The terrorist organization Hamas misused international law during Operation Protective Edge last summer “to undermine Israel’s perceived moral standing and international support,” according to a report commissioned by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and released this week. The report (.pdf), which was written by a task force headed by five retired American generals, observed:

Report: Hamas Misused International Law to Undermine Support for Israel
by TheTower.org Staff

The terrorist organization Hamas misused international law during Operation Protective Edge last summer “to undermine Israel’s perceived moral standing and international support,” according to a report commissioned by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and released this week. The report (.pdf), which was written by a task force headed by five retired American generals, observed:

Contrary to accusations of widespread unlawful military conduct, we observed that Israel systemically applied established rules of conduct that adhered to or exceeded the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) in a virtually unprecedented effort to avoid inflicting civilian casualties, even when doing so would have been lawfully permitted, and to satisfy the concerns of critics. However, it is the conclusion of this Task Force that Israel’s military restraint unintentionally empowered Hamas to distort both the law and facts for their own purposes to the ultimate detriment of civilians’ safety, for which Hamas bears sole responsibility.

The central chapter of the report, called “Weaponizing the Law” explains how Hamas manipulated international law to take advantage of the “widespread misunderstanding of LOAC not just among warring parties but also media, observers and the international public – a misunderstanding built on the false assumption that the law prohibits the infliction of any and all civilian casualties.”

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