B’Tselem: Top Israeli officials criminally liable for knowingly ordering strike expected to harm civilians, including children, in the Gaza Strip
Over the course of five days of bombings and uncertainty in the Gaza Strip (“a round of fighting”), Israel killed 30 Palestinians. One-third of those killed did not participate in the fighting. All 10 were killed at the exact same moment, on the first night of the fighting, 9 May 2023, at around 2:00 A.M., when Israel, entirely on its own initiative, launched an air strike on three homes where Islamic Jihad operatives lived with their families:
– In the attack on the home of Tareq ‘Iz a-Din (48), he and his two children, ‘Ali (8) and Mayar (10), were killed. Neighbors living in the apartment above him were also killed: Dr. Jamal Khaswan (52), his wife Mirvat (44) and their son Yusef (19).
– In the attack on the home of Khalil al-Bahtini (44), he, his wife Layla (43), and their daughter Hajar (4) were killed. Two neighbors, who were sisters, were also killed, Daniyah ‘Addas (19) and Iman ‘Addas (17).
– In the attack on the home of Jihad Ghanam (62), he and his wife Wafa (61), were killed.
Air strikes on homes are not an exception or an aberration, but part of Israel’s longstanding policy in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of Palestinians have already been killed, thousands more have been injured, tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless. Entire families have lost their whole world in the blink of an eye, unable to protect their children or themselves inside their own homes.
The difference is that in the past, when civilians were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, state officials made attempts to say the harm was unexpected: the unfortunate result of some sort of mishap or of bad, partial or obsolete intel, and other such claims. This time around, the masks were off and such claims were not even raised.
Instead, Israel maintains the action was legal despite the foreseen results, since the innocents killed were simply “collateral damage,” and in any event, the blame lies with the Islamic Jihad operatives for hiding behind civilians. These justifications, and the legal opinions Israel provided to itself, clearing the strike, rely on an erroneous interpretation of international humanitarian law and a morally distorted worldview, both of which must be rejected.
– The claim that the action was proportionate and that the dead were just “collateral damage” nullifies the harm to civilians and drains all meaning out of one of the fundamental principles of international law. Furthermore, the question of whether the act was proportionate does not even come up in this case as the attack was aimed at residential buildings that are not legitimate military targets, making the entire strike illegal even before the extensive killing it caused.
– The claim that the blame for these deaths lies with the Islamic Jihad operatives automatically justifies any action Israel wishes to carry out in the Gaza Strip, no matter how horrifying the consequences, absolving it of the duty to keep harm to civilians and their property to a minimum. Israel is the one that chose to fire the missiles that caused death and destruction, and therefore, Israel alone bears full responsibility for the consequences.
Israeli decision-makers chose the timing, the targets and the means for this attack. They consciously chose to fire missiles at homes in the middle of the night, while families were asleep in their beds, knowing it was expected that many – including small children – would be killed. As with any crime, there are people who are criminally liable, including the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, the Commander of the Air Force and the Military Advocate General.