Hamas war crimes



Hamas war crimes are the violations of international criminal law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, which the Islamist Nationalist organization Hamas and its paramilitary wing, the al-Qassam Brigades have been accused of committing. These have included murder, intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shields, rape, torture and pillage.

Applicability of laws of war
Determining the applicability of laws of war to militant groups is a difficult question, as both the Council of Europe and International Committee of the Red Cross note that international law traditionally treats war and terrorism as separate legal categories. The Israeli, American, EU, UK, Japanese, and Canadian governments define Hamas as a terrorist group. However, many countries have disagreed with this characterization and have engaged with Hamas as a legitimate political entity. While the term "international law" conventionally pertains to states, it has also been applied to insurgent and terrorist armed forces. Accordingly, even insurgencies deemed lawful under international law that meet the criteria of "just cause" must also adhere to principles of "just means" as well. Regarding Hamas and its combatants, even if they have a presumptive right to fight against what they term as an "illegal occupation," they must still abide by legal rules of "discrimination", "proportionality", and "military necessity" under international law as conventional states do.

According to Human Rights Watch, "international humanitarian law, through the well-established doctrine of command responsibility" also applies "to political and other leaders insofar as they have 'effective responsibility and control' over the actors in question...thus making its leadership also criminally liable."

Targeting of civilians
According to Amnesty International, the "prohibition on targeting civilians is absolute in international law".

Human Rights Watch has declared that the "scale and systematic nature" of Hamas' targeting of Israeli civilians "meet the definition of a crime against humanity", and that its particular use of suicide bombings taking "place in the context of violence that amounts to armed conflict...are also war crimes."

Suicide attacks
According to Amnesty International, "the campaign of suicide bombings and deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians by Hamas and other armed groups constitutes crimes against humanity.

Between September 1993 and the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000, "Palestinian groups carried out fourteen suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians, mostly in 1996-97, killing more than 120 and wounding over 550. Hamas said it committed most of the attacks."

In the decade between 2000 and 2010, there were 146 suicide attacks committed by Palestinian militant groups against Israelis, resulting in 516 fatalities. A 2007 Harvard University study of 135 Palestinian suicide attacks conducted between September 2000 and August 2005 determined Hamas responsible for 39.9% of such attacks during that period.

Use of human shields
Israel has accused Hamas of using human shields in the Gaza Strip, saying that Hamas has purposely attempted to shield itself from Israeli attacks by storing weapons in civilian infrastructure, launching rockets from residential areas, and telling residents to ignore Israeli warnings to flee. Israel has also accused Hamas of maintaining command and control bunkers and tunnel infrastructure below hospitals. Hamas has denied using hospitals to shield any command centre, while it has previously made remarks expressing support for Palestinians refusing to flee areas Israel has targeted.

The Israeli accusations have been supported by NATO, and during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war EU nations condemned Hamas for using hospitals as human shields, while the UN Secretary General said "Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields". In 2023, HRW stated "Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups need to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control from the effects of attacks and not use civilians as 'human shields.'"

Indiscriminate attacks
Between 2000 and 2021, over 17,000 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. Hamas' use of indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilians has been widely condemned as a war crime. Palestinian UN Observer Ibrahim Kraishi has equally decried the attacks, stating that "every rocket and mortar fired from Gaza toward Israel is a “crime against humanity.”

Second Intifada
During the Second Intifada, the majority of Israeli casualties were civilian non-combatants, with Hamas conducting numerous attacks deliberately targeting civilians.

Prominent examples include:

Killing and shooting of Gazan civilians
Twenty civilians from Shuja'iyya were killed while protesting against Hamas. A few days later, Hamas reportedly killed two Gazans and wounded ten after a scuffle broke out over food handouts.

The IDF stated on 31 July that more than 280 Hamas rockets malfunctioned and fell inside the Gaza strip, hitting sites including Al-Shifa Hospital and the Al-Shati refugee camp, killing at least 11 and wounding dozens. Hamas denied that any of its rockets hit the Gaza Strip., but Palestinian sources said numerous rocket launches ended up falling in Gaza communities and that scores of people have been killed or injured. Israeli Military sources said the failed Hamas launches increased amid heavy Israeli air and artillery strikes throughout the Gaza Strip. They said the failed launches reflected poorly assembled rockets as well as the rush to load and fire projectiles before they were spotted by Israeli aircraft. While the Al-Shifa Hospital incident is disputed, early news reports have suggested that the strike was from an Israeli drone missile. Amnesty International concluded that the explosion at the Shati refugee camp on 28 July in which 13 civilians were killed was caused by a Palestinian rocket, despite Palestinian claims it was an Israeli missile.

Killing of suspected collaborators
Shurat HaDin filed a suit with the ICC charging Khaled Mashaal with war crimes for the executions of 38 civilians. Hamas co-founder Ayman Taha was found dead; Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported he had been shot by Hamas for maintaining contact with the intelligence services of several Arab countries; Hamas stated he was targeted by an Israeli airstrike.

On 26 May 2015, Amnesty International released a report saying that Hamas carried out extrajudicial killings, abductions and arrests of Palestinians and used the Al-Shifa Hospital to detain, interrogate and torture suspects. It details the executions of at least 23 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel and torture of dozens of others, many victims of torture were members of the rival Palestinian movement, Fatah.

2023 Israel–Hamas war


On 9 October 2023 Human Rights Watch stated that Hamas's apparent targeting of civilians, indiscriminate attacks, and taking of hostages amounted to war crimes.

On 10 October 2023 the OHCHR stated the taking of hostages and use of human shields were war crimes. United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Türk noted that militant groups' "horrifying mass killings" were violations of international law.

Re'im music festival massacre
As one of the first massacres of many in the coordinated attacks on 7 October 2023, militants of the al-Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian factions entered a music festival in Re'im at c. 7 a.m. local time and murdered over 360 people, as well as taking over 40 people hostage. Considering the attack on festival goers as indiscriminate in nature, along with a lack of Israeli military presence during the massacre, it could only be considered an intentional attack against civilians.

Be'eri massacre
At c. 7:10 a.m., on 7 October 2023, around 70 al-Qassam and DFLP militants had entered and attacked the kibbutz of Be'eri, taking over 130 peoples' lives, including women (such as peace activist Vivian Silver), children, toddlers, and one infant,   in total claiming the lives of 10% of the farming community's residents. Dozens of homes were also burned down.