The license that Israel has given itself to strike at will in the Gaza Strip and attack the civilian population and infrastructure in the ferocious manner that it has done during the last two weeks and frequently before indicates that it is not bound by the normal restrictions of an occupying power.

Israel allows itself to strike at will by air and, if necessary, by ground invasion, because it ceded effective control of the Gaza territory in 2005 and declared Gaza a “sui generis” entity.

With the continued resistance by the people of Gaza, Israel considered that the sui generis territory of Gaza is a “belligerent entity.” This deliberate legal vagueness in describing and subsequently treating Gaza as a “belligerent entity” enables Israel to use these unilateral interpretations and optimum levels of siege and aggression — particularly through its air force — never abiding by the obligatory avoidance of attacks on a civilian population.

In other words, Israel, by extricating itself from the constraints of the Fourth Geneva Convention and treating Gaza as a “belligerent entity sui generis” — through reckless and ruthless airstrikes and now deployment of troops inside Gaza — is declaring war on Gaza as a belligerent sui generis entity.