Occupation and the right to self-defense in international law: A case study on Gaza strip
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70411/MJLS.3.2.2025253Keywords:
right to self-defense, Israeli occupation military operations, Gaza strip, Palestine, Israel, Article 51, Gaza stripAbstract
This research aims to clarify the principle of the right to self-defense in international law, its conditions and principles, and the extent to which this right is compatible with the practices of the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip with this principle, and answers the question of whether these practices fall under this principle or have other names in international law such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as the research problem focused on determining the extent to which Israel is entitled to invoke this right to justify its practice in the Gaza Strip, and the extent to which its actions fall under Article 51 of the UN Charter. The researcher relied on the descriptive analytical approach to research and reach the study results, the most important of which was that Article 51 does not apply to the case of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, and that Israel's actions are governed by human rights law and international humanitarian law, which Israel has not complied with, and that Israel's measures in self-defense are actually taken through the Iron Dome system, and Israel did not take into account the principles of necessity and proportionality in its practice. The researcher recommended the need for the UN to actually and accurately determine the international practices recognized as the right to self-defense in international law and to review the impact of the political situation in the Palestinian issue on Israel's interpretation of the right of self-defense.
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