Targeting
Designing for Reasonableness: The Algorithmic Mediation of Reasonableness in Targeting Decisions
Developments on current battlefields are proving that algorithmic decision-support systems are not a distant future, but a reality that military and civilian populations are already living with. For example, in November 2023, it was reported that defense contractor...
Military Objectives by Location
Editors’ Note: This post is derived from a presentation given at the 2023 Israel Defense Forces Military Advocate General’s 4th International Conference on the Law of Armed Conflict. The rules relating to the targeting of military objectives by location are found in...
Attacking the Quds Force and Affiliated Groups under the Jus ad Bellum
On 28 January, a drone strike on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan known as Tower 22 killed three soldiers and wounded 34. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a non-State militia group, claimed responsibility for the attack which it said was in response to U.S. support...
Lieber Studies Big Data Volume – Big Data and Armed Conflict – Legal Issues Above and Below the Armed Conflict Threshold
Editor’s note: This is the first post in a symposium addressing themes from a new book entitled Big Data and Armed Conflict: Legal Issues Above and Below the Armed Conflict Threshold, the ninth in the Lieber Institute’s Lieber Studies series with Oxford University...
Israel – Hamas 2024 Symposium – Algorithms of War: Military AI and the War in Gaza
January brought with it a new phase in the war in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared that the “intense combat” stage of the war had ended, at least in the northern region of the Gaza Strip, with thousands of reservists returning...
Application of the Principle of Military Advantage in Determining Proportionality
This post examines the concept of "concrete and direct military advantage" used for purposes of applying proportionality rules in targeting. It concludes that military advantage may be based on broader operational advantages and is not limited to immediate tactical...
Criminal Organisations Party to an Armed Conflict and the Question of Targeting
This post is drawn from the authors’ article-length work, “Targeting Drug Lords: Challenges to IHL Between lege lata and lege ferenda” appearing in the International Review of the Red Cross. Criminal organisations have been a threat to State stability for decades....
Israel-Hamas 2024 Symposium – Qassam Rockets, Weapon Reviews, and Collective Terror as a Targeting Strategy
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (AQB), in the pursuit of its objective to “obliterate” Israel, uses a variety of weapons, including variants of Qassam rockets, to direct acts of violence at Israel. Hamas...
Same but Different: Legal Review of Autonomous Weapons Systems
Editors’ Note: This post is derived from a presentation given at the 2023 Israel Defense Forces Military Advocate General’s 4th International Conference on the Law of Armed Conflict. In 2024, a decade will have passed since an inaugural UN Meeting of Experts initiated...
Houthi Operations in the Red Sea and LOAC?
CAPT (ret.) Pete Pedrozo has recently provided an excellent update on escalating maritime threats and operations by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea area. As he has noted, these attacks are asserted by the perpetrators as targeted against Israeli interests and in support...
Ukraine Symposium – Retaliatory Warfare and International Humanitarian Law
On 29 December, Russia launched a massive country-wide drone and missile assault on Ukraine. Although Ukraine shot down 114 of the 158 inbound missiles, over 40 Ukrainian civilians died in the attacks, and more than 160 were wounded. In addition to military...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – The Legal Protection of Hospitals during Armed Conflict
The murder of Israeli civilians and the taking of hostages, including children, on October 7 provoked widespread outrage, and rightly so. But since then, that outrage has increasingly receded into the background, as some observers and media sources characterize the...
Year in Review – 2023
2023 has witnessed not only a continuation of ongoing conflicts, including those in Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh, but also the emergence of new hostilities. A notable addition to the global security landscape was the renewed armed conflict between Israel and Hamas....
The New U.S. Department of Defense Instruction on Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response
On August 25, 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III approved and released the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP)—an action plan that creates new institutions and processes to strengthen the Department of Defense’s (DoD) ability to...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Damage to UN Premises in Armed Conflict: IHL and Beyond
Does a party to an armed conflict necessarily violate international law if it causes damage to United Nations (UN) premises? Certainly, the UN Secretariat considers that any damage—direct or indirect—caused to UN premises in armed conflict gives rise to an...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Attacking Hamas – Part II, The Rules
Editor’s Note: This post is the second in a two-part series that explores law of armed conflict targeting considerations inspired by the Israeli-Hamas conflict. The first post examined operational and contextual considerations. This second post reviews the legal...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Attacking Hamas – Part I, The Context
Editor’s Note: This post is the first in a two-part series that explores law of armed conflict targeting considerations. This first post examines operational and contextual considerations. The second post will review the legal requirements applicable to the context...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Targeting Gaza’s Tunnels
Hamas’s excavation and use of tunnels under Gaza has been and will continue to play a significant part in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The labyrinth of tunnels adds complexity to an already challenging operational environment and raises important...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Distinction and Humanitarian Aid in the Gaza Conflict
It is axiomatic that commanders are required to discriminate between civilians and combatants when attacking enemy positions. However, the difficulty in discriminating between civilian and military personnel and objects is heightened in the Gaza conflict, due to the...
Challenges of Intelligence Sharing in Targeting Operations
I reiterate that [the prevention of civilian harm] is not necessarily about more rules on the ground. It is about paying particular attention to civilian harm in existing operational planning and procedures. For instance, when sharing intelligence with allies, and...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Attacks and Misuse of Ambulances during Armed Conflict
The current conflict in Gaza and Israel has caused unfathomable suffering to both sides with no end in sight. The scale of deaths and destruction in such a dense civilian population and the consequences for those most vulnerable has created a humanitarian catastrophe....
2023 DoD Manual Revision – Redefining Doubt
The third edition of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War Manual, updated in December 2016, rejected the customary international law status of the legal presumption of civilian status for persons and objects in instances of doubt. The 2023 revised U.S....
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Assessing the Conduct of Hostilities in Gaza – Difficulties and Possible Solutions
The current armed conflict affecting Israel and the Gaza Strip raises many international humanitarian law (IHL) questions. Many answers depend on whether Palestine is a State, whether Hamas belongs to that State (at least, as it claims, as a resistance movement) and...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Inside IDF Targeting
Events in Israel and Gaza have again plunged the Middle East into armed conflict. As this post is being written, intense fighting is underway in Israel and Gaza. There are skirmishes with Hezbollah along Israel’s border with Lebanon, and a hostile Iran looms large on...
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Facts Matter: Assessing the Al-Ahli Hospital Incident
In the evening hours of October 17, 2023, reports emerged of an explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The Gazan Ministry of Health spoke of a massacre, suggesting that at least 500 people were killed in what it claimed was an Israeli air strike on...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – The Civilian Presumption’s Durability
The revised U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War Manual recognizes a presumption of civilian status for decision-making in targeting operations. In this post, I explore the implications of a civilian presumption by examining the nature of legal presumptions...
