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A Guide to International Law and the Gaza War
(The Tower) David Daoud - As Oscar Schachter, a former president of the American Society of International Law, emphasized, "[a] State is not obliged to turn the other cheek" in the case of an ongoing armed attack. Israel was provoked into launching Operation Protective Edge on July 8 by continued rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into southern Israel, for which Hamas, as the ruling government in Gaza, is ultimately responsible. Between July 2 and 7, 230 rockets were launched by Palestinians in Gaza into Israel. Additionally, for some time Israel possessed intelligence that Hamas had built a large offensive tunnel network leading into Israel, discovering three tunnels in 2013. Israel agreed and adhered to multiple humanitarian ceasefires of varying duration, but Hamas repeatedly violated them. Essentially, when a country goes to war, it is allowed to use as much force as is necessary to stop the threat that caused it to go to war to begin with.