Editor’s Note: The term “genocide” has been misapplied to Israeli military actions in Gaza. That is a deliberate ploy and one that appears to work. We are pleased to bring you two short pieces by international human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, Arsen Ostrovsky. In the second, written in January, but with continuing relevance, Ostrovsky is joined by military experts John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and co-director of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project, and Brian Cox, adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School and retired US Army judge advocate.
I’m a Human Rights Lawyer: What’s Happening to the Druze in Syria Is a Real Genocide. Gaza Is Not.
Right now, in southern Syria, a genocide is unfolding in real time.
In the last week, hundreds of Druze civilians in Sweida, have been hunted, humiliated, and murdered by forces loyal to the Syrian regime of Ahmad al-Sharra.
Men, women, children, elderly – entire families are being wiped out. Yet the world looks the other way.
Where are the mass marches, the campus encampments at Columbia and Harvard, and all the human rights champions? Why is no one chanting for the Druze?
Their silence is deafening. And the hypocrisy is staggering.
Now contrast this with the obsessive focus on Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where armchair activists, academics and press are hurling baseless claims of genocide.
I am an international human rights lawyer, and Sweida is what an actual genocide looks like: a deliberate and systematic attempt to eradicate a group of people.
That is not what is happening in Gaza, and saying so is not just factually and legally wrong, it is morally obscene and a complete distortion of truth.
Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide is clearly defined as acts committed with “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” At its core, genocide requires “intent.”
The war in Gaza is many things – ugly, tragic, and devastating – but it has been fought by Israel entirely in self-defense, after Hamas launched the single worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel’s objective has never been to wipe out the Palestinian Arab people, but to dismantle Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, stop further terrorist atrocities, and return the hostages.
In war, innocent civilians die. That is a tragedy. But it is also the inevitable consequence of Hamas using its own people as human shields and embedding rocket launchers, tunnels and weapons inside and underneath homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques.
Despite this, Israel has taken unprecedented steps, unmatched by any military in modern history, to uphold the laws of armed conflict and mitigate civilian harm, including issuing warnings, dropping leaflets, establishing humanitarian corridors, facilitating aid and foregoing the pursuit of legitimate military targets to spare civilians.
This is the exact opposite of genocide. This is a state doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties.
That is a world apart from what al-Sharaa’s forces are doing in Sweida: mercilessly targeting a minority group for extermination, an actual genocide. And yet the world, apparently, couldn’t care less.
Why? Because condemning Ahmad al-Sharaa, the jihadist-turned-wannabe-statesman, and new darling of the international community, doesn’t make headlines? Or perhaps the Druze aren’t a trendy cause in the progressive elites?
Perhaps it’s just far easier to bash Israel than confront the real monsters perpetrating heinous crimes.
Sadly, today the word “genocide” is being tossed around like a political football by those who care more about scoring ideological points than about actual human suffering.
Those levelling the genocide accusation against Israel don’t care about law or facts. For them, the label is a propaganda weapon, a tool of lawfare aimed at vilifying Israel and absolving Hamas of its actual genocidal intent, which it acted out during the Oct. 7 massacre, and has vowed to repeat “again and again” until Israel is “annihilated.”
Genocide is not a political weapon – it is “the crime of crimes.” And when it is falsely and maliciously applied to Israel, it not only distorts the truth, it cheapens and demeans the suffering of real victims, like the Druze, who are being massacred before our eyes in Syria.
Don’t Blame Israel – Hamas Put Every Gaza Hospital in Danger
There has been intense discussion focused on Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, reportedly one of the last functioning hospitals in the area. This has been part of a broader ongoing debate in the war between Hamas and Israel, on the status of hospitals in wartime and under what circumstances they might become objects of legitimate military operations.
Under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), it is a foundational principle that hospitals receive special protected status. For example, Article 8(2) of the Rome Statute prohibits “intentionally directing attacks against” hospitals provided “they are not military objectives.” Article 11 of the Second Protocol to the Geneva Conventions provides that medical units shall be “protected at all times.”
However, this protection ceases if they are “used to commit hostile acts.” These rules of international law are recognized by Israel and implemented during its conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas, a ruthless terrorist organization, operates without any regard to the norms of international law or value of human life, with a longstanding practice of systematically embedding its operations in hospitals, using civilians as human shields and building military tunnels underneath hospitals.
Fifteen months into the war initiated by Hamas, there is hardly a hospital or medical facility in Gaza the terror group has not turned into a military command center, including the Kamal Adwan Hospital. There, Israel has detained over 240 Hamas terrorists, including some disguised as patients, and found caches of weapons, including guns and explosives. Each of these acts is an undisputed violation of the law of armed conflict.
Among the suspects taken for questioning was the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, who is suspected of being a Hamas terrorist leader, in addition to approximately 15 terrorists who infiltrated Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. In these circumstances, during which Hamas turned Kamal Adwan Hospital into a terrorist staging ground, the hospital lost its protected status under international law and become a legitimate target for military operations.
Israel’s military objective is clear and defined: to eliminate the military capabilities of Hamas, which continues to use hospitals and other civilian areas in Gaza to plan and execute acts of terror against Israel, as well as to rescue the remaining hostages that the terror group is holding captive.
However, merely because Hamas has seized hospitals as its own personal launching pads and terrorist command centers does not provide carte blanche to conduct military operations. Nor does it mean that patients and staff inside the hospital immediately lose their civilian status. Under humanitarian law, Israel must still abide by fundamental rules such as distinction, proportionality, and precaution. In each case, it has acted in accordance with its obligation.
Based on clear intelligence, Israel targeted a military objective used by Hamas terrorists, as evinced by the approximately 240 operatives arrested. There were hardly any civilian injuries in the operation, indicating that the expected incidental damage was not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the operation.
Israel also took ample precaution, including providing advanced warning, evacuating civilians and providing additional medical supplies to the hospital. Prior to the beginning of the targeted operation, as well as the process during, approximately 450 patients, as well as caregivers and medical personnel, were evacuated, while tens of thousands of liters of fuel, food and medical supplies for the essential functioning of the hospital were also delivered to Kamal Adwan.
Quite simply, Israel has gone to unprecedented lengths to comply with its obligations pursuant to the law of armed conflict, whereas Hamas is doing everything possible in order to maximize casualties.
In the wake of the targeted counterterrorism operation at Kamal Adwan Hospital, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that “the systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
To date, WHO has not condemned Hamas for the systematic use of hospitals in Gaza for military purposes. The global call to Hamas should be “Stop putting hospitals in danger.” Many ignore that Hamas has systematically dismantled the health system in Gaza, with the acquiescence of an international community that refuses to call it out.
WHO also fails to acknowledge that Israel is trying to bolster the health system in Gaza, working with many groups to supply the five active hospitals in Northern Gaza and almost 20 field hospitals.
Those who truly care about the wellbeing of civilians in Gaza, and who are rightfully aghast at the scenes coming out of Kamal Adwan Hospital would be well advised to direct their outrage at Hamas, which continues to unconscionably and illegally turn hospitals into its personal control and command centers and severely risk the lives of innocent civilians.
