Israel has Pager Bombs that have no place in a war

Israeli Airstrikes on a School: The War Hamas Design in Gaza is False and Its Implications for the Theory of Just War

Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes on schools across the Gaza Strip, structures that thousands of Gazans have sought shelter in as they are displaced by fighting across the embattled enclave. The Israeli army stated that the compound was being used by Hamas as a command and control center in a claim that has been repeated many times.

The media office for the Gazan government, which is controlled by Hamas, said that many widows and orphaned children had been at the school to receive a small payment to help cover food costs. Almost half a million people in Gaza were at risk of going hungry this summer, according to experts.

Israel said it struck a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City on Saturday because it believed Hamas militants were using the building as a command center. Palestinian health authorities said the attack killed 22 people, mostly women and children, who had sought shelter at the school, and did not confirm any combatant deaths.

Gaza’s rescue services said the Saturday strike on the Zeitoun School killed mostly women and children, including a 3-month-old infant. Gaza’s health ministry, which usually does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its counts, also said 22 were killed, saying “the majority” of the dead were women and children.

The assassination of members of Hezbollah in Lebanon using pagers and walkie-talkies was an espionage and technological coup. Few people on the spot or reading about them from far away could not be more amazed. But the explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday were also very likely war crimes — terrorist attacks by a state that has consistently condemned terrorist attacks on its own citizens.

Israel has not denied involvement in the attacks, but it is widely believed to be behind them. If those allegations are true, it is important for friends of Israel to say: This was not right.

The theory of just war is dependent on the distinction between combatant and civilians. Killing of civilians in modern warfare often leads to moral condemnation as these two groups are often mixed together. The war that Hamas designed in Gaza is a grim illustration of the strategy of putting civilians at risk for political gain. Still, a military responding to this strategy has to do everything it can to avoid or minimize civilian casualties. Israel claims to be doing that in Gaza although serious criticism of its conduct there has appeared in media around the world and a case brought against Israeli and Hamas officials alike at the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.