Well the 1949 Geneva Convention, signed by Israel in 1951, which sets out the fair treatment of civilians in a war zone states in Article 33, "No persons may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.", and "Reprisals against persons and their property are prohibited." Furthermore Article 53 states "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations." If you need any more Article 8 criminalises "Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated." There is a pretty strong case that both Hamas and the IDF have repeatedly violated all of these over the past weeks and therefore have indeed broken international law.
Interestingly I was reading the other day about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. A Jewish population of 3 million were blockaded into Ghettos by the Germans. They were poorly armed and poorly supplied with disease and starvation rampant. Yet they formed a resistance group digging tunnels to hide civilians and attack the German forces, who labelled them a terrorist group at the time. The irony is palpable.
