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December 4, 2024
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How many times have you heard on tele­vision or read in the media that the Gaza Strip is “the most densely populated area in the world?” Repeating this statement, however, does not make it true. There are dense parts of Gaza, especially Gaza City, Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis, but there are far less dense ar­eas in Gaza between these cities. Just look at Google Earth, or this population density map.

The fact that these sparsely populated ar­eas exist in the Gaza Strip raise several impor­tant moral questions: First, why don’t the me­dia show the relatively open areas of the Gaza Strip? Why do they only show the densely pop­ulated cities? There are several possible reasons. There is no fighting going on in the sparsely populated areas, so showing them would be boring. But that’s precisely the point—to show areas from which Hamas could be firing rock­ets and building tunnels but has chosen not to. Or perhaps the reason the media doesn’t show these areas is that Hamas won’t let them. That too would be a story worth reporting.

Second, why doesn’t Hamas use sparsely populated areas from which to launch its rock­ets and build its tunnels? Were it to do so, Pal­estinian civilian casualties would decrease dra­matically, but the casualty rate among Hamas terrorists would increase dramatically.

That is precisely why Hamas selects the most densely populated areas from which to fire and dig. The difference between Israel and Hamas is that Israel uses its soldiers to protect its civilians, whereas Hamas uses its civilians to protect its terrorists. That is why most of Israe­li casualties have been soldiers and most of Ha­mas’ casualties have been civilians. The other reason is that Israel builds shelters for its civil­ians, whereas Hamas builds shelters only for its terrorists, intending that most of the casualties be among its civilian shields.

The law is clear: using civilians as hu­man shields—which the Hamas battle manu­al mandates—is an absolute war crime. There are no exceptions or matters of degree, espe­cially when there are alternatives. On the oth­er hand, shooting at legitimate military targets, such as rockets and terror tunnels is permitted, unless the number of anticipated civilian casu­alties is disproportionate to the military impor­tance of the target. This is a matter of degree and judgment, often difficult to calculate in the fog of war. The law is also clear that when a criminal takes a hostage and uses that hostage as a shield from behind whom to fire at civilians or police, and if the police fire back and kill the hostage, it is the criminal and not the police­man who is guilty of murder. So too with Ha­mas: when it uses human shields and the Israeli military fires back and kills some of the shields, it is Hamas who is responsible for their deaths.

The third moral question is why does the United Nations try to shelter Palestinian civil­ians right in the middle of the areas from which Hamas is firing? Hamas has decided not to use the less densely populated areas for rock­et firing and tunnel digging. For that reason, the United Nations should use these sparse­ly populated areas as places of refuge. Since the Gaza Strip is relatively small, it would not be difficult to move civilians to these safer ar­eas. They should declare these areas battle free and build temporary shelters—tents if neces­sary—as places of asylum for the residents of the crowded cities. It should prevent any Ha­mas fighters, any rockets and any tunnel build­ers from entering into these sanctuaries. In that way, Hamas would be denied the use of hu­man shields and Israel would have no reason to fire its weapons anywhere near these Unit­ed Nations sanctuaries. The net result would be a considerable saving of lives.

But instead the UN is playing right into the hands of Hamas, by sheltering civilians right next to Hamas fighters, Hamas weapons and Hamas tunnels. Then the United Nations and the international community accuses Israel of doing precisely what Hamas intended Israel to do: namely fire at its terrorists and kill Unit­ed Nations protected civilians in the process. It’s a cynical game being played by Hamas, but it wouldn’t succeed without the complicity of UN agencies.

The only way to assure that Hamas’ strat­egy of using human shields to maximize ci­vilian casualties is not repeated over and over again is for the international community, and especially the United Nations, not to encour­age and facilitate it, as it currently does. Inter­national law must be enforced against Hamas   for its double war crime: using civilian hu­man shields to fire at civilian Israeli targets. If this tactic were to be brought to a halt, then Israel would have no need to respond in self-defense. Applying the laws of war to Israel alone will do no good, because any country faced with rockets and tunnels tar­geting its civilians will fight back. When the fighters and tunnel builders hide behind hu­man shields, there will inevitably be civilian casualties—unintended by Israel, intended by Hamas—regardless of how careful the defenders are. Israel has tried its hardest to minimize civilian casualties. Hamas has tried its hardest to maximize civilian casualties. Now the United Nations and the interna­tional community must try their hardest to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

By Alan M. Dershowitz/www.gatestoneinstitute.org

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