page_title: Israel Defense Forces
section_title: Military ethics of fighting terror
hierarchical_section_title: Israel Defense Forces / Doctrine / Code of conduct / Military ethics of fighting terror
caption_attribution_description: August 3, 2008. A Palestinian receiving medical care from IDF soldiers. On August 2, 2008, approximately 180 Palestinian Fatah activists crossed into Israeli territory, some of them injured. For humanitarian reasons, the IDF allowed Palestinians who disarmed to enter the country. Those injured were given medical treatment inside Israel. פלסטיני מקבל טיפול רפואי מחיילי צה"ל. בתאריך 2/8/08 כ-180 פעילי פת"ח נכנסו לשטחי ישראל כשחלקם פצועים. מסיבות הומניטאריות הרשה צה"ל את כניסתם את הפלסטינים הלא חמושים לגבולות הארץ. הפצועים מבניהם קיבלו טיפול רפואי הולם בתוך ישראל.
context_page_description: The Israel Defense Forces, commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal, are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force, and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel. The IDF is headed by its Chief of General Staff, the Ramatkal, subordinate to the Defense Minister of Israel; Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi has served as Chief of Staff since January 15, 2019.
  An order from Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion on 26 May 1948 officially set up the Israel Defense Forces as a conscript army formed out of the paramilitary group Haganah, incorporating the militant groups Irgun and Lehi.
context_section_description: In 2005, Asa Kasher and Amos Yadlin co-authored a noticed article published in the Journal of Military Ethics under the title: "Military Ethics of Fighting Terror: An Israeli Perspective". The article was meant as an "extension of the classical Just War Theory", and as a "[needed] third model" or missing paradigm besides which of "classical war (army) and law enforcement (police).", resulting in a "doctrine (...) on the background of the IDF fight against acts and activities of terror performed by Palestinian individuals and organizations."
  In this article, Kasher and Yadlin came to the conclusion that targeted killings of terrorists were justifiable, even at the cost of hitting nearby civilians. In a 2009 interview to Haaretz, Asa Kasher later confirmed, pointing to the fact that in an area in which the IDF does not have effective security control (e.g., Gaza, vs. East-Jerusalem), soldiers' lives protection takes priority over avoiding injury to enemy civilians. Some, along with Avishai Margalit and Michael Walzer, have recused this argument, advancing that such position was "contrary to centuries of theorizing about the morality of war as well as international humanitarian law", since drawing "a sharp line between combatants and noncombatants" would be "the only morally relevant distinction that all those involved in a war can agree on."
  The article was intended to (then Chief of Staff) Moshe Ya'alon, to serve as a basis for a new "code of conduct". Although Moshe Ya'alon did endorse the article's views, and is reported to have presented it numerous times before military forums, it was never actually turned into a binding IDF document or an actual "code", neither by Ya'alon nor its successors. However, the document have since reportedly been adapted to serve as educational material, designed to emphasizes the right behavior in low intensity warfare against terrorists, where soldiers must operate within a civilian population.
  As of today "The Spirit of the IDF" (cf. supra) is still considered the only binding moral code that formally applies to the IDF troops. In 2009, Amos Yadlin (then head of Military Intelligence) suggested that the article he co-authored with Asa Kasher be ratified as a formal binding code, arguing that "the current code ['The Spirit of the IDF'] does not sufficiently address one of the army's most pressing challenges: asymmetric warfare against terrorist organizations that operate amid a civilian population".
caption: IDF soldiers treat an injured Palestinian man
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