The war between Israel and Hamas has entered a stylized public relations phase in which both sides say that they have neither committed war crimes by wantonly attacking civilians (although they have) nor will they do so in the future (though such assaults are very likely).
The efforts of both to defend themselves against accusations and evidence of such attacks are in response to outrage abroad about the civilian carnage. It is part of an information war that runs parallel to the war on land and from the air to reassure allies and fight off critics from human rights overseers, especially those in the United Nations.
In Hamas’ case, leaders apparently feared outrage over atrocities against civilians would undermine support from foreign governments that abhorred the attacks, but which nonetheless were consistent with the long history of Israeli-Palestinian warfare.
In Israel’s case, it defended aerial bombings that have taken hundreds of civilian lives. Israel has also ordered Palestinian residents in northern Gaza to abandon their homes to make way for a pending ground invasion.
The defense appears aimed at allies, closest among them the United States, which might get nervous about seeming to condone a huge death toll of civilians. To be clear, no amount of criticism of Hamas is going to get it to stop fighting nor is Israel going to waylay its plan to enter Gaza and destroy Hamas rule.
So far an estimated 2,600 Gaza civilian residents have died under Israel’s rain of missiles and artillery on Gaza. The Israeli death toll from Hama’s attack on southern Israel is about 1,400, and overwhelmingly civilians.
Hamas’ efforts to justify its deadly assault on civilians, along with the abduction of up to 150 men, women and children who were attending a nearby music festival, is a study in unreality.
Leaders of Hamas, which is an Anglicized acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, have made acrobatic verbal efforts to escape responsibility. They have said the carnage was an error caused by the chaos that erupted during an attack meant to focus on an Israeli army camp.
In a statement, Hamas asserted that members of its military branch, the Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades, had “worked to target the Israeli military and security systems” and “sought to avoid civilians.”
Hamas has claimed that videos in its possession support the narrative while accusing foreign media of adopting “Israeli propaganda.”
By any measure, Hamas’ claims are ludicrous. Numerous videos, many produced by Hamas invaders themselves, show unarmed, fleeing Israelis being shot down or forcibly taken into Gaza.
An online al-Qassam video shows soldiers cradling captured infants and feeding toddlers; Israeli videos show incinerated bodies of adults and children in their homes.
Israel regards its response to the horrific Hamas attack in isolation from the long-running conflict with Palestinians: there have been at least a half dozen Israeli-Hamas armed conflicts since 2014. But history does not mean the assault ought to go unpunished.
From the start of its retaliatory strikes, the Israeli government insisted that ensuing civilian deaths are, de facto, the fault of Hamas because it started the war. Israeli officials also asserted that Hamas deliberately puts civilians in danger as “human shields” to get them killed and then place blame on Israel.
At a press conference last week, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog lashed out at reporters for suggesting Israel’s bombing of Gaza might constitute a war crime, regardless of its motive for making war on the Palestinians.
“Now, we’re starting with the rhetoric of war crimes, really?” he asked heatedly. “Israel abides by international law. If you have a missile in your goddamn kitchen and you are shooting at me, am I allowed to defend myself? Unfortunately, we have to defend ourselves.”
Under some insistent international criticism, the government realized those arguments had not allayed concerns and officials have started to soften their hard-line positions.
Toward the end of last week, Israel’s air force spilled leaflets all over the northern Gaza Strip to tell its 1.1 million residents to leave for the south within 24 hours, so as not to play the human shield role.
For human rights promoters that step broke international law, with both the United Nations and the World Health Organization objecting. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Israel’s evacuation order is “dangerous and deeply troubling” and called on it to reconsider.
Francesca Albanese, a human rights expert who reports to the UN on the Palestinian territories, warned of “grave danger of mass ethnic cleansing” if Gaza residents are forced to evacuate. She called for an immediate ceasefire.
The WHO said forcing 2,000 patients under its care in northern Gaza to head south is tantamount to a “death sentence” placed on them.
Israel had also cut off electricity and drinking water supplies, which are sourced from Israel, as well as blocked food imports into the Gaza Strip.
Prominent human rights organizations pointed out that cutting off these supplies also amounted to a war crime. On Sunday, Israel reopened the water pipes into Gaza, news reports said, but there was no reopening of food flows.
Israel is sensitive to outside criticism from allies and friendly countries on its coming ground invasion. Although Arab countries along the Persian Gulf see Israel as a military bulwark against an increasingly assertive Iran, they have also called for a ceasefire with Hamas.
That call included Saudi Arabia, which had been moving toward recognition of Israel, breaking with a policy dating back to Israel’s founding in 1948. Over the weekend, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the kingdom’s foreign minister and de facto ruler, told visiting US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that there must be an “immediate ceasefire.”
Israel rejects such calls, however. So does US President Joe Biden. In public statements, Biden parroted the Israeli view of the war, sometimes verbatim.
“A week ago,” he said Saturday, “We saw hate manifest another way in the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Children, grandparents alike kidnapped, held hostage by Hamas.”
He also criticized Hamas in the same terms as Israel does, i.e. that Hamas is using civilians as human shields, effectively blaming it for any harm that results from Israeli retaliations.
The attention, or lack thereof, on civilian suffering obscures a relevant, if less immediate, concern. If Israel succeeds in wiping out Hamas, who will rule the area afterward?
And what will be the future for the Palestinians who desire an independent state, an outcome Israel’s current government rejects? These questions are especially at large among Israel’s Arab neighbors.
On Sunday night, Blinken met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and vaguely hinted that he understood the post-war concerns. He said he hopes the post-war era “takes us to a better place.”
Al-Sisi denounced harm to “any civilians” and called to resolve the current crisis and deter future ones, “We need to understand that this is the result of accumulated fury and hatred over four decades,” he said.