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Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-siege-of-hamas-is-no-war-crime-da6f5659?mod=opinion_lead_pos5
The Siege of Hamas Is No War Crime
(Wall Street Journal) Eugene Kontorovich - Most victims of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel weren't yet buried when some prominent international voices suggested that Israel's efforts to defend itself are war crimes. One of the great tragedies of war is that civilians often become victims. That is why countries like Israel resort to war only as self-defense, which, according to the UN Charter, is every nation's inherent right. The law of war prohibits directly targeting civilians. Israel has made clear that its objectives are only military. Military targets can be attacked even when doing so may result in the loss of civilian life. As this rule is understood by Western countries, even significant civilian casualties don't necessarily make strikes on legitimate targets illegal. International law makes clear that "the presence of civilians within or near military objectives does not render such objectives immune from attack." Israel has laid siege to Gaza, prompting the usual array of EU-funded organizations to accuse it of violating the law of war. But siege is a "legitimate" and ordinary part of lawful war, in the words of the U.S. Defense Department law-of-war manual. An army need not help its enemy obtain provisions during a conflict. The writer is a professor at the George Mason University Law School and director of its Center on the Middle East and International Law.