Due to claims that Israel is obligated under international law to allow uninvolved residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes, a studied and detailed legal opinion has been presented to the political authorities that rules that Israel has does not have any legal obligation to do so.
Israel Hayom reports that the opinion was signed by Dr. Rafi Biton, of the Sapir College; Professor Eugene Kontorovich of George Mason University; Professor Avi Bell of the Bar-Ilan University Law Faculty; and the San Diego University Law Faculty.
The opinion was written by three experts and considers the state of war from a legal and legislative perspective, and states that allowing residents of northern Gaza to return to their homes will prevent Israel from achieving central goals in the war - namely, locating and recovering hostages. Additionally, it explains that according to reports, the hostages were moved to southern Gaza under the aegis of the humanitarian corridors that Israel created, while being presented as being locals by their captors. “Requiring the army to allow returning is tantamount to requiring them to lose control of the main groups of hostages.”
Additionally, the opinion notes that, “Returning to northern Gaza is irrelevant as long as the war continues. One of the indications of the continued operations on the battlefield is the fact that Israel has not returned its civilian population that was evacuated from the corresponding areas near northern Gaza.”
“Even if the fighting in northern Gaza were to end, preventing enemy forces from returning is a legitimate strategy. There is no legal obligation that the IDF allow the population to return to northern Gaza, and there is no such obligation expected to develop in the next few months. The IDF has a vital military need that justifies preventing the return of the population as long as the war goes on and the hostages have not been recovered.”