ABSTRACT
The 2014 Gaza Conflict involved non-state actors who defy international law, including the Law of Armed Conflict applicable to the hostilities within the Gaza Strip. More than just drawing the fighting into the urban terrain, these organisations often unlawfully intertwined their military operations with the civilian environment. The 2014 Gaza Conflict in particular involved high-intensity, protracted hostilities, including close-quarter combat and intensive urban warfare, exacerbating the risk of harm to civilians within the combat arena. In the Gaza Strip, approximately 2,125 Palestinians were killed. An analysis by IDF experts found that as of April 2015, at least 44 percent of the total Palestinian fatalities have been positively identified as Hamas militants or militants of other terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip; this figure may ultimately prove to be even higher. The 2014 Gaza Conflict and the period immediately preceding it represented the most intense period of rocket and mortar fire against Israel’s civilian population in the nation’s history.
