Introduction

Abstract

Is there a Court for Gaza?’ was the straightforward question that emerged in the wake of the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip (the so-called ‘Operation Cast Lead’) of 27 December 2008–18 January 2009. Serious allegations of grave violations of international humanitarian law and of war crimes’ commission were immediately raised by a number of sources with regard to this operation. International and local independent human rights organisations—as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, B’Tselem, PCHR—all issued reports detailing the extent of the alleged violations, and the disregard for the basic principles of international law, in particular of the principles of necessity, proportionality and of distinction between civilian and military targets. An independent Fact Finding Committee, led by Professor John Dugard, managed to enter the Gaza Strip few weeks after the end of the offensive, and released a Report which was presented to the Arab League on 30 April 2009, assessing the responsibility of both Israel, for the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other grave violations of international law, and of Hamas, for the s.

C. Meloni is Researcher in Criminal Law, University of Milan, and Alexander von Humboldt scholar, Humboldt University of Berlin. G. Tognoni, Medical Doctor, is Secretary General to the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, residing in the Lelio Basso Foundation, Rome.