Thread by @EpshtainItay

What do we learn from #Israel's leaked day-after document:
1. It's conducting a war of debilitation intended to annihilate government functions in #Gaza.
2. It intends to permanently acquire (read: annex) territory in Gaza under the guise of security needs.
3. It is determined to suppress all manifestations of #Palestinian self-determination, including political independence, territorial integrity and permanent sovereignty.

In 1974, the @UN defined the act of aggression. #Israel's current conduct in #Gaza and its stated intentions with respect to occupied #Palestinian territory rise to the level of a crime of aggression.

#Israel’s objective in Gaza has been framed, including by the Prime Minister of Israel, as a “fight until we achieve total victory,” which amounts to a 'war of debilitation,' characterized by the unlawful intent and attempt to bring the complete destruction and disintegration of all public life and institutions. Debellatio was a legal construct during a period when states were free to wage war for the purpose of territorial gain. However, in contemporary international law, that would be an act of aggression.

In 1946, the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg delivered its judgment, establishing that "a war of aggression [...] is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." The concept of 'debellatio,' including the complete and total defeat of an adversary, and the taking of "spoils of war" (the territory and sovereignty of the vanquished belligerent) has been outlawed.