Yahoo News Israel-Hamas conflict: What is a war crime?
The issue of war crimes has come firmly under the microscope following Hamas's brutal and sudden incursion into Israel on 7 October that killed hundreds of Israelis and the subsequent retaliatory bombing campaign that has decimated swathes of the Gaza Strip
Women and children have been killed in both Israel and Gaza and the total death top 4,000.
Israel says Hamas has also taken 199 hostages to use as human shields.
Each side has accused the other of carrying out war crimes, while international legal experts say both could eventually be found guilty.
FOLLOW LIVE: THE LATEST NEWS ON THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Last week, the United Nations said: "There is already clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza".
Its Independent International Commission of Inquiry said it has been "collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides".
David Crane, a US law expert and the founding chief prosecutor of the UN’s Special Court for Sierra Leone, said: “Intentional targeting of civilians and civilian objects without a military necessary reason to do so is a war crime.
"And that’s a standard that both sides are held to under international law.”
Speaking about the Hamas attack on 7 October, Agnès Callamard, secretary-general at Amnesty International, said: “Massacring civilians is a war crime and there can be no justification for these reprehensible attacks.
“These crimes must be investigated as part of the International Criminal Court’s ongoing investigation into crimes committed by all parties in the current conflict,
The International Criminal Court (ICC) says it has jurisdiction over potential war crimes carried out by Hamas, even though Israel is not a member state.
The occupied Palestinian territories including the Gaza Strip fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC, meaning the court has the authority to prosecute Hamas.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said: "If there is evidence that Palestinians, whether they're Hamas or Al Quds Brigades or the armed wing of Hamas or any other person or any other national of any other state party, has committed crimes, yes, we have jurisdiction wherever they're committed, including on the territory of Israel."
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Last Friday, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of about one million people in the north of the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned ground offensive.
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the order was illegal.
"Under humanitarian law, it’s called forcible transfer of populations, and it’s a war crime,” he said.
Conservative Party MP Crispin Blunt, who is also co-director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, warned at the weekend that the UK government could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza if it does not do more to "restrain" Israel.
Watch: Drone shots show extent of devastation in Gaza
He said: "If you know that a party is going to commit a war crime - and this forcible transfer of people is a precise breach of one of the statutes that governs international law and all states in this area - then you are making yourself complicit."
And while US President Joe Biden has said Israel has a right to defend itself from attack, he added: "It is really important that Israel, with all the anger and frustration and just — I don’t know how to explain it — that exists is that they operate by the rules of war — the rules of war. And there are rules of war.”
What constitutes a war crime?
The United Nations defines war crimes within the Geneva Conventions.
In total, four treaties and three protocols make up the Geneva Conventions which establish legal standards around the world for humanitarian treatment during wars.
It lays out rights for war prisoners, the wounded and civilians caught up in war zones, including prohibiting the targeting of particular buildings like hospitals and banning the use of certain weaponry.
The Geneva Conventions agreed in 1949 in the aftermath of the Second World War, to ban the intentional targeting of civilians and the use of torture.
The full definition of war crimes can be found here.
The most severe crimes are called "grave breaches" and are considered war crimes by legal definition.
The eight grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions are:
wilful killing;
torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
compelling a prisoner of war or a civilian to serve in the forces of a hostile power;
wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or a civilian of the rights of fair and regular trial;
unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a civilian;
taking civilians as hostages.
What is the punishment for a war crime?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
It can prosecute crimes committed by nationals of member states or on the territory of member states by other actors.
The ICC has convicted five men for war crimes and crimes against humanity, all African militia leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Uganda. Sentences range from nine to 30 years in prison.
The maximum possible sentence is life imprisonment.
Although the court is supported by many UN members and the European Union, other major powers like the US, China, Russia and Israel are not members and argue it could be used for politically motivated prosecutions.
Watch: Families plead for release of relatives in Israel-Hamas war
