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Maria Alvanou
IDF may use them as staging posts for their operations or to detain people in their
custody. A large number of settlers are armed and settlers have been accused of
occasionally attacking Palestinians and destroying Palestinian houses and other
property. However, settlers as such are civilians, unless when they are serving in
the Israeli armed forces. Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories are argued
as unlawful under the provisions of international humanitarian law, as the Fourth
Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of civilians from the occupying power’s
territory into the occupied territory (Article 49.6). However, the debated unlawful
status of Israeli settlements does not affect the civilian status of the settlers.
Settlers, like any other civilians, cannot be targeted and only lose their protection
from attack if and for only during the time they take a direct part in hostilities. 30
Similarly, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza are civilians benefiting
from the protection of the Fourth Geneva Convention unless and for such time as
they take direct part in hostilities.
Palestinian suicide attacks: operational, tactical and media
expressions of a crime
According to the point of view chosen, there are many ways to name and describe
this type of operation that seems to terrify so much. “Genocide bombings” and
“homicide attacks” are phrases frequently used by those who identify with the
unwilling victims of attacks and these terms emphasize the criminal nature of the
violence and de-emphasize the self-inflicted death of the perpetrator. On the other
hand, “martyrdom operations” place the emphasis upon the cause of the
perpetrators, implying a connection to the notions of “holy war” and/or self
defence, even in the killing of civilians. Finally “suicide operations” or “missions”
places the emphasis on the self-immolation of the perpetrator and the
organization’s role in staging the episodes. Of course, none of the above used terms
is perfect or exclusive, exhaustive on itself, because the self-explosion of people to
kill others is not a simple phenomenon and it entails many or all of the above
characteristics. Each of the terms highlights a specific parameter and can be used
accordingly.
An adequate definition of a suicide attack could be one of an “operational method
in which the very act of the attack is dependent upon the death of the perpetrator.
The terrorist is fully aware that if she/he does not kill her/himself, the planned
attack will not be implemented” (Ganor, 2003). The death of the perpetrator is the
key to the success of the attack; and he/she knows in advance that success depends
entirely on this death (Schweitzer, 2002). The aim of the psychologically and
physically war-trained terrorist is to die while destroying the enemy target. The
terrorist’s self explosion has an aim to produce a massacre, which is no mistake,
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