Genocide as military strategy on the part of Hamás (supported by almost half of Palestine, certain Arab states, and Palestine tactical allies consisting of state actors and movements) and on the part of Israel (supported by the U.S. and certain U.S. allies)

Genocide as military strategy on the part of Hamás (supported by almost half of Palestine, certain Arab states, and Palestine tactical allies consisting of state actors and movements) and on the part of Israel (supported by the U.S. and certain U.S. allies)

The UN resolution on the protection of civilians has been inaccurately framed as solely a ceasefire call and a fully “non-binding” UN document. But in fact, it is a comprehensive resolution demanding full compliance with international humanitarian law including the cessation of indiscriminate bombings, protection of all civilians and civilian facilities, ensuring humanitarian access to food, water, essential services, and rejecting the forcible transfer of the Palestinian civilian population. (UN General Assembly (UNGA) Protection of Civilians and Upholding Legal and Humanitarian Obligations (2023) A/ES-10/L.25 https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N23/319/20/PDF/N2331920.pdf?OpenElement )

While a UN resolution by itself, generally, is not necessarily a source of law in international law and not necessarily binding on all member-states, the international conventions and peremptory norms of international law upon which the resolution is based, are. In this case, eleven of the twelve specific operative clauses of the UN Resolution (operative clauses 1 to 12 of 14 operative clauses) are actually implementing measures of international humanitarian law (IHL) ( or the law on armed conflict, or of Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions). In other words, the UN Resolution, for the most part, is binding on all the parties — should be asserted as binding on operative clauses implementing international humanitarian law, and should be continously advanced as a reiteration of the bases of accountability on the part of all violators and their abettors.

If a ceasefire cannot be attained in the next few days, Israel should stop the indiscriminate bombings of entire civilian populations in search of one supposed Hamás commander. The goal of avoiding RPGs, booby traps, and sniper fire, by air-striking entire villages is a strategy of genocide, in which Israel fully embraces the war crimes that its “enemy” Hamás had resorted to on Oct. 7 – thereby fully embracing and providing full “justification” for the massacre of innocents for purposes that it now seeks vengeance.

When military forces slaughter even children, they cease being soldiers and have become nothing more than mass murderers and criminals. Genocide as military strategy on the part of Israel supported by the U.S. and its allies, and on the part of Hamás aided by certain Palestine supporters, should stop. You are courting a worldwide tempest of retaliation from every street corner at every turn in every part of the globe from which there will be no redemption now and in the future.