Laws of war

Images of the horrific death and destruction in Gaza resemble those coming out of Syria over the past three years or more. 

In both cases houses and buildings are levelled to the ground on top of innocent civilians, most of them children and women.

Combatants conduct their wars with utter disregard for the lives of civilians who are often viewed as expendable collateral damage of modern warfare.

Israel displayed this war culture during all its armed conflicts with its Arab neighbours, so it came as no surprise when it did so in its latest war on Hamas.

Despite all the old and contemporary humanitarian laws, by and large, governments still regard innocent lives as dispensable damage necessary for the success of their war efforts, and do not seem to care much who or how young they are. The victims are faceless, of course.

Perhaps the fault lies in the utter disrespect for the laws of war.

When countries are at war, human life is no longer a factor or relevant despite all the rhetoric to the contrary.

The objective of armies is to win, no matter how many people get killed in the process.

The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August 1945, are cruel examples of how innocent lives are no hindrance in the prosecution of war campaigns.

The bomb on Hiroshima instantly killed more than 100,000 civilians, while in Nagasaki, between 60,000 to 80,000 people died.

We have seen the same thing happen during the prolonged Vietnamese war, between 1959 and 1975, when defoliating substances were used to flush out the Vietcong, in the process killing thousands of innocent civilians. 

The worse civilian casualties occurred during World War I and World War II, which made millions of victims.

Israel must have drawn its own, wrong, conclusion from past wars, and decided that international standards do not count and in any case cannot stand in its way when waging wars against its neighbours, including, most recently, the war on Gaza

This war culture must be changed immediately.

If countries cannot settle their disputes through negotiations, they must be persuaded to spare the lives of innocent people, whatever it takes.

The trouble with so-called binding laws of war is that there is really no effective mechanism to implement them.

The UN, including the UN Security Council, is becoming irrelevant. It cannot, therefore, be counted on to do the necessary job to enforcing the laws of war.

Other mechanisms or instruments need to be adopted to fill the vacuum.