UN: Israeli Missile Alert System Exempts Hamas From Warning Civilians

“It was not quite sufficient to interpret mocking, threatening Hamas video clips as warnings, so the Council felt compelled to shore up the idea that Hamas warned Israeli civilians with this finding.”

Geneva, July 1 – The United Nations Human Rights Council issued a report today in which it ruled that rocket launches from Gaza that trigger Israel’s Red Alert system for incoming missiles and mortar shells fulfill any requirement Hamas might have to warn civilians in those areas.

The Red Alert system, sometimes known locally as Red Dawn, identifies the launch from with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip of rockets or long-range mortar shells, and calculates the rough trajectory of the weapon. Based on those calculations, the system advises Israelis in the targeted areas to seek immediate shelter in a shielded, underground, or internal space, and remain there for a certain period. Because the Red Alert system gives Israelis anywhere from fifteen to ninety seconds’ warning, depending on the distance and type of projectile, the Council decided that Hamas had effectively acted above and beyond the requirements of the Laws of Armed Conflict when it triggered those alerts.

Council members emphasized that it was important to highlight this Hamas humanitarian achievement, lest people get the impression that Israel’s practice of warning before conducting airstrikes somehow gave the IDF the moral high ground in last year’s war. “This body would be be derelict in its mission and ethos if it were to endorse a finding that did not conform to existing notions of Israeli brutality and Palestinian victimhood,” said delegate Predja Diss of Sudan. “It was not quite sufficient to interpret mocking, threatening Hamas video clips as warnings, so the Council felt compelled to shore up the idea that Hamas warned Israeli civilians with this finding.”

“Really this kind of thinking started way back during the conflict itself,” recalled Saudi ambassador Prince Pedda Fayal. “Outgoing High Commissioner for Refugees Navi Pillay criticized Israel for not providing Gazans with the Iron Dome missile defense system, as if there were some sort of parallel standing shared by the warring sides. We just took that ball and ran with it.”

If the Security Council eventually adopts the UNHRC findings as a basis for action, experts see a more comprehensive application of its underlying principles. “There is no reason this must be restricted to rockets and air raid sirens,” said New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. “The mere existence of an intelligence service or other resources, such as Google Earth, for gathering information can be interpreted as conveying a warning, and that places the IDF and any adversaries on the same moral plane.”

“That,” he added, “is how you established even-handedness.”