[News] Israeli Plans to Pump Seawater into Alleged Tunnels under Gaza Could Render it Uninhabitable and Destroy Historical Cultural Heritage Sites
Anti-Imperialist News
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Tue Dec 19 10:49:41 EST 2023
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*Israeli Plans to Pump Seawater into Alleged Tunnels under Gaza Could
Render it Uninhabitable and Destroy Historical Cultural Heritage Sites
/To read this report on our website, click here.
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Since 7 October 2023, Israel has waged a genocidal campaign
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against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, preceded by explicit
statements of intent by Israeli political and military officials
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=5ceeca3aac&e=08c14cf485>
– a critical constitutive and distinctive element of the crime of
genocide. A key feature of Israel’s ongoing military aggression against
2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza is the escalated weaponisation of
water, among other necessities vital for the survival of the population.
Israel declared total warfare on Gaza’s civilian population, including
by announcing
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a complete siege on Gaza, and employing
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starvation and thirst as a method of warfare.
Referring to Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals”, Israeli Defence
Minister, Yoav Gallant stated
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=647007f619&e=08c14cf485>
on 9 October 2023, “[w]e are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There
will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is
closed”. In a similar vein, May Golan, the Minister for the Advancement
of the Status of Women of Israel, also stated
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=534ae6d21c&e=08c14cf485>,
on 7 October 2023, that “[a]ll of Gaza’s infrastructures must be
destroyed to its foundation and their electricity cut off immediately”,
adding that, “[t]he war is not against Hamas but against the state of
Gaza”. The former head of the Israeli National Security Council, Giora
Eiland, stated
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=4ebe9e2be7&e=08c14cf485>,
“Israel should not allow any economic assistance. The people should be
told that they have two choices; to stay and to starve, or to leave”.
Eiland goes further by outlining a contingency plan in the case that the
Israeli-imposed energy shortage in Gaza did not prevent Palestinians
from accessing desalinated water sourced from wells in Gaza. He said
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=2364a5e4f2&e=08c14cf485>:
“If the energy shortage in Gaza makes it so that they stop pumping out
water, that’s good. Otherwise, we have to attack these water treatment
plants to create a situation of thirst and hunger and I would say,
signal an unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis”.
As the military offensive approaches its 11-week mark, Israeli officials
have acted on these genocidal statements with impunity and blanket
support from several Third States, including the United S
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=88dea07247&e=08c14cf485>tates
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(US); creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza that international
humanitarian organisations have labelled ‘unprecedented
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=18d4af860c&e=08c14cf485>’.
Widespread and systematic attacks against Gaza’s civilian population and
infrastructure have resulted in the killing
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of at least 19,453 people, 70% of whom are children and women; the
destruction or damage
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of over 60% of all Gaza’s housing units; and the displacement
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of around 1.9 million Palestinians, nearly 85% of the population.
Simultaneously, targeted attacks on hospitals and the blocking of fuel
and electricity have crippled the healthcare system in Gaza, rendering
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=566598fceb&e=08c14cf485>
only eight out of 36 hospitals functional.
1. Background to the alarming health issues
Israeli actions have indeed caused widespread hunger
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and thirst throughout the entire Strip, as advocated for by Eiland. To
exacerbate an already disastrous humanitarian situation caused by the
16-year-long closure, bombing, total siege and widespread famine, the
World Health Organization (WHO) has warned
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=976fdc2723&e=08c14cf485>
that, eventually, disease could kill more people than Israel’s
indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip if the health system is not
repaired. Displaced people, crowded together without clean water or
sanitation, are fertile ground for disease. Alarmingly, staph
infections, chickenpox, rashes, urinary tract infections, meningitis,
mumps, scabies, measles and food poisoning are all reportedly rising
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=e110389b2e&e=08c14cf485>,
according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The WHO is particularly
concerned
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about bloody diarrhoea, jaundice and respiratory infections.
While a trickle of aid, including food, water and medicine, has entered
Gaza, such aid remains insufficient and inadequate
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=e43412734d&e=08c14cf485>,
as well as ineffective without the necessary fuel for collection and
distribution, water purification and pumping, as warned
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=d9affd787b&e=08c14cf485>
by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres.
Against this backdrop, the abovementioned death toll is likely to
further increase, considering the number of Palestinians reported
missing and presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble, injured
Palestinians who might succumb to their wounds, and Palestinians who
might die as a result of hunger, thirst, or disease. The deliberate and
persistent denial
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of access to medical and rescue teams in areas where the Israeli
occupying forces (IOF) are deployed, coupled with the absence of
adequate medical care, is also poised to increase the number of
Palestinians killed.
This latest instance of weaponisation of Palestinian water, among other
vital necessities in the Gaza Strip, is a continuation of decades-long
systematic denial
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of Palestinians’ right to water through Israel’s apartheid regime. In
Gaza, the water crisis reached
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a critical juncture in 2007, when Israel imposed its land, air, and sea
blockade and closure, which amounts to illegal collective punishment.
The closure has, inter alia, severely restricted the entry of Water,
Sanitation and Hygiene Infrastructure (WASH) items essential for the
development and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure.
Since then, this has only been exacerbated and compounded by six
large-scale Israeli military aggressions which have directly and
indirectly destroyed crucial WASH infrastructure, in violation of
international humanitarian law (“IHL”). Notably, prior to 7 October
2023, the sole water resource in Gaza was already severely overexploited
and heavily polluted by agrochemicals and wastewater infiltration,
rendering
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97% of Gaza’s water unfit for human consumption.
2. Legal analysis
2.1. Applicable law
The Genocide Convention provides that, when “committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group”,[1] <#_ftn1> “[d]eliberately inflicting on the group conditions
of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or
in part” comprises acts of genocide.[2] <#_ftn2> The Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court (“ICC”) reproduces this definition and its
list of underlying crimes.[3] <#_ftn3> According to the Elements of
Crime accompanying the Rome Statute, “conditions of life” include, inter
alia, the “deprivation of resources indispensable for survival, such as
food and medical services, or systematic expulsion from homes”.[4]
<#_ftn4> Under the case law of the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), these further include “the creation of
circumstances that would lead to a slow death, such as lack of proper
housing, clothing and hygiene”.[5] <#_ftn5> Israel’s deliberate
deprivation of essential supplies necessary for the survival of the
population of Gaza due to the imposed siege, coupled with the admissions
of intent by Israeli officials, amounts to a genocidal
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act.
Furthermore, employing starvation and thirst as a method of warfare is
absolutely prohibited under IHL.[6] <#_ftn6> The blocking of basic
supplies necessary for the survival of the population, including food
and clean water, amounts to a war crime.[7] <#_ftn7> In addition, the
core IHL principle of proportionality
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prohibits “[l]aunching an attack which may be expected to cause
incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to
civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in
relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated”.
2.2. The Gaza Strip: an open-air prison now threatened by underground
floodings
Even prior to 7 October 2023, the conditions in the Gaza Strip had
already prompted discussions of genocide – as concerns had been raised
by, inter alia, National Lawyers Guild
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=4b7a21adb3&e=08c14cf485>
in 2014, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine
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in 2014, and the Center for Constitutional Rights
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in 2016. Scholars, over the years, have warned that the closure and
blockade of Gaza may amount to a “prelude to genocide
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=2f1bb863b9&e=08c14cf485>”
or a “slow-motion genocide
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In 2007, Israel imposed a land, air and sea closure of the Gaza Strip
which further fragmented the Palestinian people and constitutes a
prohibited collective punishment.[8] <#_ftn8> Israel’s fragmentation
policy, enacted including through the closure, has not only infringed
upon Palestinians’ freedom of movement, but also de-developed Gaza’s
economy and undermined all social, economic, cultural, civil, and
political rights; ultimately violating their collective and inalienable
right to self-determination. As a consequence, Gaza is crippled
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by high levels of poverty, aid dependency, food insecurity, and
unemployment, which, coupled with the collapse of essential services
such as healthcare and water facilities, has rendered it unliveable, as
stressed
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by several UN reports. Despite this dire reality, Israel has further
tightened and maintained its illegal closure and blockade of Gaza.
In November 2023, media reports of Israeli plans to flood alleged
tunnels in Gaza with seawater began circulating. This alarming move,
vehemently cautioned against by the Palestinian Water Authority
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=4930b563f2&e=08c14cf485>
and other environmental experts, poses an imminent threat to Gaza’s only
functioning aquifer, which is already on the brink of collapse. If
implemented, this action could inflict irreversible environmental
damage, leaving a lasting impact for generations to come and worsening
the already described ‘uninhabitable’ situation in Gaza. While the
Israeli government has not publicly confirmed and acknowledged this, US
officials have independently confirmed to media outlets that Israel has
begun implementation of the ‘flooding strategy’. Furthermore, an
analysis
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=e9b697f548&e=08c14cf485>
of ground footage and satellite images by Forensic Architecture has
successfully geolocated and confirmed the presence and existence of
water pump infrastructure installed since the start of Israel’s ground
invasion of Gaza. This infrastructure operates beneath one of
Palestine’s most important archaeological sites, situated near the
al-Shati refugee camp on the Gaza coast.
This reported flooding violates the aforementioned principle of
proportionality. Indeed, the alleged targeting of members of armed
resistance groups, if any, does not outweigh and fails to justify the
enduring of such durable adverse consequences and severe repercussions
on Gaza’s environment, the civilian population and essential objects
indispensable to the survival of Palestinians in Gaza. Targeting such
objects
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=027a4de39e&e=08c14cf485>,
including “foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of
foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies
and irrigation works”, further violates
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IHL, regardless of proportionality considerations.
Moreover, this move, which could have long-term environmental
implications, further contributes to mounting evidence that Israel is
“[d]eliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, as per the
Genocide Convention. Coupled with the destruction of over 60% of Gaza’s
housing units amid poor weather conditions as winter looms, and the
complete siege imposed on Gaza, this move not only exacerbates the dire
consequences of Israel’s ongoing military campaign but also severely
hampers the ability of Palestinians in Gaza to survive as a people.
2.3. The Erasure of Palestinian Culture
For decades, Israel has relentlessly sought to erase Palestinian
identity, history, and presence, denying the Palestinian people their
fundamental right to self-determination. Such attempts derive from the
Zionist settler-colonialism, premised on the removal and replacement of
the indigenous Palestinian people from the land. In Gaza, these efforts
have been implemented, including through the 16-year-long closure and
blockade of the Gaza Strip, along with the different Israeli military
offensives against it, which have included the unlawful destruction of
Palestinian cultural heritage. This is a fundamental element that
enables Israel to further its colonial project in Palestine and to
entrench its apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole and
their lands, by erasing their cultural identity as a people. As
previously warned
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=0f9436455e&e=08c14cf485>
by Al-Haq, “Israel’s bombardments [...] aim at gradually erasing
Palestinian cultural heritage to deny the Palestinian people their right
to self-determination over their cultural resources, and by extension
threatens their existence as a people”. Indeed, the right of peoples to
self-determination includes the right to cultural development.[9] <#_ftn9>
Israel’s destruction of Palestinian cultural property in its ongoing
assault on Gaza exemplifies its decades-long attempts
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to erase Palestinian presence, history, and identity, is indicative of
genocidal intent. In terms of intent to commit genocide through
killings,[10] <#_ftn10> the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) has
considered that the “destruction of historical, cultural and religious
heritage [...] may be highly significant since it is directed to the
elimination of all traces of the cultural or religious presence of a
group”. Considering how relevant is this for a finding on genocide, it
endorsed “the observation made in the Krstic case that “where there is
physical and biological destruction there are often simultaneous attacks
on the cultural and religious property and symbols of the targeted group
as well, attacks which may legitimately be considered as evidence of an
intent to physically destroy the group.””[11] <#_ftn11>
Since 7 October 2023, Israel has reportedly damaged or destroyed several
Palestinian historical and cultural sites and centres during its aerial
bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza, in a manner indicative of
a pattern that aligns with Israel’s calculated campaign to erase any
sign of Palestinian presence, whether human or cultural. According to
Heritage for Peace
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=40eea5ca43&e=08c14cf485>,
104 out of the 325 heritage sites in the Gaza Strip have been fully
destroyed or partially damaged, as of 7 November 2023. In particular, it
was reported that the Israeli military extensively damaged the Al-Omari
Grand Mosque
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=c2ff9c7dbc&e=08c14cf485>,
the largest and oldest in the Gaza Strip, and impacted the Monastery of
Saint Hilarion at Tell Umm Amer
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=1713c36c32&e=08c14cf485>,
which is listed on the tentative list of World Heritage Sites, and the
Hammam of Smara
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=b3344ee3fd&e=08c14cf485>,
which was constructed over 1,000 years ago. The IOF have further
reportedly bombed various cultural institutions, including the Orthodox
Cultural Centre
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=db7b8b43b0&e=08c14cf485>,
and the Rafah Museum
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=07873f1c63&e=08c14cf485>,
completely destroying the former.
The Gaza coastline, well-known to be of major archaeological
significance
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in the region, was already under existential threat from repeated
Israeli bombings and a 16-year-long closure before the ongoing military
aggression and genocidal campaign. Excavations have led to significant
archaeological discoveries including a Roman-era city wall and adjacent
streets and buildings, a defensive wall (rampart) from the Iron Age –
dating to the late 7th century B.C.E. and a fountain, houses, an
emporium and a villa from the Greco-Roman City of Anthedon during the
Hellenistic and Roman periods between 332 B.C.E. and 324 C.E. It is now
mostly ruined beyond repair by the ongoing Israeli military aggression
and ground invasion of Gaza, according to analysis carried out by
Forensic Architecture. Airstrikes, ground-level bulldozing and the
current installation of water pumps under the site have caused the
present destruction. For example, Anthedon, a Hellenistic/Roman-era
city, has been subjected to over 30 craters caused by air-dropped
munitions, ranging in size from 8 to 16 metres in diameter. D9
bulldozers were also used to turn the coastal area into a military
outpost, creating earth mounds raised three or four metres high, likely
containing damaged archaeological remnants and artefacts.
Applying the aforementioned position embraced by international courts
and tribunals, this destruction of Gaza’s rich cultural heritage, which
occurs alongside the large-scale killing of Palestinians, significantly
testifies to Israeli officials and military commanders’ intent to
destroy the Palestinian people as well as erasing their identity.
Many of the above-mentioned legal basis are jus cogens norms, which
designates non-derogable rules of international law. These include the
prohibitions of genocide, apartheid, torture, the non-use of force and
basic principles of IHL.[12] <#_ftn12> Third States must act in line
with their obligations under the Genocide Convention, including by
unilaterally and collectively taking all feasible action to urgently and
definitively ensure an immediate end to the ongoing atrocities, and that
Israel refrains from the perpetration of conduct prohibited under
Article II of the Convention. Furthermore, Third States are under the
customary obligations not to recognise as legal the situation arising
from such breaches, not to aid and abet in maintaining them and to
cooperate to bring this situation to an end.[13] <#_ftn13> Furthermore,
under Common Article 1 to the Geneva Conventions, the High Contracting
Parties must “respect and ensure respect” of IHL, notably by exerting
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=d6377b518a&e=08c14cf485>
“their influence, to the degree possible, to stop violations of
international humanitarian law”.
*Conclusion*
Israel is deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring
about the physical destruction, in whole or in part, of the Palestinian
people. Palestinians in Gaza have been under a 16-year-long land, air
and sea blockade and closure, enduring a 56-year-long illegal military
occupation and an apartheid regime as part of Israel’s settler colonial
enterprise since Al-Nakba of 1948. Statements made by Israeli officials,
dehumanising the Palestinian people and proudly expressing genocidal
rhetoric, clearly substantiate their intention to destroy the
Palestinian people. Israel’s intent was only made clearer by both
further genocidal statements as well as the genocidal acts of the
Israeli military. The repercussions of these imposed conditions will
reverberate for generations to come and are beyond temporary. Israel is
inflicting grave and long-term disadvantages to the population’s
well-being and ability to lead a constructive life.
Since 7 October 2023, Israel has gone far beyond proper conduct of
hostilities and there is unambiguous evidence of Israeli officials and
military’s intent to erase and destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza.
In particular, the damaging and destruction of Gaza’s cultural heritage
and potentially devastating impacts to the environment caused by
Israel’s pumping of seawater, only provide more evidence of Israeli
officials and military’s genocidal intent. Indeed, flooding the tunnels
of Gaza, with the knowledge of the devastating short and long-term
consequences experts have warned of, is a deliberate attempt to deprive
resources indispensable for the survival of the Palestinian people in
Gaza, already suffering from hunger and thirst due to Israel’s full
siege on Gaza, imposed for over two months. It also serves Israel’s
colonial project, reinforcing its apartheid regime by erasing
Palestinian identity. Therefore, we demand that the international
community and Third States meet their legal obligations and take
concrete and effective measures to prevent the flooding of Gaza’s
tunnels and enforce an immediate ceasefire, and push Israel to reinstate
the supply of water, food, electricity and fuel, as well as medical and
humanitarian aid, necessary for the survival of the Palestinian
population in Gaza.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
^^[1] <#_ftnref1> Genocide Convention (1948), Article II.
^^[2] <#_ftnref2> Genocide Convention (1948), Article II(c).
^^[3] <#_ftnref3> Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(1998), Article 6(c).
^^[4] <#_ftnref4>
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=6aa420fe10&e=08c14cf485>Elements
of Crimes
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=12fe5426c0&e=08c14cf485>
to Article 6(c).
^^[5] <#_ftnref5> /Prosecutor v. Vujadin Popovic (Judgment)/,
IT-05-88-T, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY), 10 June 2010, para. 815
^^[6] <#_ftnref6> Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva
Conventions provides the absolute prohibition on starvation as a method
of warfare, prohibiting parties to the conflict “to attack, destroy,
remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the
civilian population, such as foodstuffs”. Rule 53 of the ICRC Customary
International Law Database
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=0cb7ac699e&e=08c14cf485>
further cites the prohibition of starvation as a customary rule of
international law.
^^[7] <#_ftnref7> Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(1998), Article 8(2)(b)(xxv)
^^[8] <#_ftnref8> Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), Article 33.
^^[9] <#_ftnref9> International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (1966), Common Article 1(1).
^^[10] <#_ftnref10> Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(1998), Article 6(a).
^^[11] <#_ftnref11> ICJ, /Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and
Montenegro, /26 February 2007, para. 344 referring to International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”), /Prosecutor v.
Krstić/, Trial Chamber, Judgment
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=9285cc3952&e=08c14cf485>,
2 August 2001, IT-98-33-T, para. 580.
^^[12] <#_ftnref12> International Law Commission (“ICL”), Report of the
Study Group on Fragmentation of International law: Difficulties arising
from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law (13 April
2006) UN Doc A/CN.4/L.682, para. 361; /Military and Paramilitary
Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of
America),/ Merits, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1986, para. 190, referring
to ICL, para. 1 of the commentary of the Commission to Article 50 of its
draft Articles on the Law of Treaties, ILC Yearbook, 1966-II, p. 247.
^^[13] <#_ftnref13> Article 40(1) and (2), Draft Articles on
Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts,
International Law Commission (2001).
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