[3] Ibid., paras. 111–113. See also CCPR/C/ISR/CO/4, para. 5.
[4] For the purposes of distinction, the term “combatants” includes members of the armed forces and of organized armed groups with a continuous combat function.
[5] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “2014 Gaza Conflict: Israel’s Objectives and Phases of the 2014 Gaza Conflict” (available at http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/IsraelGaza2014/Pages/2014-Gaza-Conflict-Factual-and-Legal-Aspects.aspx), p. 3.
[6] Data compiled by the OCHA Protection Cluster, 31 May 2015. For an explanation of the methodology of the Protection Cluster, see A/HRC/28/80/Add.1, para. 24, footnote 43.
[7] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (see footnote 5), “Hamas’ Violations of the Law”, p. 4.
[8] Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Occupied Palestinian Territory: Gaza Emergency Situation Report, 22 July 2014 (available at www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_sitrep_23_07_2014.pdf), p. 1.
[9] OCHA, Gaza Initial Rapid Assessment, 27 August 2014 (available at https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/gaza_ mira_report_9september.pdf), p. 4.
[10] Health Cluster, Gaza Strip: Joint Health Sector Assessment Report, September 2014, available at http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Joint_Health_Sector_Assessment_Report_Gaza_Sept_2014.pdf.
[11] Child Protection Working Group, Child Protection Rapid Assessment Report, October 2014 (available at http://cpwg.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/03/Child-Protection-Rapid-Assessment-_-Gaza_2014.pdf).
[12] United Nations Children’s Fund, State of Palestine, Humanitarian Situation Report, 23 October 2014 (available at www.unicef.org/mena/UNICEF_SoP_SitRep_23_October_2014.pdf), p. 1.
[13] https://twitter.com/qassam_arabic1/status/504191347684048898 (in Arabic). See also “Kibbutz member killed by mortar shell laid to rest”, Times of Israel, 28 August 2014, and “After Operation Protective Edge, day 1”, Haaretz, 27 August 2014.
[14] Al-Qassam, Press Release of Abu Obeida, Al-Qassam spokesperson, 20 August 2014.
[15] Israel Defense Forces, “Operation Protective Edge by the Numbers”, 5 August 2014.
[16] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IDF Conduct of Operations during the 2014 Gaza Conflict (available at http://mfa.gov.il/ProtectiveEdge/Documents/IDFConduct.pdf), p. 38.
[17] OCHA, Fragmented Lives: Humanitarian Overview 2014, March 2015, p. 4.
[18] See also B’Tselem, Black Flag: The legal and moral implications of the policy of attacking residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, January 2015 (available at www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/ 201501_black_flag), p. 46; and Amnesty International, “Families Under the Rubble – Israeli Attacks on Inhabited Homes”, 5 November 2014, p. 42.
[19] United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Impact of the 2014 Conflict in the Gaza Strip – UNOSAT Satellite Derived Geospatial Analysis, 2014.
[20] The percentage of women killed was significantly higher in 2014 (20.2 per cent of civilians) than during the conflict in 2009 (14 per cent); see B’Tselem, “B’Tselem publishes complete fatality figures from operation cast lead”, press release, 9 September 2009.
[21] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), arts. 51 and 52.1.
[22] Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court, art. 8.
[24] IDF MAG Corps, “Aerial Strikes against Terrorists: Some Legal Aspects”.
[25] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, art. 57, para. 3.
[26] In this regard, see the judgement of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Kupreškić et al of 14 January 2000. See also Amnesty International, “Families Under the Rubble” (see footnote 19), pp. 6 and 42, and FIDH, “Trapped and Punished: The Gaza Civilian Population under Operation Protective Edge”, October 2014, pp. 29–30.
[27] See Protocol I, art. 52, para. 2.
[28] Israel Defence Forces, Omer Shalit, Technological and Logistics Directorate: “Faster and more efficient: this is how munition is supplied to the fighting forces”, 13 August 2014, available at www.idf.il/1133-21100-HE/IDFGDover.aspx (in Hebrew).