A report on the American website The Intercept on Thursday referred to what it considered to be the laws of war, which Israel clearly violated during its raid on a hospital in the West Bank.
Its author, John Schwarz, stated that last Wednesday, when members of the Israeli army, border police, and its security service, the Shin Bet, raided Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, they were all disguised as hospital or doctors, as the hospital’s internal surveillance cameras showed, They shot and killed 3 Palestinian men.
Schwarz suggested that in doing so, they would have violated many of the laws of war, including the prohibition of treachery and killing protected persons. He hinted that the true circumstances of the killing of the three men have not yet become clear, with discrepancies in different reports.
He pointed out what hospital director Naji Nazzal told Reuters that the Israelis “executed the three men while they were sleeping in the room… They executed them in cold blood by shooting bullets directly at their heads in the treatment room.”
The writer continued that the possibility that the raid was illegal is clear on its face, and commented that the United States would certainly have felt disturbed during the Iraq war if Iraqis dressed as doctors and nurses had infiltrated Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and killed many American soldiers. . Likewise, Israel would have objected if the Palestinians were able to reach the Tel Aviv hospital disguised in medical uniforms and then assassinate Israeli soldiers.
He cited what Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, said about the necessity of conducting an independent investigation to find out the truth of the situation. Roth also emphasizes the fact that “Israeli soldiers masquerading as medical personnel not only puts real medical personnel in danger; it also indicates that the Israelis are guilty of the war crime of treachery.”
Aurel Sarre, associate professor of public international law at the University of Exeter, agrees: “Treachery involves killing or wounding an opponent in a way that first seduces, but then betrays, his confidence in the protection afforded by the law of armed conflict. In this case, claiming to be an employee of “Medical or civilian, both of which are protected by law, (would be treacherous).”
The Intercept report concluded that Israel is one of the few countries (the United States is another country) that has not ratified the first Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, a 1977 amendment that specifically prohibits treachery. However, treachery is also illegal under international law. Sari points out that the Israeli Supreme Court accepted that Israel is bound by customary international law.
