Explainer: The Dahiya Doctrine & Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force

What is the Dahiya Doctrine?

An Israeli military concept known as the Dahiya concept advocates for the intentional targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure as well as the employment of overwhelming, disproportionate force.

What are the Dahiya Doctrine’s historical roots?

The theory takes its name from the Beirut suburb of Dahiya, which is home to the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah. During the Israeli military’s invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 2006, approximately 1,000 civilians—roughly one-third of them were children—were killed, and significant damage was done to the nation’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants, sewage treatment plants, bridges, and port facilities.

When he was Chief of Northern Command, General Gadi Eisenkot developed it. His 2008 explanation, which alluded to a potential war with Lebanon, was as follows: “Every village from which Israel fires on would experience what happened in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut in 2006… We want to employ excessive force against the village, causing extensive harm and devastation in its wake. From our vantage point, these are military bases rather than residential communities. This isn’t a suggestion. This is a strategy. Additionally, it has been accepted. Before retiring in 2019, Eisenkot held the position of Israeli military chief of staff.

Since Israel was founded in 1948 based on the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians, the Israeli military has used disproportionate force and targeted Palestinian, Lebanese, and other civilians, including dozens of massacres to force them to flee for their lives. This became official Israeli military doctrine after Israel’s 2006 attack on Lebanon. 

Is the doctrine of Dahiya lawful?

The use of disproportionate force and the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure are explicitly forbidden by international law as war crimes. An attack against a military objective can only be legal if the principles of proportionality and precautions are respected, which means that the incidental civilian harm must not be excessive and the attacker must have taken all reasonable precautions to avoid this harm or at least reduce it. This is stated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which states that “Applying the principle of proportionality is critically important for protecting civilians and critical infrastructure in situations of armed conflict.”

safeguarding the general public

1. The general public as well as individual civilians will be shielded from risks associated with military activities. The following regulations, which are extra to other applicable rules of international law, must always be followed to give effect to this protection.

2. Neither the civilian population as a whole nor any individual citizen may be attacked. It is forbidden to commit acts or make threats of violence whose main intent is to terrorize civilians.

3. Until and until they actively participate in hostilities, civilians are entitled to the protections provided by this section.

4. Attacks without discrimination are forbidden. Attacks without distinction are:

(a) those that don’t aim to achieve a particular military goal; (b) those that use a combat strategy or means that can’t be targeted at a particular military goal; or (c) those that use a combat strategy or means whose effects can’t be limited as this Protocol requires;

Consequently, it is inherent in each of these situations to hit civilian targets as well as military targets without making a distinction.

5. The following assaults, among others, should be regarded as indiscriminate:

(a) an attack by bombardment using any method or means that treats several separated and distinct military objectives in a city, town, village, or other area with a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects as a single military objective; and 

(b) an attack that could reasonably be expected to result in incidental civilian casualties, civilian injuries, civilian property damage, or a combination of these, which would be excessive about the anticipated concrete and direct military advantage.

6. It is forbidden to carry out retaliatory attacks on people or the civilian population.

7. Attempts to hide military objectives from assaults or to shield, favor, or obstruct military operations shall not be made using the presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians to render certain places or areas immune from military actions. It is forbidden for combatants to control the movement of civilians or specific civilians to defend military operations or objectives from harm.

8. Failure to abide by these prohibitions will not absolve the parties to the conflict of their legal responsibilities to protect civilians and the civilian population, including the need to implement the precautionary measures outlined in Article

What effects and where has Israel applied the Dahiya Doctrine?

Apart from Lebanon, Israel’s armed forces have employed the Dahiya Doctrine in its recurrent attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, a territory under constant Israeli military rule since 1967 and subject to an unlawful Israeli naval blockade and siege since 2007. Most famously: Israel began Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, a horrific three-week assault that claimed the lives of over 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians and included 300 children. 

It was determined by a UN investigation to be “a purposefully disproportionate attack intended to punish, humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population.” According to Amnesty International, “Israeli forces repeatedly violated the laws of war, including by attacking civilians and civilian-occupied buildings directly and by targeting Palestinian militants with attacks that resulted in a disproportionate number of civilian casualties.” “The government’s position was from the outset that if there is shooting at the residents of the south, there will be a harsh Israeli response [against Gaza] that will be disproportionate,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated at a cabinet meeting shortly after Cast Lead came to an end.

By the Numbers: 288 Days of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

Deaths

The number of Palestinians killed is more than 39,000. Over 10,000 more people are thought to be reported missing and feared dead beneath the debris. 

The approximate number of children slain was 15,000. An estimated 4,000 more people are thought to be dead and missing beneath the debris. Gaza was named the “world’s most dangerous place to be a child” by UNICEF in December.

The number of medical professionals killed—including physicians, nurses, and paramedics—was more than 500. Among them are about fifty highly skilled physicians. “These killings have occurred against the backdrop of systematic attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities in violation of the laws of war,” as stated by the UN Human Rights Office. 

The number of internally displaced people who died while taking refuge in UN facilities is at least 539.

Aid workers killed: at least 274; of these, at least 197 were employed by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The number of journalists and other media professionals slain may reach 140.

The number of Palestinians—mostly children—who have perished from malnutrition as a result of Israel’s weaponization of famine is at least 34. Israel “has deliberately blocked the delivery of aid, food, and fuel into Gaza, impeding humanitarian assistance and depriving civilians of the means to survive,” according to Human Rights Watch. War crimes include the use of starvation as a tactic of warfare and collective punishment against the civilian populace by Israeli leaders ordering or carrying out these actions.

At least forty Palestinians who were taken prisoner from Gaza and killed by the Israeli military while in their custody include at least two medical professionals: Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital, who was tortured during his four months of imprisonment, and Dr. Iyad Al Rantisi, director of the women’s hospital at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who died during questioning after just six days in Israeli custody.

Diseases & Injuries

The number of injured Palestinians is at over 89,800. 

More than 1,000 children—including infants as young as one year old—had one or both of their legs amputated during October and November of 2023 alone. Because Israel was prohibiting medical supplies from entering the country, many of the amputations were done without the use of anesthesia.

The percentage of the population that, as a result of Israel demolishing all of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants and 70% of its sewage pumps, has become very ill from diseases that are readily preventable and are caused by a lack of access to clean water and sanitary facilities is more than 25%. “Israel has been systematically weaponizing water against Palestinians in Gaza, showing disregard for human life and international law,” according to a statement made by Oxfam.

The number of instances of acute respiratory infections is at least 990,000. Acute watery diarrhea: at least 574,000 cases, jaundice syndrome: 107,000 cases, and bloody diarrhea: 12,000 cases have been reported, with the UN stating that “the real number of infections likely much higher.”

Following the discovery of high concentrations of the virus in sewage in July, the World Health Organization issued a warning about an impending polio outbreak in Gaza, stating that “there is a high risk of spreading of the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in Gaza, not only because of the detection but because of the very dire situation with the water sanitation.”

People who were kidnapped, tortured, and forced to relocate

Approximately two million Palestinians—roughly 90% of the population—have had their homes removed based on ethnic cleansing. Many people—some as many as ten times—have had to continually escape for their lives.

Thousands: The number of Palestinians, primarily civilians, that Israel’s occupying force has captured. Israel hasn’t disclosed the precise number, thus it is uncertain. But among them are at least 214 medical professionals who were kidnapped while performing their duties. Many of them suffered from extreme maltreatment and torture while detained in Israeli prisons.

Schools, residences, hospitals, and other structures damaged or destroyed

Thirty-one hospitals out of a total of thirty-six were damaged or destroyed as part of a coordinated campaign of strikes against Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure. There are shortages of staff, equipment, and medication in only 16 hospitals that are still only partially operational. According to the UN Human Rights Office, “the systematic attacks and destruction of hospitals and other medical facilities, in parallel with the killing, detention, and enforced disappearance of health workers in Gaza, has had a devastating impact on the people.”

The number of dwellings destroyed exceeded 79,000. Over 370,000 additional people have suffered harm.

The percentage of severely damaged or destroyed schools, including all 12 of Gaza’s universities, is more over 80%. 

The number of historical and cultural sites—including cemeteries, museums, cultural centers, and libraries—that have been destroyed exceeds 200.

More than 340 mosques have been damaged or completely demolished, including the well-known Great Omari Mosque, which is 700 years old. In addition, at least three churches—including the St. Porphyrius Church, one of the oldest in the world—have suffered damage or destruction.

US government collusion

The amount of money the US government has allotted to Israel since the start of its genocide program is close to $18 billion. Over 24,500: Total bombs and missiles that the US has sent to Israel since the start of its genocide campaign, comprising at least 14,000 large bombs weighing 

2,000 pounds, 6,500 bombs weighing 500 pounds, 3,000 Hellfire missiles, and 1,000 bombs designed to blow bunkers. Additionally, the US has supplied Israel with about 13,000 tank ammunition and over 57,000 artillery munitions.

3. The quantity of UN cease-fire resolutions that President Joe Biden has vetoed