defense Forces released extensive video evidence of terror tunnels under Shifa Hospital—the Gaza Strip's largest medical facility—saying it “unequivocally" proves the modus operandi of Hamas, "which systematically operates from hospitals.”
The terrorist group held at least three of the estimated 240 hostages it kidnapped on October 7 at Shifa, the IDF said.
Nevertheless, critics continued to claim that the IDF had little evidence Hamas used the hospital as a command post.
"In the weeks since the operation, news organizations have continued to raise questions about Hamas’s presence at the hospital. And health and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli operation. A humanitarian team led by the World Health Organization, which visited Al-Shifa immediately after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, called it a 'death zone,'" the Times reported.
But a senior US intelligence official said Tuesday that the American government was convinced that Hamas used the hospital complex to direct terrorist forces, store weapons and hold “at least a few hostages.”
The official also said US spy agencies had information that Hamas destroyed evidence before the IDF operation at the hospital got underway.
Hamas terrorists took measures to prepare for the IDF's November raid of Shifa Hospital in Gaza by destroying documents and transferring hostages to an alternate location, according to intelligence documents obtained by The New York Times.
The report said that US intelligence found that Hamas destroyed technology and documents crucial to the organization's operation, with Shifa hospital as a home base.
US intelligence sources emphasized that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad used the hospital as a command center for terrorists in the field fighting against Israeli forces. This intelligence assessment was conducted after Israel insisted that Hamas had built a huge military compound under the hospital – which, according to the report, had become a "legitimate military target for Israel."
Hostages not located, but remains found nearby
While inside the hospital complex, the IDF did not find hostages but did find an arsenal of weapons behind medical equipment. The bodies of two murdered hostages were found surrounding the complex.
The IDF's findings at the Shifa hospital grounds indicated use of the space as a military compound, uncovering meters of tunnels complete with living rooms, kitchenettes, toilets, and other infrastructure.
The route of the tunnel, revealed after the shaft seen in the photographs published by the IDF spokesperson, passes under the building of the Qatari hospital located in the Shifa complex and is lined with electricity and communication infrastructure throughout.