It is known that the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict in
the Levant. Beginning in the mid-20th century, it is one of the world's longest
continuing conflicts.
The concept of war crimes is a
recent one. Before World War II, it was generally accepted that the horrors of
war were part of the nature of war, and recorded examples of war crimes go back
to Greek and Roman times.
Before the twentieth century
armies frequently behaved brutally to enemy soldiers and non-combatants alike
and whether there was any punishment for this depended on who eventually won
the war.
There are two different kinds of
crime relating to war. The first is the crime of aggression, which is a crime
of resorting to war without a legal basis. The second is a war crime, which is
a crime relating to conduct in the war in other words, how to fight.
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There is an important question
"Is killing civilians during a war always a war crime?"
The answer is "Not
always." There are several different rules at stake. The first and most
obvious is you can’t target civilians. The only exception to that is if the
civilian is directly participating in hostilities.
1- It’s lawful to target a
military objective, but an attack on such an objective can be illegal and rise
to the level of a war crime if those engaged in the attack know that the
collateral damage expected from that targeting including loss of civilian life,
injury to civilians will be clearly excessive in relation to the military
advantage they expect from attacking that military objective. Obviously,
there’s a lot of debate around what exactly “excessive” means, which can make
it difficult to prosecute.
2- With all war crimes,
prosecutors need to show not just that the act occurred, but also that the
individuals who were engaged in the act knew the things they needed to know to
be criminally responsible, or, in some jurisdictions, that they were reckless
in accepting a substantial and unjustifiable risk. So in this case, did they
know that this was a hospital? Did they mean to target that hospital? Did they
know that they were going to hit that hospital?
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3- It’s also prohibited to target
what are called “civilian objects,” which would include a theater unless that
theater is being used for military purposes. “Really difficult to prove that.”
4- The International Criminal
Court recognized Palestine as a member state in 2015. However, Israel like the
US, China and Russia is not a member. So although the International Criminal
Court does have jurisdiction determining war crimes in the current conflict,
its decisions have no authority in Israel.
At last, it is difficult or even impossible to see Netanyahu will be prosecuted as war criminal according to the international law.