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Nineteen Hamas war crimes

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Quintessenz
Nineteen Hamas war crimes

1. Hamas' rocket attacks directed at Israel's civilian population centers deliberately violates the basic principles of distinction. (Additional Protocol I, arts. 48, 51(2), 52(1).) Any doubt about this is resolved by the fact that Hamas itself has boasted of its intention to hit population centres. It is well accepted in customary international law that –intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking part in hostilities constitutes a war crime. (Rome Statute, art. 8(2)(b)(i))

2. Staging of Attacks From Residential Areas and Protected Sites: The Law of Armed Conflict not only prohibits targeting an enemy's civilians; it also requires parties to an armed conflict to distinguish their combatant forces from their own civilians, and not to base operations in or near civilian structures, especially protected sites such as schools, medical facilities and places of worship. As the customary law principle is reflected in Article 51(7) of Additional Protocol I: '- The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or shield, favour or impede military operations."

3. Use of Civilian Homes and Public Institutions as Bases of Operation – see (2) for citations.

4. Misuse of Medical Facilities and Ambulances – Any time Hamas uses an ambulance to transport its fighters it is violating the Law of Armed Conflict: Under Article 23(f) of the 1907 Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention IV Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, which reflects customary international law, it is - especially forbidden... [t]o make improper use of a flag of truce, ... as well as the distinctive badges of the Geneva Convention.. Article 44 of the First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (1949) also provides that: - ...the emblem of the Red Cross on a white ground ...may not be employed, either in time of peace or in time of war, except to indicate or to protect the medical units and establishments...

5. Booby-trapping of Civilian Areas – see (2) for citations.

6. Blending in with Civilians and Use of Human Shields – As the ICRC rule states, "It can be concluded that the use of human shields requires an intentional co-location of military objectives and civilians or persons hors de combat with the specific intent of trying to prevent the targeting of those military objectives."

7. Exploitation of Children – Hamas has paramilitary summer camps for kids. There are reports, from this war and previous ones, of children fighting and being used for tunnel digging. violates the Law of Armed Conflict, including prohibitions against allowing children to take part in hostilities. As customary international law is reflected in this regard in Additional Protocol I, the parties to a conflict must take "all feasible measures" to ensure that children "do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces." (Additional Protocol I, art. 77(2))

8. Interference with Humanitarian Relief Efforts – While Israel kept its end of humanitarian truces. Hamas used them to shoot rockets into Israel, including the Kerem Shalom crossing where humanitarian goods are brought into Gaza. All of these actions violate the Law of Armed Conflict, which requires parties to allow the entry of humanitarian supplies and to guarantee their safety. Article 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention requires parties in an armed conflict to "permit the free passage of [humanitarian] consignments and shall guarantee their protection." Article 60 of the same Convention protects the shipments from being diverted from their intended purpose, something Hamas has certainly done in the past and is reported to have done in this conflict as well.

9. Hostage-taking – The Fourth Geneva Conventions, article 34, says flatly "The taking of hostages is prohibited." This is not an "arrest" as Israel-haters claim, and this is not a prisoner of war situation as Hamas has made clear - the purpose of Hamas' hostage-taking falls under the definition on the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages: "Any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure or to continue to detain another person (hereinafter referred to as the "hostage") in order to compel a third party, namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organization, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage commits the offence of taking of hostages ("hostage-taking") within the meaning of this Convention."

10. Using the uniform of the enemy – Additional Protocol I prohibits the use of enemy flags, military emblems, insignia or uniforms "while engaging in attacks or in order to shield, favour, protect or impede military operations".[3] Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, "making improper use ... of the flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy" constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts when it results in death or serious personal injury.[4] According to some, this is considered perfidy, a war crime.

11. Violence aimed at spreading terror among the civilian populationRule 2 of ICRC's Customary IHL is "Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited." It quotes Article 51(2) of Additional Protocol I prohibits "acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population". Hamas rockets are aimed not only at killing civilians, but at spreading terror among Israelis.

12. Targeting civilian objects, such as airports or nuclear power plants Rule 7 of the Customary IHL says "Attacks must not be directed against civilian objects," quoting Articles 48 and 52(2) of Additional Protocol I.

13. Indiscriminate attacks – Besides targeting civilians and civilian objects, Rule 11 of the ICRC CIHL states flatly that "Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited." By definition, every Qassam rocket attack and most of the other rocket and mortar attacks are by their very nature indiscriminate.

See also Rule 71, "The use of weapons which are by nature indiscriminate is prohibited."

14. Proportionality in attack – ICRC's Rule 14 states "Launching an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, is prohibited." Rocket attacks against civilians have zero military advantage, so by definition they are disproportionate to their military advantage.

See also Rule 18: "Each party to the conflict must do everything feasible to assess whether the attack may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated."

15. Advance WarningRule 20 of the ICRC CIHL states "Each party to the conflict must give effective advance warning of attacks which may affect the civilian population, unless circumstances do not permit." Given that Hamas has used the media and SMS calls to threaten Israelis, it is clear that they have the ability to warn before every rocket attack. Their failure to do so is a violation of IHL.

16. Protecting civilians Rule 22 of the ICRC Customary IHL states "The parties to the conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects under their control against the effects of attacks." Hamas not only has failed to protect civilians in Gaza by building bomb shelters, they have deliberately put civilians in harm's way.

17. Attacking medical unitsRule 28 states "Medical units exclusively assigned to medical purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances." Hamas has shot mortars at the Israeli field hospital, set up for Gazans, near the Erez crossing.

18. Protection of Journalists – Hamas has threatened journalists, implicitly and explicitly, accusing some of being spies and sometimes not allowing them to leave Gaza, making them effectively hostages. Rule 34 states "Civilian journalists engaged in professional missions in areas of armed conflict must be respected and protected as long as they are not taking a direct part in hostilities."

19. Mistreating the dead. Rule 113 says "Each party to the conflict must take all possible measures to prevent the dead from being despoiled. Mutilation of dead bodies is prohibited." Hamas has shown off an alleged chip cut out from the (presumably) dead body of Shaul Oron.

http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277...

Additionally see this news article as well:

War Crimes Indictment Filed Against Hamas Head at ICC
Shurat Hadin civil rights group turns to International Criminal Court over Hamas's summary executions of dozens of 'collaborators'.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184704#.VAcSUUhE-iM

pax
ho hum

there isn't enough room to list Israels recent war crimes.
save me your Hasbara bullshit please
according to Isdrael itself.. iron dome takes out 90% of the glorified fireworks you call rockets..... another 40-60% of those disintegrate/fail
and only 3 people have been killed with over 3000 launched... oh and then there.. erm..... this...explain this away...
how many Hamas men do you know of who have a star of David tattoo?
http://oi59.tinypic.com/108grp2.jpg
have a little look at that.....
btw i can't get bbcode or html image tagging to work for the image :P
so clicky to see a so called Hamas rocket firing madman...WITH A STAR OF DAVID TATTOO.....
i would say there's more chance of ISIS getting help from the Whitehouse,Westminster and Israel... oh...wait.... they did!
edit to add
https://publicintelligence.net/purported-list-of-israeli-war-criminals-n...
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelgaza-attacks-medical-facilities-and...
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/against-establishing-inquiry.html only vote against war crimes investigation.. The US
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/palestinian-leaders-icc-isr...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKbfLydjq-4 Israeli officer accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJWNE83j__k condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Westminster parliament
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/israel-high-court-cons...

Israel to consider war crimes case
Israel's Supreme Court will hear evidence that officials committed war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza.

http://rt.com/news/israel-war-crimes-court-149/

In a unique hearing next week, the Israeli Supreme Court will be presented with a petition that reportedly contains evidence implicating a number of high ranking officials in war crimes

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/24/israel-gaza-war-cri...
http://www.mediamonitors.net/francis7.html

Israel's Crimes against Palestinians: War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide

by Francis A. Boyle

(The author served as Legal Adviser to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace Negotiations from 1991 to 1993. The viewpoints expressed here are his own.)

The International Laws of Belligerent Occupation

Belligerent occupation is governed by The Hague Regulations of 1907, as well as by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and the customary laws of belligerent occupation. Security Council Resolution 1322 (2000), paragraph 3 continued: "Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in a Time of War of 12 August 1949;..." Again, the Security Council vote was 14 to 0, becoming obligatory international law.

The Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the West Bank, to the Gaza Strip, and to the entire City of Jerusalem, in order to protect the Palestinians living there. The Palestinian People living in this Palestinian Land are "protected persons" within the meaning of the Fourth Geneva Convention. All of their rights are sacred under international law.

There are 149 substantive articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that protect the rights of every one of these Palestinians living in occupied Palestine. The Israeli Government is currently violating, and has since 1967 been violating, almost each and every one of these sacred rights of the Palestinian People recognized by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Indeed, violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention are war crimes.

So this is not a symmetrical situation. As matters of fact and of law, the gross and repeated violations of Palestinian rights by the Israeli army and Israeli settlers living illegally in occupied Palestine constitute war crimes. Conversely, the Palestinian People are defending Themselves and their Land and their Homes against Israeli war crimes and Israeli war criminals, both military and civilian.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission

Indeed, it is far more serious than that. On 19 October 2000 a Special Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights adopted a Resolution set forth in U.N. Document E/CN.4/S-5/L.2/Rev. 1, "Condemning the provocative visit to Al-Haram Al-Sharif on 28 September 2000 by Ariel Sharon, the Likud party leader, which triggered the tragic events that followed in occupied East Jerusalem and the other occupied Palestinian territories, resulting in a high number of deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians." The U.N. Human Rights Commission then said it was "[g]ravely concerned" about several different types of atrocities inflicted by Israel upon the Palestinian People, which it denominated "war crimes, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity."

In operative paragraph 1 of its 19 October 2000 Resolution, the U.N. Human Rights Commission then: "Strongly condemns the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force in violation of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power against innocent and unarmed Palestinian civilians...including many children, in the occupied territories, which constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity;..." And in paragraph 5 of its 19 October 2000 Resolution, the U.N. Human Rights Commission: "Also affirms that the deliberate and systematic killing of civilians and children by the Israeli occupying authorities constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of the right to life and also constitutes a crime against humanity;..." Article 68 of the United Nations Charter had expressly required the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council to "set up" this Commission "for the promotion of human rights."

Israel's War Crimes against Palestinians

We all have a general idea of what a war crime is, so I am not going to elaborate upon that term here. But there are different degrees of heinousness for war crimes. In particular are the more serious war crimes denominated "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada, the world has seen those inflicted every day by Israel against the Palestinian People living in occupied Palestine: e.g., willful killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army and Israel's illegal paramilitary settlers. These Israeli "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Convention mandate universal prosecution for their perpetrators, whether military or civilian, as well as prosecution for their commanders, whether military or civilian, including Israel's political leaders.

BTW I have driven ambulances in Gaza....NEVER ONCE were ANY used covertly by hamas for military purposes in time there....

pax
um...hello....

are we not answering or replying at all ????
stepping out from under yer hasbara umbrella (with patented rose tinted visor) too scary for you???

mike.smith
Nice rebuttal pax, well done.

Nice rebuttal pax, well done. I wouldn't expect a reply anytime soon. The dude is likely too busy reliving the horror of being fellated by his Rabbi at his circumsicion.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=A-m0c6wlnWo

nofunclub
wasn't it islamic jihad that

wasn't it islamic jihad that was behind the last torrent of bottlerockets ?

pax
mike....

save yer anti-Jewish shite for someone who buys that shit.
I am NOT anti-Jewish.. my grandparents on my fathers side were both Jews who ended up in Auschwitz...
I know yer game and you play it lame.
Now while i do NOT agree with the Israeli stance on ..well... many,many fronts this does not equal me being one of yer goose stepping pals.
I stick up for what I see as right and wrong.
It's right to stick up for Palestinians as they are being very much wronged.... not that they are all 100% spiffing people... they have assholes too.
But the assholes in Israel have a bigger war machine and continually roll it over the Palestinians.
Not that you give a fuck about them.. they are Brown and only serve you as a means to bash Jews.
As for those nice white "religious leaders" of America and such like... remember Ted"rent boys can suck me off and use cocaine" Haggart? yeah the one who railed against homosexuality??.. yeah.. and who actually loves it up the poop shoot when it boils down to it.
Or the screeds of other cases of sexual misconduct or whatever by Christians and..... well ANY religion.
here's some WW2 fun for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K9or6hhjmI
:)

watchdog
Darn Hamas! It's all their

Darn Hamas! It's all their fault. If they could only go back to where they came from and leave Israel, a peaceful nation, alone, so it can claim the land that is rightfully theirs.

Muslims have taken over the world economy through banking, faked a genocide to usurp billions of dollars in reparations from several countries around the world, come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual and political life, taken over most of the media (movies, television, news radio, etc.) in the US and have pushed their propaganda down our throats for decades.

I tell you, Hamas is definitely the cause of all our problems.

mike.smith
That's quite the assumptions

That's quite the assumptions Pax. 1) being I care nothing about the plight of subjugated Palestinians and 2) that I have neo-nazi friends or am one myself.

I am far too libertarian to even consider National Socialism, and really don't care if the much denigrated Hitler had any testicles at all.

Hitler's nut count is conjecture, OTOH pedo-Rabbi's sucking young boy penis is FACT. Can we please stick to the facts?

pax
it's an assumption(singular)

it's an assumption(singular) based on seeing you and yer cronies post in days of old here at concen.
your predilections and stance of race travel before you mike.. simple as that.
you are after a cheap Jew bash and any excuse will do..
I am taking you are using the American definition of Libertarian and opposed to the one we use in Europe.
there's a marked difference between the two.
However... let's go with your though and take it further.. and stay on topic as opposed to turning everything into a Jew bash.
Have at it with the state of Israel in relation to their awful treatment of the Palestinian people....however bear in mind that not all Jews are fans and supporters of Zionism.
You'll find more Christian Zionists than Jewish....
funny old world eh?

pax
human shields document a FAKE
pax
OH AND ABOUT THAT GAS
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