--- title: Don't Give Hamas What It Wants description: Israel must respect the laws of war as it invades Gaza canonical: https://time.com/6323654/israeli-human-rights-gaza-essay/ author: Kenneth Roth article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-14T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T16:32:12.762Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Terror Seeks Extreme Reaction. Don't Give Hamas What It Wants og:description: Israel must respect the laws of war as it invades Gaza og:url: https://time.com/6323654/israeli-human-rights-gaza-essay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fc8cf3b91190151/698a413f0116821bdb983862/GettyImages-1722385743.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-GAZA-CONFLICT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Terror Seeks Extreme Reaction. Don't Give Hamas What It Wants twitter:description: Israel must respect the laws of war as it invades Gaza twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fc8cf3b91190151/698a413f0116821bdb983862/GettyImages-1722385743.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Atrocities Seeks Extreme Reaction. Don't Give Hamas What It Wants > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c04c7c82-e27e-4a94-9159-759cc9666169&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Kenneth Roth](https://time.com/author/kenneth-roth/) ## Kenneth Roth Kenneth Roth is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. Oct 14, 2023 11:00 AM UTC  A convoy of Israeli army vehicles is pictured along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on October 13, 2023\. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants entered Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip enclave on October 8\. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images) A convoy of Israeli army vehicles is pictured along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on October 13, 2023\. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants entered Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip enclave on October 8\. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images by [Kenneth Roth](https://time.com/author/kenneth-roth/) ## Kenneth Roth Kenneth Roth is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. Oct 14, 2023 11:00 AM UTC President Biden has responded to Hamas’s horrendous attacks on Israeli civilians with understandable outrage. In heartfelt terms, he called them “[pure, unadulterated evil](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel-2/),” which they were. He spoke less powerfully about the Israeli government’s response, noting only that we “uphold the laws of war.” Unless the Israeli government heeds that advice, it will make a bad situation worse, which may well be exactly what Hamas [hoped to provoke](https://t.co/pCFRTWHzad) in a desperate attempt to revive the Palestinian cause. Hamas’s random [slaughter](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-hamas-deaths-killings.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) of Israeli civilians, its [abduction](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/10/israel-identifies-most-of-the-hostages-abducted-by-hamas-reports-suggest) of survivors as hostages, its indiscriminate [rocket attacks](https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006) on Israel’s cities are all war crimes – egregious violations of international humanitarian law, which is [designed](https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/09/questions-and-answers-october-2023-hostilities-between-israel-and-palestinian-armed#Three) to spare civilians as much as possible the hazards of war. Using that legal framework is important because [it also binds](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/10/hamas-attack-israel-us-opinion-divided) the Israeli military, which is the best way to ensure that the civilian toll in Gaza from Israel’s aerial bombardment and possible ground invasion does not quickly surmount the deaths at the hands of Hamas. Already the Israeli military is disregarding that law. By October 9, it had already toppled [four large apartment buildings](https://t.co/nQo8OHTD7j). In the past it has cited a supposed Hamas presence somewhere in the complex, but that does not justify the disproportionate cost of rendering hundreds of Palestinians homeless. It has compounded its 16-year blockade of Gaza by now imposing a siege, blocking food, water, and electricity, despite the legal [duty](https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/09/questions-and-answers-october-2023-hostilities-between-israel-and-palestinian-armed#Fourteen) to allow humanitarian aid to civilians in need. It has bombed [a market, killing dozens](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-market-air-strike-jabaliya.html), and [two hospitals](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/10/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza/gazas-health-ministry-says-that-israel-is-striking-medical-facilities?smid=url-share). This all threatens to get worse once the anticipated ground invasion commences. Though [less frequently](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-market-air-strike-jabaliya.html) than in the past, the Israeli military is at times warning people in advance of attacks, as required when feasible, but that does not justify then reportedly [pummeling](https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-airstrikes-hostages-bf6c42f84526c4d9416978c8effd932a?user%5Femail=833907525a7ed9da50588421f9a328c4ffe67eebcd2f30e04f9a17ca5f772e12&utm%5Fmedium=APNews%5FAlerts&utm%5Fsource=Sailthru&utm%5Fcampaign=NewsAlert%5F101023%5FGazaIsrael&utm%5Fterm=AP%20News%20Alerts) entire neighborhoods. Civilians are still protected from attack whether or not they can, or choose, to heed such warnings. And it is difficult to see how the destruction of neighborhoods is a targeted rather than disproportionate response, a focused effort to attack Hamas fighters as opposed to [collective punishment](https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/09/questions-and-answers-october-2023-hostilities-between-israel-and-palestinian-armed#Eleven) against civilians who have been forced to live under Hamas. The Biden Administration has spoken only [briefly](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel-2/) about international humanitarian law, but the International Criminal Court will not be as reticent. Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor, has been too slow to pursue his office’s open investigation of war crimes in Palestinian territory, but the renewed war should provide a spur. Donald Trump imposed [sanctions](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/16/icc-us-cooperation-international-criminal-court-history/) on Khan’s predecessor for pursuing this investigation—an outrageous assault on an institution of justice. Biden did the right thing by [lifting](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/16/icc-us-cooperation-international-criminal-court-history/) those sanctions. He also [recognized](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/18/russia-ukraine-war-news/) the appropriateness of ICC charges against Valdimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine (because Ukraine conferred jurisdiction even though Russia has not joined the court), which should mean the U.S. government would no longer object to ICC charges of Israeli officials for war crimes committed in the territory of Palestine (which has also [conferred](https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/09/questions-and-answers-october-2023-hostilities-between-israel-and-palestinian-armed#Seventeen) jurisdiction). An unwillingness to hold the Israeli government to the most basic rights standards has also characterized Biden’s recent broader approach to the conflict. Every serious human rights group that has examined the issue has concluded that the Israeli government is imposing [apartheid](https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution) on the millions of Palestinians in occupied territory. But the Biden Administration still pretends to see this oppression as only temporary, to be resolved by a moribund “peace process” whose main remaining backers are Western governments seeking to [avoid](https://corporate.dw.com/en/opinion-reassessing-the-approach-to-israel/a-65648479) addressing the issue and the Palestinian Authority, whose status depends on continuing lip service to a “two-state solution” that long ago morphed into a “[one-state reality](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/israel-palestine-one-state-solution?utm%5Fmedium=social).” That abysmal state of affairs could be seen in the negotiations for the normalization of relations between the Israeli and Saudi governments. The only party to these negotiations who publicly seemed to be addressing Palestinian concerns was Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, who is reputed to be contemptuous of the Palestinian cause but compelled to address it at least nominally because of Saudi public opinion. He reportedly was [proposing](https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-looking-to-limit-scope-of-palestinian-component-of-saudi-normalization-deal/) an infusion of Saudi cash to the corrupt Palestinian Authority and a modest transfer of land from Israeli government that would do nothing to change the reality of apartheid. The Biden Administration has been concerned by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts to undermine the independence of Israel’s judiciary. The outpouring of Israeli [opposition](https://apnews.com/article/israel-politics-justice-minister-judicial-overhaul-netanyahu-b93481650524a63c4e85199c0ea3fb4d) to this attack on a pillar of democracy has been impressive, but it has been carefully circumscribed to avoid addressing the Palestinian issue, which Netanyahu clearly hopes to continue kicking down the road indefinitely. This indifference to Palestinian rights does not justify Hamas’s war crimes. Nothing does. But it is the backdrop to Hamas’s brutal attack. Biden is wrong to substitute outrage over this attack for a more principled defense of human rights, which is the best way to avoid periodic future outbreaks of such violence of despair. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6323654/israeli-human-rights-gaza-essay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6323654/israeli-human-rights-gaza-essay/"},"headline":"Atrocities Seeks Extreme Reaction. 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