Hamas committed 15 types of recognized war crimes

Don’t blame all people in Gaza, but do hold the terrorists to account

I believe I was the first to point out that Chamas firing rockets at cities was a war crime. Three years later, everyone wrote that. I thought there were a couple of more at the pogrom. I researched it and found 15 types!

Still, most people don’t see that these crimes aren’t just terrible but are real war crimes. Protests have more punch when we name them properly.

Each of these forms of war crimes by Hamas has been confirmed.

Instead of bickering if these murderers and rapists are terrorists and not ‘militants’ or ‘resistance/freedom fighters,’ we should clarify they are war criminals, which they are. The world knows those to be evil and revolting.

So, the issue is not violence, barbarism, or terrorism, but war crimes.

Since Chamas terrorists self-identify as Muslims, like ISIS, the Arab World should be told to distance themselves from them, for they put Islam and humanity to shame, to rebuild its dignity and pride, as the Germans largely did, and much of the West, after the WW II, to reject everything Nazi.

What is Proportional or Collateral Damage?

Before we go on to specify different types of war crimes, one thing should be clarified. Military action being ‘proportional’ has nothing to do with ‘getting even fairly’ or revenge. A military strike is disproportional when it aims at a military target but a disproportional number of non-combatants or civil structures are hurt. This excludes targeting civilians and civilian structures, which is beyond disproportional, a war crime. And this excludes mistakes and accidents, which happen especially in a war. Minimizing civil casualties among the enemy goes a long way toward proportionality or appropriate collateral damage. While all death is terrible, especially when caused by humans, there is a difference between an accident and murder.

These war crimes also may be done by other anti-Zionist terrorist groups.

The current war is not between Hamas and Israel but between humanity and war crimes, including genocide on the Jews. Join the humanity side!

These also are war crimes in an armed conflict not officially declared a war or by combatants who are not regular soldiers sent by a proper State.

What makes the Chamas pogrom even more heinous are the pictures and witness declarations that the mass murderers and rapists did this smiling.

Grouping some crimes together, here they are in no particular order:

Targeting Civilians

During WW II, this was still ‘normal.’ Nazi-Germany bombing Rotterdam and London, the Allies bombing Dresden but not Auschwitz, the US nuking Japan, etc. Only after WW II, a ban on targeting civilians was established.

Purposely firing rockets at cities and villages trying to kill is a war crime.

Israeli governments have countered them, telling the world that no nation would accept missile attacks on its cities without saying it’s a war crime. The world has largely stood by as if this was simply the cost of war.

Invading Jewish villages and cities in Israel from Gaza to kill is a war crime.

Targeting and Destroying Civilian Infrastructure

Purposely firing rockets trying to destroy cities and villages is a war crime. Invading villages to burn them down is a war crime.

While Israel does its very best, while striking the enemy, to limit collateral damage (see above) as much as possible, Hamas does the very opposite by targeting civilians and non-military structures as their aim is genocide.

Using Human Shields

This has several sections.

Hiding between the Gaza population, under hospitals, and in Mosques is a war crime.
Firing rockets from populated areas in Gaza is a war crime.
Stopping the Gaza population from leaving the battlefield is a war crime.
Trying to maximize civilian deaths in Gaza (to ‘prove’ the enemy fights dirty) is a war crime.

Taking Hostages

In broad daylight, they took hostage soldiers and civilians, dead, wounded, and alive, Israeli and foreigner, Jews and Gentiles, babies, children, young adults, grownups, and the elderly, some demented, which is a war crime.

Captured Chamas terrorists have confessed that Chamas promised for every hostage delivered a house and $ 10,000.

Negotiating hostage release instead of unconditionally and immediately releasing them is not humane but an attempt to exploit a war crime.

Even before their pogrom, Chamas held Israelis hostage dead and alive.

Not Protecting Civilians

War crimes are also to only build shelters for combatants and not the population, and only stock up on water, electricity generators, food, and medicine for combatants, depriving civilians, including the sick and infirm.

Not caring that 20% of all rockets fired at Israel fail and fall still in Gaza, causing much damage, illness, and death (and tallying them as victims of Israeli aggression against the Gazan population) is a war crime.

Torturing Suspected Informants

For years, they have arrested, tortured, and killed Gazans truly or falsely accused of being informants of Israel. This is a war crime.

Producing and Stockpiling Chemical Weapons

Traces on corpses of Hamas terrorists of arsenic and instructions on how to disperse it show they created chemical weapons, which is a war crime.

Using IDF Uniforms

It is a war crime to dress up in enemy fatigue to confuse the enemy and invaded population, which they did, causing much confusion and death.

Stealing Humanitarian Aid from the Population

Hamas has shown total disregard for the interests of the civilians they rule in Gaza, except for their own families. For years and counting, they stole millions and millions of humanitarian aid, which is a war crime.

Mutilations and Torture

On Simchat Torah, they gruesomely mutilated and tortured civilians and were instructed and actually mutilated corpses, especially by beheadings, dismembering, removing organs like heart and liver, which are war crimes.

Rape, Sexual Slavery

They raped women and kids, dead and alive, and took and paraded young women bleeding from their crotches through Gaza, which are war crimes.

Training Children Under Fifteen as Combatants

They have trained their infants from the cradle to the warped ideal to kill Jews and happily die a martyr doing so. This is a war crime. This may be such a widespread war crime among Muslim populations around (but not in) Israel that these populations might be as not innocent, as the German People, that was complicit in its broad support of Hitler until his death.

Plundering and Pillaging

After the first wave of 1,500 killers, a second wave of 1,000 non-combatants entered the site of the massacre to plunder. They stole anything they could carry, from credit cards to televisions, which is a war crime. Some of them also have committed some of the other war crimes.

Targeting Medics

There are many reports that Chamas terrorists killed people while they were tending to the wounded, which is a war crime.

Genocide

The deeper ‘ideal’ of the pogrom was to help exterminate the Jewish People. They never made any secret about that. Genocide is a war crime.

***

War is always ugly, but war too has rules. What proper, beneficial surgery, despite all the bloodshed, is to murder, war is to war crimes.

For the record and comparison, the State of Israel has not committed one real case (let alone type) of war crimes in this war (yet), call me partial. The only mistake Israeli leaders made was they didn’t see it coming.

See also my blog post Worse than the Nazis.

Many current, false charges against Israel and Jews make sense since they are meant to drown out the factual Chamas war crimes.

All who breached the security fence on October 7 (or tried to evade it by sea) are collectively guilty of the war crimes. Yet, estimates are that 1,500 armed men and 1,000 non-combatants did so, leaving 1,400 dead and 4,500 maimed. There are reports of individuals murdering a dozen or more people, especially at the music festival. Simple math shows that, on average, each killed less than 1 person, showing that many didn’t dare to murder any. Some are as guilty for driving pickup trucks with six men with machine guns mowing down revelers. But it can be assumed that, even after all the preparations, many were too scared to kill at the pogrom.

Since the UN is hostile to Israel and its International Criminal Court even more so, Israel, with other democracies and countries interested, should set a trial comparable to the Nuremberg Trials to determine for posterity what happened on October 7, 2023, even when most perpetrators will be dead by then. It will be proper to have museums around the world, and especially in the Arab world, to document what crimes were committed. May this help the Arab World to feel the shame and indignation that was felt in the West after Nuremberg, to create a safer world for everyone.

Actually documenting the many instances of many of these crimes goes beyond this blog post. Most of my hyperlinks focus on the latest news.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. 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This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. 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He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1