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How the United Nations Enables Hamas

The body of a motorist lies on a road following a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel October 7, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The United Nations was founded to maintain international peace and security. But the UN subverts that goal when faced with terrorist groups like Hamas.
Hamas has waged war on Israel five times in 15 years, not counting thousands of one-off terror attacks. The group’s genocidal charter envisions the destruction of Israel — and even genocidal assaults on Jews everywhere — to avenge Allah, not to gain self-determination. The Palestinians already have self-determination, thanks to Israeli compromises in the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords.
During each Hamas offensive, the group seizes military advantages through wholesale violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the laws of war. Most alarmingly, these religious fanatics target Israeli civilians, use Palestinian civilians as human shields, convert civilian buildings such as homes, schools, and hospitals into military positions, and take Israelis hostage. The four-part mixture of war crimes exploits Israel’s compliance with IHL. Specifically, Israeli commanders accept military setbacks because they willingly operate in a manner that protects Palestinian civilians.
To address this deadly IHL imbalance, the UN has a large workshop of disciplinary tools it could use. For example, because Hamas violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits attacks on civilians, the UN Security Council could adopt a legally binding and enforceable resolution ordering Hamas to comply with the law. Alternatively, the UN could refer the IHL violation to its principal judicial organ, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Similar measures before the UN and ICJ could enforce Article 57 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which bans the use of human shields, and the International Convention Against Hostage Taking. The anti-terrorist laws already require all UN member states to prosecute terror suspects or extradite them for prosecution.
Unfortunately, the UN and many member states ignore the above mandates. No UN resolution has ever condemned Hamas for designing war strategies based on war crimes. The UN has never even declared Hamas a terrorist organization.
Over time, Hamas has capitalized on its IHL impunity by designing war plans with even more elaborate war crimes. Its fifth war, launched on October 7, 2023, produced an Industrial Revolution of IHL abuse. The primary innovation was to upgrade the Gaza terror tunnels into a complex underground fortress spanning 350 miles, while adding countless more civilian structures as warfighting sites. Essentially, Hamas turned Gaza into a giant human shield. It maximized the killing of Israelis by using drone technology for surveillance, shaped explosive charges to blast multiple holes in Gaza’s border fence, motorized paragliders to supplement the ground-based assault, and used cyberattacks. Consequently, the jihadists killed far more Israelis and captured many more hostages on October 7 than in any prior attack or war.
Individual IHL atrocities also grew more extreme. Babies murdered with bare hands. Decapitations. Rape with female genital mutilation. Families burned alive. Hostages tortured and starved.
Under the shield of UN passivity, Hamas even persecutes its own people. Ordinary Gazans have no voice in their governance and no civil liberties. Perceived dissidents are summarily killed. Because the Islamist gang enlarged the battleground of the current war to include all of Gaza, virtually the entire district is now destroyed. During bouts of combat, the gunmen warned Gazans not to enter Israeli-designated safe zones. Hamas operatives routinely stole humanitarian aid intended for the masses. Recently, crowds of Gazans became so desperate that they staged public protests. Hamas executed some of them and tortured others.
Hamas needlessly prolongs misery on both sides of the blood-soaked conflict, every day that it continues its hopeless military campaign against Israel.
The UN should have responded to Hamas’s fifth war on Israel by punishing Hamas for the lawless slaying of Israelis, the deaths of Palestinian human shields, and the hostage-taking. But ironically, the UN treated Israel as if it were the IHL culprit.
This cynical approach was a typical product of an anti-Western UN voting bloc, called the “automatic majority,” which scapegoats Israel relentlessly. No wonder the ICJ entertained a petition that absurdly accused Israel of genocide. Remarks of the UN rapporteur for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were so antisemitic that she compared Israel to Nazi Germany, claimed the US was controlled by “the Israel lobby,” and implied that the October 7 massacre was justified.
The UN office for humanitarian affairs parroted Hamas’ falsified casualty statistics. The UN agency authorized to give Palestinians humanitarian aid employed members of Hamas and failed, whether through negligence or design, to stop them from looting the aid. Although a few toothless UN resolutions pushed for ceasefires, they falsely branded Hamas and Israel as equally responsible for the violence.
Last year, a world body that cooperates with the UN threatened to restrain Hamas. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for certain Hamas leaders. However, there was no ICC follow-up when those leaders were subsequently eliminated. The court’s motives were suspect because, even as it failed to act against Hamas, it sought to arrest Israeli officials despite worldwide complaints that it lacked jurisdiction over Israel.
Had the UN done its job, Hamas might be disarmed today. Israelis would not be suffering in captivity. Gaza would still be intact. If the UN continues to countenance IHL-exploiting war plans, Hamas and/or other terrorists will continue to make a mockery of IHL. At some point, the systemic criminality may force countries like Israel to adjust their IHL compliance strategies by doing more to protect their own civilians and less to protect others, something a fair reading of IHL would permit. This race to the bottom would only erode the value of IHL.
Joel M. Margolis is the Legal Commentator, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, US Affiliate of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. His 2021 book, The Israeli-Palestinian Legal War, analyzed the major legal issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The post How the United Nations Enables Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.