Lets go one by one through these claims ill try to capture his points, and provide criticism if needed.
1) Israel is exercising its right to self-defense.
writer claims : "Israel does have the right to defend itself against rocket attacks, but it must do so in accordance with occupation law and not other laws of war. Occupation law ensures greater protection for the civilian population. The other laws of war balance military advantage and civilian suffering."
Gaza is not militarily occupied, west Jerusalem is. for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli-occupied_territories
2) Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
writer claims : " Israel maintained effective control of the Gaza Strip and thus remains the occupying power as defined by Article 47 of the Hague Regulations."
Sorry, as writer claimed in first point, israel has a right to defend itself, this is basically a semantics copy of his first claim.
3) This Israeli operation, among others, was caused by rocket fire from Gaza.
writer claims : "Israel claims that its current and past wars against the Palestinian population in Gaza have been in response to rocket fire. Empirical evidence from 2008, 2012 and 2014 refute that claim"
Then he goes on about other cases where israel broke truces and other events preceding this event that point to israel for initiating this war.
according to this his claim should be "i think israel started this war" not "This Israeli operation, among others, was caused by rocket fire from Gaza." Because in fact israel initiated its operations is response to the rocket fires. it
Could be true israel looked for this war, this both remains to be proven, and if so Hamas fell strait for and in a clear illegal manner, some of Israels starting moves were either legal, or debatable and require trial, for example, the rearrests of shalit prisoners is legal if israel proves they broke their release terms.
4) Israel avoids civilian casualties, but Hamas aims to kill civilians.
writer claims : "With the use of drones, F-16s and an arsenal of modern weapon technology, Israel has the ability to target single individuals and therefore to avoid civilian casualties. But rather than avoid them, Israel has repeatedly targeted civilians as part of its military operations."
Sorry, but there is yet to be a public weapon that is able to target someone genetic composition, this claim is invalid, in many cases israel decided to target hamas officials they almost always hit civilians while doing it, that's their policy, can argue for or against it, but its bullshit to make it seem as if IDF is what its not. The next point of the author relates to this so we can move on and it should shed light on this -
5) Hamas hides its weapons in homes, mosques and schools and uses human shields.
writer claims:" Israel has yet to prove that Hamas has used civilian infrastructure to store military weapons."
Yes it has, UNRWA CONDEMNS PLACEMENT OF ROCKETS, FOR A SECOND TIME, IN ONE OF ITS SCHOOLS -
http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-condemns-placement-rockets-second-time-one-its-schools.
Besides like the dozens of ariel pictures provided by THE IDF regarding weapons placement as pictures taken by aeroplanes.
