When does self-defense cross a line? Outcry over Israel in Gaza mounts.
It is a jarringly impersonal term for a life-and-death issue at the heart of the eight-month war in Gaza: whether Israel has exercised proportionality in its military response to Hamas’ spate of killings and kidnappings last Oct. 7.
The reason for the international focus on this bedrock international legal principle is clear: the immense toll being borne by Gaza’s Palestinian civilian population in the fighting.
Still, applying it to the Israel-Hamas conflict is less straightforward.
That’s because it requires disentangling a web of issues every bit as complex as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself – not just human and ethical,
