Salah Shehadeh, head of the Izzadin Al Kassem Brigades of the
Hamas, was killed by a one-ton bomb dropped on the building
in which he was staying in Gaza. None of the surrounding
buildings was seriously damaged and none of the residents in
those buildings was killed. According to Palestinian reports -
- which are usually very exaggerated -- nine other people
were killed and over a hundred were injured in the
surrounding buildings. Most of the others who were said to be
killed, lived in rubble and hovels around the building and
Israeli intelligence apparently did not realize that they
were there.
Of those killed, at least one was another Hamas member.
Another was Shehadeh's wife, who was publicly photographed
dressed as a fighter some months ago, meaning that she was
not a civilian bystander.
Israel has publicly explained why it was important to kill
Shehadeh and also detailed the great efforts it made to make
sure that only Shehadeh was killed.
Salah Shehadeh was a very competent mass murderer who was
responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths and many
Palestinian deaths as well. He was actively planning many
more murders, including horrible plans that would murder
hundreds of innocents at once. He had the imagination and the
organizational ability to launch these awful nightmares, and
the world is certainly a much better place without him.
Abilities such as his, especially in a society that reveres
them, could easily be directed elsewhere by him or by those
taught by him. Indiscriminate and cruel murder is driven by
an evil dynamic of its own and tomorrow -- or ten years from
now -- there is no telling where it will be directed. Those
whom the CIA taught to kill in Afghanistan later used their
skills against America.
Israeli intelligence has followed Shehadeh's movements for
months, and had refrained from doing anything because it did
not want to kill anyone else, even though doing so allowed
him to continue his murderous work.
One of the primary principles that underlies all
international agreements about warfare is that fighting and
killing should be confined to the fighting and killing
forces. Civilian casualties are to be avoided at all costs
and must never be targeted. Accordingly, fighters are
supposed to be dressed in distinctive clothing and they are
supposed to live apart from civilians, such as in army bases,
so that they may be legally targeted, though they will of
course be defended.
However, the framers of this law recognized the tactical
temptation there is to use civilians as shields. Fighters may
dress like civilians and live among civilians so that they
will be difficult to target. Thus they thought through the
legal and moral character of such behavior and concluded that
fighters who live among civilians and dress like them are
fully responsible for all civilian casualties that result
from the legitimate attempt of their enemies to defend
themselves against their efforts.
Salah Shehadeh had no legal right -- and certainly no moral
right -- to target the many civilians he murdered, much less
to harm them. All Israeli fighters are clearly dressed as
such.
Israel had every legal and moral right to target him and,
according to international law, the responsibility for other
damage and destruction is his, not Israel's.
It is also worth nothing that Palestinian society glorifies
and welcomes the death of its own citizens. Though we will
never accept their ethics in this respect or anything else,
Rachmono litzlan, remembering this can help the heart
assent to conclusions of the mind that are described
above.
May these weeks of comfort bring comfort to all the bereaved,
and a final end to all the bloodshed.
