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Civilian Casualties in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Compared to Other Conflicts Involving Western Forces
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch - Since its creation, Israelis have suffered tens of thousands of attacks by Palestinian terrorists. Thousands of people, mostly civilians who were intentionally targeted, have been murdered. The Palestinian terrorists are not part of an established army and do not respect International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or the Laws of War. On most occasions, they intentionally abuse their urban surroundings as cover for their operations. This allows them to blend into the civil population and blur the ability of Israel to identify and distinguish them as combatants. The terrorists often use the surrounding Palestinian civilians as "human shields" as a defense against Israeli counter-terror measures. This allows the terrorists and their supporters to use every civilian death as a means to promote a propaganda assault on Israel for the alleged intentional killing of civilians. Most conflicts involving Western militaries today take place far from the homefront, and their civilian population is not under direct threat or attack. In Israel, however, its population is under constant attack. In such a context, if targets are not attacked quickly, this can directly harm Israeli civilians. This report compares the Palestinian death toll in Israeli operations to civilian casualties in Western military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The writer, Director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center, served for 19 years in the IDF Military Advocate General Corps and was director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria.