Hamas’ war crimes threaten far more than Palestinians

When adults are found to be acting contrary to the interests of their own children, when they deliberately place their dependents in harm’s way, when their conduct violates the most fundamental human rights of those who are incapable of resisting, either because of their age or infirmity, all people and societies of conscience are obliged to intervene.

This is a universal principle that most enlightened societies implement by instituting norms and laws that govern the circumstances under which society steps in to separate irresponsible adults from those falling under their ostensible authority. It is high time this principle be implemented with regard to the terror regime installed in Gaza.

The Hamas Ministry of Interior recently published in the media an official written statement to Palestinian residents of Gaza calling on them not to adhere to Israel Defense Forces telephone warnings to vacate buildings targeted for retaliatory attacks.

In its message, the Hamas ministry wrote: “The Ministry of the Interior has warned the residents not to cooperate with the messages delivered by the IDF through the telephone to citizens to evacuate their homes immediately (i.e. before being attacked).”

In fliers distributed to residents of Gaza, Hamas depicts the roofs of homes teeming with Palestinian civilians, graphically rendering its calls on them to serve as human shields, and to sacrifice their lives for the purposes of propaganda. Appalling. Difficult to imagine. But true.

It must be stated clearly and unreservedly: these are war crimes.

Not only is Hamas deliberately placing and firing armaments — missiles, mortars and other war materiel — within civilian areas, not only is it deliberately targeting Israeli civilian targets, it is also actively preventing its own people from protecting themselves by acting on Israel’s earnest — and unparalleled — attempts to keep them out of harm’s way. These are acts of criminality and irresponsibility. And they are acts of betrayal; betrayal of the fundamental obligations that any governing body has towards its citizens.

The predictable objections to the above needn’t deflect us from calling a spade a spade. One can anticipate Hamas apologists countering with cries of “patronization,” or trying to blame Israel for Palestinian casualties, as if the Israeli government can simply stand by while hundreds of rockets crash into homes and kindergartens around the country.

It should be self-evident, but it’s worth emphasizing nonetheless: governments are obliged to protect their civilians in the face of massive aerial bombardment. It hardly makes sense to speak of government at all if this point is not granted. But governments are also obliged to engage in defensive actions while taking every possible precaution to avoid harming noncombatants. And this Israel does to an extent never seen before in the history of military conflict.

What other military makes thousands of telephone calls in advance of strikes to residents housing massive armaments in their homes?

What other military drops thousands of fliers to warn civilians to vacate areas teeming with missiles and other weapons?

What other military has repeatedly placed its own troops in harm’s way to avoid aerial attacks deemed too risky in terms of the potential civilian casualties?

What other country would continue — as Israel is doing even now, evidenced by the hundreds of supply trucks entering Gaza from Israel in recent days — to enable the shipment of goods to hostile areas, while placing its own civilians at risk at the border crossings?

The results speak for themselves. Though the precise numbers can’t yet be known, it is clear that the ratio of unintended casualties to legitimate military targets in Gaza is far lower than any comparable combat arena that western armies have faced in recent years. Israel is not only doing everything that could reasonably be expected to save civilian lives, given the circumstances. It is doing far more.

It is therefore discouraging for Israelis to hear again the tired language, far too common in some quarters, which poses a false symmetry between Israel’s legitimate acts of self-defense and Hamas’ outright war crimes. Such attitudes make a mockery of the principles of international law and of sound ethical judgment. Worse, they serve as encouragement to Hamas and its apologists that they can get away with their appalling acts of inhumanity.

The international community needs to take heed of the current missile assault on Israel by the terrorist regime that has hijacked Gaza. The same mindset that enables Hamas officials to openly call on Palestinian civilians to expose themselves to retaliatory fire is that which courses through the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, al-Qaida and other radical terrorist entities in the Middle East. These are forces that don’t see only Israel and their own people as enemies. They have designs far further afield, as Sept. 11, 2001, and other international terrorist atrocities have chillingly demonstrated.

In these circumstances, there is no room for equivocation, for artificial balancing or for reference to a “cycle of violence.” This is no cycle of violence; this is Israel’s civilized conduct confronting Hamas’ savagery. All of us who cherish human rights and basic norms of decency and responsibility need to pay close attention, because the battle Hamas is waging is not only against Israel and its own Palestinian civilians. It is against everything we believe in and hold dear.

Uri Resnick is the outgoing deputy consul general of Israel in Los Angeles and incoming policy adviser to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs