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On October 9th, 2023, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a “complete siege on the Gaza Strip” following Hamas’s attack on Israel. This siege, aimed at severing all supplies, quickly drew international condemnation from humanitarian NGOs and scholars, who argued it violated laws of war due to Gaza’s civilian population. Despite evidence of Hamas diverting aid, Israel faced pressure to lift the siege and allow humanitarian aid. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) took significant steps, with the ICJ mandating Israel to enable humanitarian assistance and the ICC seeking arrest warrants against Israeli leaders for war crimes, including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.”This article explores whether the international response to Israel’s actions marks a shift in the legal standards governing siege warfare, potentially setting stricter regulations that could effectively ban the tactic in populated areas. It reviews the legal framework of armed conflict relevant to sieges, including The Hague Regulations and the Geneva Conventions, and examines recent Security Council Resolutions concerning the Syrian conflict. The article analyzes Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian obligations during the Gaza siege and considers any special duties Israel might have towards Gaza.Additionally, the article discusses how recent ICJ and ICC developments may signal reduced tolerance for siege warfare, and the implications for future conflicts. By comparing the international acceptance of siege tactics in other conflicts, such as Fallujah, Mosul, and Marawi, the article argues that the criticism of Israel’s actions may reflect a double standard. It concludes by emphasizing the need for objective legal standards and cautioning against politicizing neutral legal rules.
Siege can be considered a lawful military tactic within the bounds of established armed conflict laws, such as distinction and proportionality. While besieging parties are not actively required to provide humanitarian aid, they are generally expected to permit third party relief efforts under appropriate conditions. The provision of humanitarian assistance is subject to the principle of military necessity but cannot be denied capriciously or arbitrarily. Humanitarian aid is conditioned on reaching its destination, with no serious concern for diversion or the enemy’s accrual of military or economic advantage. The besieging party may set the technical arrangements for the delivery of aid. The prohibition of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare refers to intentional starvation as the goal of the siege, as opposed to incidental deprivation in a siege aimed at weakening and defeating enemy forces.
As seen in Fallujah, Mosul, and Marawi, siege tactics are sometimes employed when other military strategies could lead to even greater civilian harm. Restricting this tactic could require states to rely on more intense force, complicating operations within densely populated areas. Reevaluating siege as a military strategy might unintentionally encourage hostile groups to establish bases in urban zones, anticipating that the international community would be highly cautious about the civilian costs of such operations.Concerns persist that the criticism of Israeli siege tactics represents a lex specialis directed solely at Israel, rather than a standard applied universally to other states in similar circumstances. Despite condemnations by the United Nations and various human rights organizations, major military powers have recognized siege warfare’s legality in other contexts, such as Fallujah, Mosul, and Marawi. While states and jurists may in good faith debate the specific boundaries of permissible siege tactics, these disagreements differ substantially from accusations of war crimes or genocide. The selective politicization of neutral legal standards risks undermining the international community’s credibility as impartial arbiters and may alienate states that feel subjected to inconsistent treatment.
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We reiterate the importance of using precise terminology, as we have emphasized previously. Specifically, the term "Israeli illegal occupying forces" have to be used rather than "Israeli defense forces," particularly in light of the recent advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in July 2024, which reaffirmed the illegality of this occupation. Consequently, it is important to refer to the situation not as "military operations," but as "violations of international law in the context of prolonged illegal occupation."Someone should write to the UN insisting that they never refer to the "State of Palestine" but to "a gang of terrorists who engage in, support and celebrate murdering Jews." It is certainly a more accurate description.
We disagree with the notion that hospitals in Gaza may forfeit their protection, as innocent civilians are seeking refuge there.
[T]he protection of medical units ceases when they are being used, outside their humanitarian function, to commit acts harmful to the enemy. This exception is provided for in the First and Fourth Geneva Conventions and in both Additional Protocols. It is contained in numerous military manuals and military orders. It is also supported by other practice.According to the Commentary on the First Geneva Convention, examples of acts harmful to the enemy include the use of medical units to shelter able-bodied combatants, to store arms or munitions, as a military observation post or as a shield for military action.
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In all instances where the Israeli military has attacked hospitals, apart from Al Awda Hospital in Northern Gaza and Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah in Middle Gaza, Israel has alleged that the hospitals were being used by Palestinian armed groups.[32] In its comments on this report, the Government of Israel makes these arguments specifically in reference to Rantisi, Sheikh Hamad, Al Quds, Indonesia and Nasser hospitals. [33] However, insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information.[34]
Cayley said the ICC faced “great difficulty assessing” the level of Hamas militant presence in hospitals “because clearly there are lies being spoken, but that is really something we do need to get to the bottom of as a prosecution office”.He added: “I think that has been grossly exaggerated, but we need to be able to demonstrate very clearly what the level of military presence was, if at all, in these hospitals because I think we’ve been misled about that in the press.”
Cayley indicated that Israeli operations against Gaza’s healthcare facilities would be examined. “Looking at damage to health facilities, destruction of health facilities, we will be coming on to that probably later next year. We’re having to do this in stages simply because of the resources that we have,” he added.
Cayley says that he thinks Israel is exaggerating its claims, he does not bring one iota of evidence that anything they say is wrong. It's just a gut feeling.
The IDF published pictures of some weapons reportedly found at Al Shifa Medical Complex, although these appeared to be mainly a small number of small weapons and therefore not necessarily of a nature to conclude that hostilities had been launched or directed from the hospital.
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Considering the inadequate U.S. efforts to free its citizens being held by Hamas, Meir Soloveichik looks to the example of the great Victorian statesman Lord Palmerston:Biased Science: The Lancet Claims Gaza Casualty Count Underreported
In 1848, a series of anti-Semitic riots took place in Athens, and a Sephardi Jew by the name of Don Pacifico issued claims for damages to his property. Pacifico had never set foot in England, but he had been born in Gibraltar, and therefore submitted his case as a British subject to the government of Lord John Russell, in which Palmerston was serving as foreign secretary. Palmerston seized upon these claims, as he had already been angered by other purported grievances by the Greek government, and he ordered the British fleet to blockade Greek ports until Pacifico’s grievances were addressed.
This response, Soloveichik writes, reflected a general view of Britain’s role in the world that can “serve as a worthy polestar for the United States.”
The Don Pacifico affair is not the only aspect of Palmerston’s career worth rediscovering; his own approach to freedom and foreign policy has much to teach us today. Palmerston did not believe that free societies could be created overnight, but he did believe that British power ought to be used in celebration, and at times in the defense, of societies that sought to be free.
The Lancet has a history of publishing agenda-driven and politicized anti-Israel content that goes way beyond the field of healthcare and medicine.
In July 2024, the medical journal was called out for outrageously claiming that as many as 186,000 Gazans had been killed in the current war. Many media rushed to print dramatic headlines under the imprimatur of The Lancet — a significant error given that the casualty claims came not from a peer-reviewed study but from a letter sent to The Lancet, whose writers included at least one with a history of defending Palestinian terrorism.
Now, The Lancet has published a study claiming the Gaza death toll may have been underreported by 41%. While this time claims concerning Gaza casualty figures appear in The Lancet in the form of an actual scientific study, it still has numerous similarities with the previous claims, namely a reliance on faulty Hamas sources and a disturbing lack of impartiality on the part of its authors, including one who justified Hamas’ October 7 massacre.
The Media Coverage
Throughout the conflict, the media have unquestioningly republished Gazan casualty figures whose ultimate source is Hamas. This, despite adding caveats whenever Israel has offered its own estimates, particularly concerning the number of dead terrorists.
So it’s hardly surprising that numerous outlets saw fit to cover The Lancet’s study.
Disappointingly, given its previous in-depth coverage of the Henry Jackson Society’s study on inflated Gaza casualty figures, The Telegraph‘s report on The Lancet study failed even to mention that the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s data was courtesy of the Hamas-run ministry in Gaza.
The BBC and The Guardian, meanwhile, took the opportunity to blame Israel for not letting foreign journalists into Gaza as the reason why casualty figures could not be independently verified by the media.
These outlets and Reuters did at least include some Israeli reaction (albeit relatively generic), as well as the fact that the study’s figures don’t differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Outlets like CNN and Politico, however, simply parroted the study without any caveat.
But the fact remains that all these outlets should have been more critical of The Lancet’s study, which was thoroughly debunked on social media. Because, unlike those who did the debunking, journalists still have no issue with relying on sources like the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in their everyday reporting, and nor did they do any due diligence on the study’s authors.
Thanks to The Lancet’s professional (albeit undeserved) reputation and the media’s penchant for reporting a source that it treats as beyond criticism, this latest anti-Israel claim has the potential to become part of a narrative that has already accepted disputed casualty figures as fact.
Negotiations for Hamas to release Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for a cease-fire and Palestinian terrorists freed from prison have reached advanced stages, but the deal is not yet finalized, two Israeli diplomatic sources confirmed on Monday.Israel, Hamas close to deal with 33 hostages released in phase one
“There are advances in all components of the agreement,” said one source. “We are certainly in advanced stages … Reaching an agreement could be a matter of hours or of days.”
While the agreement was still not final, the sources said Hamas was showing greater seriousness than it had in the past year, during which “Hamas was not part of the negotiations” that were taking place between the Israeli team, the U.S. and Qatari mediators.
“We are now in a different reality, very similar to November 2023 [when the previous hostage release took place], when there were effective negotiations towards a deal about the details of implementation. This is a very significant change,” a source said.
Both Israeli sources attributed the change in Hamas’ approach to a combination of Israeli military achievements and President-elect Donald Trump’s threats that “all hell will break out” if the hostages are not released by the time of his inauguration next week.
“Why are there cracks now in Hamas’ [resolve]?” one source said. “There was the ground incursion in Lebanon, the assassination of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, the assassination of [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, crazy [IDF] military pressure on the north of Gaza. This isolated Hamas. We struck the Shiite Iranian axis and Hamas is alone. They don’t have Hezbollah or Iran, they only have the Houthis.”
In addition, the source said, Trump began to involve himself in the negotiations, making it clear that he is serious about pushing for the hostages to be released.
Israel and Hamas are close to a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal that will likely be announced by the end of the day – though it is not fully guaranteed and is subject to change – in which 33 hostages will be released during the first phase, with a staged withdrawal of military forces from Gaza, notwithstanding the maintenance of an undefined security perimeter, diplomatic sources said on Monday.Israel will not release Nukhba terrorists in possible Gaza hostage deal
Israel’s senior delegation in Doha, which includes Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar and Mossad Director David Barnea, will remain in Qatar “for the time being,” potentially until a deal is signed.
A Hamas delegation said Gaza ceasefire talks were progressing well, with the group dealing with developments in a positive manner, it said in a statement following a meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha.
Once 15 days of the ceasefire have passed, on the 16th, negotiations would start regarding the next stages of the deal – with the goal of releasing all the hostages – and IDF withdrawals. The diplomatic sources did not provide a definite time frame, but some expect the first phase will last 42 days.
The source added that, as of Monday, none of the 33 hostages expected to be released in the first phase of a possible deal are confirmed dead. Sources said they believe that most – though not all – of the 33 hostages are alive and that the body of Youssef Ziyadne, whose body was recovered by the IDF last week, was initially on the list.
There is no certainty as to when the deal will be signed. Sources reiterated that the IDF would not fully withdraw from Gaza until every single hostage was released.
Sources said that a cabinet vote and an expected High Court of Justice ruling on petitions to block the deal would also be necessary for the deal to come through.
Should this happen, the first hostages could be released fairly quickly, the source estimated.
The security perimeter is something Israel would retain independent of the withdrawal of troops. It appeared that some soldiers would remain there during Phase 1 but not at some later phases when forces would only be at a security perimeter, which sources emphasized would include the full length of the enclave, not just northern Gaza.
All indications were that the IDF would, broadly speaking, withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, which splits northern and southern Gaza. There would be unspecified “security arrangements” to review those who would be allowed to return to the north.
Israel will not release any Hamas terrorist belonging to the Nukhba forces, which took part in the October 7 massacre of southern Israel, as part of a possible hostage deal, diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post on Monday evening.
The list of terrorists expected to be released from Israeli prisons as part of the deal's first phase does include some sentenced to life, the source added. However, none are part of the Nukhba forces that carried out the October 7 attacks.
In addition, none of the 33 hostages expected to be released in the first phase of a possible deal are confirmed to be dead as of Monday, as per the diplomatic source.
Israel is expected to retain "territorial assets," which could include the Philadelphi Corridor and an undefined security perimeter, as reported by the Post's Yonah Jeremy Bob.
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Just three days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria was announced, a number of rabbis from a Jewish movement calling itself Chabad performed prayers and Talmudic rituals in the village of Hadar, located in the buffer zone in the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria.The official website of this extremist Jewish movement confirmed, on December 12, that a group of its followers performed their prayers with their children in the Syrian territories that were recently controlled by Israeli forces.
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The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) said that Hamas, which mortgaged itself to Iran and other regional axes, and provided free pretexts for the occupation to carry out the largest war of extermination against our people in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, which led to the destruction of the Gaza Strip, and the martyrdom, loss, injury and capture of more than two hundred thousand children, women and men, whom Hamas took refuge in [hid under] instead of protecting them and their homes, and also caused the catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip to spread, from hunger and poverty and deprivation of the most basic human needs, and the collapse of the basic services system of education, health and others, has no right to reproduce its adventures in the West Bank.Fatah added that Hamas' insistence on the rhetoric of outbidding and treason based on slander and fabrications that are not related to reality and facts, in open alignment with the occupation's plans, through attempts to fuel security chaos and anarchy in the West Bank, through explicit support for groups of outlaws, confirms that Hamas is still pursuing its policy that has brought nothing but disasters, death and destruction to the Palestinian people .Fatah stressed that the contradictions and fabrications contained in Hamas’s latest statement, through which it sought to divert attention from its practices in Gaza since its bloody coup in 2007, until today, whether field executions, kidnappings, or the policy of breaking bones and intimidation in the name of religion and resistance, all the way to stealing humanitarian aid, legitimizing organized crime, etc., will not fool our people with their awareness, and these misleading speeches meet in their goals with the goals of the occupation to implement its plans against our people .Fatah explained that the Palestinian security services, as the natural and historical extension of the contemporary Palestinian revolution, offer the best of their sons as martyrs to preserve the Palestinian national project from tampering or confiscation in favor of regional parties that only want to achieve their interests and use the just Palestinian cause for their own ends, and in particular; the expansionist Iranian aims aimed at turning Palestine into a zone of influence for them even at the expense of the blood of the last Palestinian child, adding that our people, who have offered thousands of martyrs in defense of their independent national decision, will not allow any attempts to usurp this decision from any party and no matter the price.
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Like all oral folktales, the story of Omm has numerous variations, however, all stories share the same fundamental elements: a young mother living in Palestine had her husband murdered by the Zionist invaders, and she ran to her home to retrieve her newborn child from the bed. She fled out of town in a panic, only to realize later that she had carried along a pillow instead of her child. The ending of the folktale differs wildly based on the audience - in most stories, the mother loses her mind - in others, she is murdered, or successfully avoids the roaming Zionist gangs and military groups to make it out of her homeland - not to return in her lifetime.
Each detail is more lurid and more antisemitic than the last.
Throughout the game, Omm, Pillow, and the player will experience often untold stories of Palestinian history. As Omm travels from the massacre of al-Tantura to the concentration camps of Atlit, she will later encounter the campaign of terror that led to the fall of Haifa, the bioweapon poisoning of Acre, and the Zionist attacks on refugees towards the Lebanese border.
The game developer, Rasheed Abueideh, tells a personal story that appears to be as filled with propaganda lies his game.
It appears that Rasheed is very good at spinning Palestinian folktales.Rasheed struggled to carve out a sustainable career in the games industry, facing a decade of rejection and avoidance from funding partners and publishers who deemed supporting a Palestinian “too risky” or “controversial”. While he continued to tinker on small games projects, he opened a nut roastery near his hometown of Nablus to support his family.
Today, the building sits empty as Israeli colonists terrorize the roads of the West Bank, making travel to his roastery unsafe. With Israel’s assaults on Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon intensifying daily, Rasheed -unsure of his continued safety in the face of relentless colonist attacks on the West Bank- has set his sights on continuing to following the path he was forced to abandon a decade ago: using games to not just tell the story of the 1948 Nakba, but to let people experience it through a game. To share the catastrophe that has haunted generations of Palestinians with displacement, apartheid, occupation, and violence.
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One of the most pervasive myths of the Palestinian protest movement is that Israel has denied statehood to the Palestinian people.Today’s Palestinian advocates should be ashamed of themselves
To the contrary, Israel agreed to Palestinian statehood in 1937-1938, 1947-1948, 1967, 2000-2001, and 2007.
In each case, it was the Palestinian leadership that refused to agree to the two-state solution that would have created a Palestinian state alongside a state for Jewish inhabitants.
Other stateless groups such as the Tibetans, the Kurds, and the Chechens have never even been offered statehood, let alone repeatedly turned it down.
It was the Palestinians themselves, through their anti-Jewish leadership, that has made the Palestinian people stateless.
The current anti-Israel protesters in the West are not calling for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. They just want to end Israel's existence.
It is not going to happen. Until the Palestinians recognize this reality, they will be denying themselves any possibility of statehood.
Palestinians and their advocates should be embarrassed by their conduct, not rationalizing it to the world. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is one of the most corrupt governing bodies in the world. It is ripe with graft and nepotism. Unlike the freedom-loving countries that support it, the PA and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, haven’t held an election in 20 years.Change the Map of Gaza to Signal that Terrorism Doesn't Pay
The PA hasn’t abandoned its terrorist past. Its “pay-to-slay” program costs $400 million a year and incentivizes its people to commit terrorist acts. The program is so dastardly, the United State Congress passed the Taylor Force Act that made it illegal for the US to provide any aid to the PA as long as it kept up its pay to slay program.
Israel’s Defense and Security Forum wrote, “Fatah’s own terror group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, has also claimed that its fighters participated in October 7. Its spokesperson has released videos of terrorists abducting and taunting victims from Israel, wearing clearly recognizable yellow scarves associated with Fatah (as opposed to the green color associated with Hamas). The video says: First we “liberate the Gaza Strip,” then the rest of “Palestine” and “tomorrow [we will be] at the gates of Jerusalem.”
Instead of disavowing the attacks and demanding that Palestinians holding Israeli hostages release them, Hamas members and other Palestinian non-combatants have used Israeli hostages as pawns and bargaining chips to shame Israel and try to gain the release of other Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons.
Kidnapping is one of the most despicable acts, together with rape and murder. All three acts have been utilized, justified, and praised by Palestinians as policy since October 7. What kind of a people justify raping young women and holding a baby hostage?
Palestinian society has a problem today. Unlike Arab Israelis, their people are corrupt, anti-freedom, and antisemitic. They never call for peace alongside the Jewish State of Israel. They call for an independent Palestinian state to replace it. They maintain that they are justified in all acts of resistance against Israel’s Jews, including, and especially, violence and terrorism.
Palestinian leadership today falls into one of two camps, Hamas, a terror organization conducting regular terrorism, or the PA, a corrupt repressive institution that promotes terrorism. Anyone siding with Palestinians today, instead of calling for Palestinian reform, joins a culture of corruption, antisemitism, and violence and should be ashamed of themselves.
Anyone promoting a two-state solution that omits the transformative changes which must take place in Palestinian society should be ashamed.
It is time for the world to stop emboldening the Palestinians and further entrenching them in their self-destructive behavior and policies that have impeded their success for over a century.
Hamas sees the suffering of the Gazan people as a benefit, not a cost. Terrorists who locate their headquarters in hospitals, schools and kindergartens do so not only to protect themselves from possible attacks but also to exploit the inevitable killing of civilians for propaganda: More killing equals more world empathy.
In the Middle East, nothing hurts more than loss of territory. The worst outcome of a war meant to conquer Israel would be Israel's ending with more territory than when it began. The world demands that Israel withdraw to its original borders after every conflict it wins. Is it surprising that aggressors repeatedly try to destroy the Jewish state, knowing that they face little to no threat of loss of territory? This status quo must change.
There is nothing sacred about Gaza's borders, which were created in 1949 to mark the line of separation between Egypt and Israel. There is a clear security justification for shrinking Gaza's borders: Annexing a 1-mile perimeter around Gaza would create a buffer zone between Hamas-governed territory and the Israeli communities that Hamas brutally attacked on Oct. 7. The zone should also include a 3-mile stretch along the northern border of Gaza, an area Hamas converted into terrorist bases. Changing the map of Gaza would signal that terrorism doesn't pay, and could represent a significant advancement toward peace in the Middle East.
Buy EoZ's books on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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Buy EoZ's books on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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Buy EoZ's books on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!