Killing Civilians Intentionally: Double Effect, Reprisal, and Necessity in the Middle East

Michael L. Gross in Political Science Quarterly [pdf 26 pp.] examines the arguments that Palestinians and Israelis offer when innocent lives are taken. He challenges Palestinian claims that existential threats (supreme emergency) or reprisals for past wrongs can justify terror attacks on noncombatants. At the same time, he objects to Israeli explanations that invoke the doctrine of double effect and claim that noncombatants are not killed intentionally but die as an unintended side effect of necessary military operations.