Hamas is ‘embedded with civilians’ hence Israel’s struggle to target them

ANU Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies’ Ian Parmeter says Israel is trying its best to minimise casualties of innocent people despite Hamas being “embedded with civilians”. On October 7 Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian terrorist group launched thousands of rockets as far north as Tel Aviv. “All states have the right to defend themselves but there’s another pellet in this which is international humanitarian law,” he told Sky News Australia. “Essentially international humanitarian law indicates that the retaliation, or the self-defence has to be proportionate to the threat and also has to be done in a way that minimises casualties to civilians. “So a problem for Israel will be that Hamas is very much embedded with civilians.”