Gaza police - legitimate targets or targeted civilians?

Ma'an
Part six of a series recounting the findings of South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.

Jerusalem — Ma'an — As Israel's massive air assault entered its sixth consecutive day on New Year's Day one year ago, some 410 Gazans were dead and as many as 2,000 injured.

Among 70 airstrikes on 40 targets on 1 January 2009 was a police command center in Rafah, the then-latest security site to be leveled. No one was hurt in that attack, but 248 members of the Gaza police were killed during Israel's overall assault. By late January 2009, more than one out of every six casualties was a member of the de facto government's security forces.

On the same day, Gaza police spokesperson Islam Shahwan announced to the media that police commanders had managed to hold three meetings at secret locations since the beginning of the assault.

Shahwan added that "an action plan has been put forward, and we have conducted an assessment of the situation and a general alert has been declared by the police and among the security forces in case of any emergency or a ground invasion. Police officers received clear orders from the leadership to face the enemy, if the Gaza Strip were to be invaded."

This statement has become key to supporters of what they view was Israel's right to target police during its assault. "Except for the statements of the police spokesperson, the Israel Government has presented no other basis on which a presumption can be made against the overall civilian nature of the police in Gaza," noted South African jurist Richard Goldstone's UN inquiry into the assault.

His team sought clarification from the police spokesperson, who responded that he had been correctly quoted, except that the instructions given at that meeting were to the effect that in the event of a ground invasion, and particularly if Israeli forces were to enter urban areas in Gaza, police were to continue their work of ensuring basic food stuffs reached the population, of directing the population to safe places, and of upholding public order in the face of the invasion.

Shahwan further stated that not a single policeman had been killed in combat during the armed operations, proving that the instructions had been strictly obeyed by the policemen, according to the final report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.

After an exhaustive explanation of its findings on the matter, the report concludes that the official's statement "cannot, on its own, justify the assertion that the police were part and parcel of the armed forces," noting that the remarks came days after the main attacks on police forces were carried out on 27 December 2008.

The general rule of international humanitarian law is that members of law-enforcement agencies are considered part of the civilian population, unless they have been incorporated into the armed forces of a party to the conflict.

"The obligation to distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants and to direct attacks only against military objectives (the principle of distinction) therefore generally prohibits attacks against members of the law-enforcement agencies," the Goldstone report states. "This principle is accepted by the Israeli Government."

...............Goldstone's report states that ..... the policemen killed cannot be considered to have been combatants by virtue of their membership in the police."

...............Regarding specifically the attack on the police headquarters in Gaza, the report notes that in all likelihood, the policemen killed there "were neither engaged in any military activity at the time of the attacks nor carrying out preparations for combat." Full story