Communications

"In this asymmetric war, despite all the challenges it poses, the Israeli army always respects the laws of war," says Pnina Sharvit Baruch, a researcher at the Israeli think-tank INSS and former head of the legal department of the IDF. "In the case of beacons, it respected the principles of distinction and proportionality to target enemy forces. Some dispute this. But what...

Pnina Sharvit Baruch, an Institute for National Security Studies researcher and former head of the military advocate general's international law department, said a small minority of those opposed to the investigation believe the alleged abuse is “justified revenge against people who committed terrible things on October 7”. “A bigger portion say that our soldiers shouldn’t be...

Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, a colonel in Israel’s reserves and former head of the IDF’s international law department, said she didn’t expect any short-term, significant effect on IDF readiness. “People who are serving in the IDF … are coming here to defend the country in our most precarious security situation since our existence,” said Sharvit-Baruch, now a senior researcher at Tel...

Israel would probably ignore an interim order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop its assault on Hamas in Gaza, the former head of the Israel Defense Forces’ international legal department has said. “I really hope that the court doesn’t give an interim order that would compel Israel to choose between abiding by a judicial order or defending itself,” said Pnina...

“This is different,” said Pnina Sharvit Baruch, who previously led the Israeli army’s international law department. “Hamas is open in aiming to destroy the state of Israel and any peaceful resolution of the conflict.” As in 1948 when Israel, soon after its founding, was attacked by its Arab neighbors, she said, “our existence is at stake, and we are fighting here for our...