The law of armed conflict is straightforward - combatants must only target military objectives, not civilians, says this international law lecturer.
Men stand on the rubble of a building hit in an Israel i airstrike in the southern village of Akbieh, Lebanon, on Sep 24, 2024. and more than 1,600 wounded in Israel i airstrikes. Hezbollah , meanwhile, has fired hundreds of rockets and other munitions into Israel .
And even when launching attacks against legitimate military objectives, all parties to an armed conflict are under an obligation to, as much as possible, minimise the risk of collateral, civilian damage. So, for instance, if it’s necessary to immediately attack a specific location because it’s the only opportunity you would have to target an insurgent leader or legitimate high-value target, there’s no obligation to give prior warning.
This places obligations on parties to a conflict to perhaps choose a different time or method of warfare to make the attacks more specific. There is an element of the IDF using this justification because Hamas and Hezbollah are non-state groups and don’t engage in regular tactics.Hezbollah is absolutely bound by the same rules as states. Nearly all the rules of the law of armed conflict are customary. This means everyone is bound by the law, even if they haven’t been a signatory to a treaty like the Geneva Convention.
Again, part of the complication is these are very enclosed spaces. So the question becomes exactly how far away do civilians need to be?
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