"No matter what Hamas did, it does not justify the incredible use of lethal force without distinction and without proportionality as far as the Palestinian population is concerned in Gaza,” says Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, recently retired European Union ambassador to Palestine, adding that “Israel must adhere to international law and protect civilians.”
And?
I’d guess that most if not all people probably can manage to get out; there have been days to walk out. But it is true that some people probably will not leave. There is not an obligation on Israel not to fight in cities; that is, Hamas does not have the ability to say “I can strike you and you cannot strike back because I choose to fight in a city and have called for the civilian population to stay”.
You’ve already made the comment, and I’ve responded. Repeating it does not change the situation.
The UN -this is the organization that employs experts of all kinds who work directly on the ground there, onsite- says that some vulnerable groups will be unable to flee.
You sit probably thousands of miles away in some living room or so with no technical or local expertise nor any argument that fosters your opinion, but you say you “guess that most if not all people probably can manage to get out.”
Don’t you see yourself how out of touch and senseless your argument is?
Hamas is trying to create a situation where they can strike Israel and then claim that Israel cannot strike back, because Hamas is aiming to use human shields.
The rules of war don’t give Hamas that ability. That is, they do not say “Israel is obliged to not fight in cities, even if Hamas chooses to make that their battleground”.
The major source of protection for civilians in war is the Fourth Geneva Convention, and it explicitly states that this cannot be done:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/geneva-convention-relative-protection-civilian-persons-time-war
There are restrictions that aim at limiting the impact on civilians where this can reasonably be avoided in the Geneva Conventions. If Israel were to cut off civilians from retreating from a city, that would be problematic, but they have not done that; on the contrary, they have warned that there will be military operations occurring and that people should leave the area.
If civilians are trying to leave and provision might be made for evacuation without prejudicing Israel’s military operations, then one might make a reasonable argument that Israel is obliged to make that provision. But Hamas doesn’t get to claim that they cannot be attacked.