Part III Thematic Chapters, A Means and Methods of Warfare, 3 The 2014 Gaza War: reflections on jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and accountability

Subject(s):

Military assistance — Armed conflict, international — Armed conflict, non-international — Self-defence — Humanitarian intervention — Armed forces

This chapter examines the 2014 Gaza War. The 51 days of hostilities in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014 was the twelfth round of massive fighting that had happened in that area since 1948 and the third one since Israel ‘disengagement’ from Gaza in 2005. These hostilities led to a huge number of civilian casualties. The chapter looks at events that are relevant to the context in which the hostilities of 2014 occurred. The chapter assesses key issues related to jus ad bellum, jus in bello and accountability that have been raised by the hostilities. It looks into the possibility of invoking the right to self-defense, as the legal justification for the use of force in the Gaza conflict context. The chapter then surveys specific violations of the principles on the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law (IHL) committed during the 2014 hostilities by the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups. The final part discusses the effects of recent developments related to individual accountability for IHL violations in the Israel/Palestine setting with particular attention to the prospects of Palestine's accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC).