Israel, civilian deaths and the question of proportionality

Israel’s fatal al-Tabin School attack raises questions of how many civilians Israel will kill to execute Hamas fighters.

On Saturday, Israel justified the killing of more than 100 Palestinians sheltering at a school in Gaza City by claiming the attack was targeted at 20 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters. Last month, the killing of at least 90 Palestinians in al-Mawasi was also justified by the Israelis, who said that the attack targeted two Hamas commanders, including Mohammed Deif, the longtime leader of the Qassam Brigades.

Zooming out, since the beginning of its war, Israel has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, wounding tens of thousands more. While occasionally disputing the death toll, Israel has made it clear that it views its destruction of Gaza, and the civilians killed, as being warranted in return for the destruction of Hamas, following the group’s attack on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people.

Leaving aside whether these Palestinian fighters were present at the sites Israel attacks (and Hamas denies that it operates from civilian facilities, and that Deif is even dead), the mass killings raise the question of proportionality, and how many civilians Israel is prepared to kill in order to assassinate one Hamas figure.

There is no formula for proportionality under international humanitarian law (IHL). The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), however, says that under the principle of proportionality, an attack that may cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury or damage to civilian objects that is “excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, is prohibited”.

Israel’s military strategically uses disproportionate violence, analysts told Al Jazeera.