The Guardian, who, to their credit, do run some stories about the (newly reenergised) carnage in Gaza has published the necessary (‘balanced journalism’) retort from the IDF:
The IDF is fully committed to respecting all applicable international legal obligations, including the law of armed conflict. Considerations and obligations with respect to proportionality and military advantage are evaluated and applied on a case-by-case basis and are facilitated by the comprehensive integration of the law of armed conflict into every phase of training, planning, and execution of military operations [1]
I think the clue here is “proportionality and military advantage”. They are referring to Section 51 (5) of the Geneva Convention [2];
5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:
(a) an attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects; and
(b) an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
Notice: “excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.”. If you think you are the superior race (to the Palestinians) with a God-given right to inhabit all of Palestine, then killing just one Palestinian “terrorist” is of unlimited advantage to you. It helps, of course, if you view all people on the other side as “animals”. [3]
The IDF seems to be quite good at hitting Hamas members, (they appear to hit fighters, policemen and civilian workers equally). One could be beguiled into praising the skill of their intelligence. An alternative explanation is this: do some probability analysis, (using AI?), and come up with 10 targets where a Hamas target may be. Hit all 10. Crow about the one which got him. Rely on the fact that the other 9 just fade into the general background – and no one, at least in the Western media – is asking any awkward questions.
Meanwhile London is still saying that Israel is “at risk” of violating International Law. [4] (This presumably remains the position even after the widely available video of Israel deliberately blowing up the only specialist cancer hospital in Gaza, and a recent targeted attack on someone receiving medical treatment in a hospital, which attack also killed a child). Until Netanyahu is filmed personally chopping the heads off babies that will remain the line. Even then, probably it would still be nothing more than a matter of “deep concern”.
For balance; I do find it strange when people in the Gaza strip are interviewed by the media no one ever says anything about October 7. You don’t have to believe that atrocity justifies or doesn’t justify the genocide to at least acknowledge a connection; a spiral of violence. (Yes; I do not see the Hamas operation on October 7 as a glorious act of resistance. Even with all the justifications in the world, including that at least some of the supposed civilians they killed were in fact armed settlers, it remains a stupid and evil act which could only lead to a disaster).
Notes
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/23/there-was-just-wave-after-wave-gaza-medics-recount-horror-of-the-last-week
- https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/pt/ihl-treaties/api-1977/article-51
- https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-south-africa-genocide-hate-speech-97a9e4a84a3a6bebeddfb80f8a030724
- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/mar/18/downing-street-rejects-lammy-claim-israel-broke-international-law-gaza