THE ISRAELI DEFENCE Forces (IDF) have saturated Gaza city with air strikes and artillery barrages for over a month since 7 October when Hamas launched its homicidal terror attacks on Israel. To date, almost 11,000 Palestinian men, women and children have been slaughtered in Israel’s military response to Hamas’ incursion into Israel and their ongoing missile attacks on civilian targets across southern Israel.

Over 4,000 Palestinian children have been murdered by the IDF since they began their operations in Gaza. I use the word ‘murdered’ deliberately. These children have not ‘died’ or simply been ‘killed’ in the fighting. These passive terms do not capture the fact that these children have been deliberately murdered as a consequence of war crimes committed by the Israeli military.

Israel has a right to defend itself from attacks by Hamas. Israel is a legitimate state with an absolute right to exist. It does not however have the right to commit war crimes in its response to Hamas. The Geneva Conventions and the laws of armed conflict are very explicit in the onus placed on parties to a conflict to protect civilians. Article 51 ‘Protection of the Civilian Population’ sets out the responsibilities of the IDF – and Hamas – toward the 2.2 million innocent civilians trapped in Gaza.

Sections 4 and 5 of Article 51 prohibit the use of weapon systems or a ‘method of attack’ that cannot be directed at or limited to a specific military objective, or where there is a ‘concentration of civilians or civilian objects’. The use of airstrikes and artillery fires on residential districts, refugee camps, hospitals and ambulances are war crimes. The IDF have deliberately targeted civilians in this manner – including thousands of children – and these actions, in my view, meet the threshold of mass murder.

To be clear, even in the event of the possibility of ‘accidental’ ‘collateral damage’ or unintentional civilian casualties, where an attack ‘could cause incidental loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects, then the attack must be called off’.

There it is, in black and white. There must be an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza to protect the civilian population. President Biden has stated that there is no chance of such a ceasefire. Both the IDF and Hamas continue to commit war crimes. The principal victims of this criminal activity are innocent Palestinian men, women and children.

Hamas is in direct contravention of Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions. Their genocidal and indiscriminate murder of Israeli civilians is compounded by the despicable act of hostage taking – 240 persons, including it is believed, an Irish Israeli girl, Emily Hand. Hamas is also using – contrary to the laws of armed conflict – Palestinians as de-facto human shields and are operating in the proximity and environs of protected civilian structures. Whilst this is the case, this does not remove the protected status of civilian objects. Israel’s